British music

[ModelCitizen]

Don't move into a sales career man...

Bit late for that.
MC

[peejay]

I would tend to agree, although the state of things at the moment is almost as dismal as the rest of the industry is. However there are a couple of fairly current UK artists I can think of right now who are very, very good IMHO: gorillaz and Groove Armada. I'm sure I'll think of others, but that's two artists more than current American artists I like at the moment. ;-)

I certainly second the recommendation of Groove Armada.

I also second that Lily Allen is rubbish. :-)

[autopilot]

Of course, that was 18 months ago. Things may have changed.

Yeah, 18 months ago Coldplay were kings of the hill (Who the Oasis boys hate with a passion and publicly slagged off many times). I respect Coldplay and enjoy some of their stuff, but i would describe it as 'nice' at best (although they were brilliant live). Trouble was that loads of dreary groups tried to follow in their footsteps. There just was not of enough room for so many bands of that genre, and almost all of them were incredibly bland and boring with none of the musical skill of song writing talent that made Coldplay what they are.

Then the whole young male solo singer with a guitar singing love songs while sitting on a stool thing came along. For some strange reason James Blunt managed to crawl his way to the top. Bloody horrible and everytime i hear his horrible songs i want to pull my ears off. Yet somehow he managed to get to #1 is the US charts, whats that all about when so much other good stuff is coming out of the UK? I'm guess the US charts are also based on single sales, and most singles are bought by the young teens. Which is why the UK charts as no real parallel to what's actually happing musically in the UK. I guess it's the same everywhere?

Now it seems you can't go anywhere without hearing the current biggest UK band (biggest UK band in the UK anyway) - The Arctic Monkeys. I'm not a massive fan, but like some of their stuff and well respect them. How are they going down elsewhere? Personally i think they will be another victim of their own success here in the UK, people will get sick of hearing them and they will fade away like Coldplay seem to be at the moment.

As for Lilly Allen, totally agree. Amy Winehouse seeing to be the current top UK female singer right now, much better.

More of an electronica man myself though, thankfully we still produce the best electronica

[topa]

I think beyond Britpop there are many new impulses constantly coming from the UK. Not revolutionary, but nevertheless new. Gnarls Barkley (although not british) shot up the UK charts first for example. British EBTG and Tracey Thorn's new solo Album or MIKA also come from a different angle. (Both the latter tend towards an eighties revival by the way...uhoh!)

If it's in the charts in the UK, it'll pop up somewhere else within 6 months too.

[Mark Lanctot]

If it's in the charts in the UK, it'll pop up somewhere else within 6 months too.

This brings up another point - the UK seems to lead the way musically. They are quite cutting-edge and avant-garde.

I'm thinking of new musical concepts that have emerged from the UK over the years: metal (Black Sabbath), punk (Sex Pistols), "new wave" (Joy Division, New Order), and, of course, as autopilot mentions, techno (808 State, The Chemical Brothers, Orbital, Fatboy Slim, The Prodigy).

[ModelCitizen]

This brings up another point - the UK seems to lead the way musically. They are quite cutting-edge and avant-garde.
I'm thinking of new musical concepts that have emerged from the UK over the years: metal (Black Sabbath), punk (Sex Pistols), "new wave" (Joy Division, New Order), and, of course, as autopilot mentions, techno (808 State, The Chemical Brothers, Orbital, Fatboy Slim, The Prodigy).

Strictly speaking punk and techno both started in the States with Richard Hell and The Voidoids and Detroit techno respectively. What the UK bands (and most importantly, the listeners... in numbers) did was pick up on it really quickly and move it to the main(er) stream.
MC

[autopilot]

Strictly speaking punk and techno both started in the States with Richard Hell and The Voidoids and Detroit techno respectively. What the UK bands (and most importantly, the listeners... in numbers) did was pick up on it really quickly and move it to the main(er) stream.
MC

It's true for lots of types of music. For example Rap music, although people see it as mainly an American thing, actually originated in Italy. Thats were the first examples of people 'talking' rhythmically (usually over guitar music i believe) came from, although a quick look on Wikipedia has no mention of this, but it was very different to what people people think of..

Techno is really a European thing, but yes Detroit is very highly regarded over here by the serious techno heads. Jeff Mills is a legend in the Techno circle. Poper techno has never really been main stream in the UK at all, but some of the cheesy rubbish in the charts does touch on it. But in the US they tend to have a very narrow mind when it comes to electronica, i don't mean that in a bad way, it's just not as big over there. They tend to just think of Techno or that terrible Euro-dance nonsense they seem to love in eastern Europe. Most of the truly brilliant stuff tends to go under the radar, like Nightmares On Wax, Lemon Jelly or Cinematic Orchestra etc. I don't think Drum & Bass/Jungle really took hold in the states did it? Although i know it's pretty big in Canada and Oz, although maybe not mainstream.

Going a little off topic here though now

[amcluesent]

Of course the pinnacle of UK music has long passed: Kate Bush, Joe Jackson, Japan, XTC, Altered Images, Sade, Bryan Ferry, Colourbox, The The, The Cure, Duritti Column, Elvis Costello, Everything But The Girl, Fine Young Cannibals, Frankie, Sleeper, Iron Maiden, Joy Division, Lloyd Cole, Ian Dury, OMD, Peter Gabriel, Swing Out Sister, This Mortal Coil, Undertones,...

Your bands today can't even come close

[funkstar]

how about these for some off the wall suggestions?

Archade Fire
Gomez
Field Music
Maxïmo Park (ok, that one is pretty mainstream)
The Twilight Sad
The Twang (Getting mainstream)
Charlotte Hatherley
Cold War Kids

I think there is loads of great music coming out of the UK. Whether it's actually being heard overseas is another question.

[stinkingpig]

On 5/28/07, funkstar
<funkstar.2rb1hn1180374901 (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com> wrote:
> how about these for some off the wall suggestions?
>
> Arcade Fire
> Gomez
> Field Music
> Maxïmo Park (ok, that one is pretty mainstream)
> The Twilight Sad
> The Twang (Getting mainstream)
> Charlotte Hatherley
> Cold War Kids
>
> I think there is loads of great music coming out of the UK. Whether
> it's actually being heard overseas is another question.
>

"Overseas" is a big place. Here in the SF bay area I'd say that Gomez
and Arcade Fire are mainstream, but I'd agree they are not known at
all in Oklahoma City.

Arcade Fire's okay. Gomez annoys me.

Assuming UK includes Scotland, let's add Belle & Sebastian, Looper,
and Camera Obscura. Then there's a similar sound from London, The
Clientele.

Stereolab is another fine example of leading edge music from the UK.
--
"I spent all me tin with the ladies drinking gin,
So across the Western ocean I must wander" -- traditional