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Is the UK the rock nation of the world?


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Old 19-09-2011, 20:37
PsychedelicMonk
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Is it me or is Britain the rock nation of the world? Some of the best rock bands are British. The Beatles, Led Zepplin, Queen, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Genesis, The Who, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Def Leppard, just to name a few. Not even America can boast a list like that. So, what do you think? Are we the superior nation of the world of rock?
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Old 19-09-2011, 22:17
ags_rule
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Is it me or is Britain the rock nation of the world? Some of the best rock bands are British. The Beatles, Led Zepplin, Queen, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Genesis, The Who, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Def Leppard, just to name a few. Not even America can boast a list like that. So, what do you think? Are we the superior nation of the world of rock?
Your list gives it away. None of those bands are even remotely new, they're all from the 60s-80s. Not slagging them off or anything, I love them, particularly Maiden who I recently saw live, but let's not pretend that they're new acts.

We were the rock nation of the world - but not anymore. What great rock bands has the UK produced over the last 20 years? Muse, Oasis and Arctic Monkeys are the only to have really made a proper impact.

As much as it pains me to say it, America - and increasingly Scandanavia - has produced better rock/metal music than the UK since the late 80s.
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Old 19-09-2011, 22:40
MrMeatAndPotato
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I don't think it's down to the UK not producing great bands... more down to the fact that we are now in an era where talentless popstars are more appreciated amongst the ignorant youth.


Alot of people don't know good music now, they just go on the face/image of someone and jump on the bandwagon.
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Old 20-09-2011, 12:50
Eraserhead
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In the 90s / 00s we've also produced Radiohead, the Manic Steeet Preachers, Kasabian, the Libertines but our focus has also been narrower with bands who have been popular but not big and certainly with not much international appeal.

The US certailny dominated in the 90s with the Nirvana-led grunge explosion while we went all parochial and Britpop-y with Blur, Oasis and Pulp being the leading force for a short while.

Meanwhile America hit back with nu-metal and bands like Korn, Deftones, Slipknot etc.

As the new millennium came around Britain failed to regain the advantage and once more we kept our insular focus on the scratchy post-punk revivalism of the Libertines while the US beat us hands down with the White Stripes, Interpol, Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire (ok, that's Canada...) and all the while established bands like the Chili Peppers, REM and the Foo Fighters kept churning out best-sellers.

To fill up football stadiums in the 21st century we have Muse...and that's about it. Maybe Radiohead and the Manics can still do it but they're both past their sell-by date.

But has anywhere produced world class rock bands over the last decade? The major artists of the 00s have all been female pop singers - Britney, Rihanna, Beyonce, Gaga etc. My 17 y.o. son spends most of his time scrabbling around the internet trying to find something interesting to listen to but then always comes back to my record collection to listen to artists from the 70s and 80s most of the time. What's going on now is utterly uninspiring and almost always derivative, regardless of which side of the Atlantic they come from..
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Old 20-09-2011, 14:37
mushymanrob
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Is it me or is Britain the rock nation of the world? Some of the best rock bands are British. The Beatles, Led Zepplin, Queen, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Genesis, The Who, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Def Leppard, just to name a few. Not even America can boast a list like that. So, what do you think? Are we the superior nation of the world of rock?
cant they?... taking ags rules observation that the acts cited are 60's - 80's america have had an equally impressive line up. perhaps if ds was american based and not uk there would have been a similar impressive line up... the byrds, the doors, creedence clearwater revival, buffalo springfield, eagles, bruce springsteen, just off the top of my head...
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Old 20-09-2011, 15:39
Smudged
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To fill up football stadiums in the 21st century we have Muse...and that's about it. Maybe Radiohead and the Manics can still do it but they're both past their sell-by date.
Radiohead are still our best band and still one of the best in the world but they are not a traditional rock band. They are more alternative and the direction they've taken since OK Computer is not exactly the sort of anthemic rock music that sells out huge stadiums. I think there's still a possibility of them going back to a louder rock sound in future but Thom Yorke seems to be very into dub-step kind of music at the moment.

I'm not really sure what the state of play is in rock at the moment as to who are considered the best bands, I'm more of a indie/alternative pop and rock fan and I know alot of people don't consider that "true rock" music because it's not loud enough or doesn't always stick to a traditional formula.
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Old 20-09-2011, 16:00
petergillett
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I don't think it's down to the UK not producing great bands... more down to the fact that we are now in an era where talentless popstars are more appreciated amongst the ignorant youth.


Alot of people don't know good music now, they just go on the face/image of someone and jump on the bandwagon.
I think it's that the genre is not being represented. Radio stations and labels are telling us what we should like.

The average man in the street doesn't "think" he likes rock music. Yet when they do hear it, they often like it.

I entered a Battle of the Bands years ago (in a rock band) and was told that although the judges all liked what we did, they couldn't put us as winners because we didn't play the right music. Surely, the "right" music is the one that they liked the most?
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Old 21-09-2011, 02:21
SamMcK
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When I think of our biggest acts of the 60's, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin the only band I can think of IMO that can really match them is The Beach Boys.
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Old 21-09-2011, 02:29
Midnight Runner
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We definitely had the edge in the 60s/70s (although the US still produced some great bands as mentioned by others in this thread) but since the eighties I can count on one hand how many British rock bands I've liked.

The US has produced some great rock bands since the early 90s so I'd put them ahead of us in recent years.
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Old 21-09-2011, 07:16
mushymanrob
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When I think of our biggest acts of the 60's, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin the only band I can think of IMO that can really match them is The Beach Boys.
yeah...but if you were american your viewpoint would be different, this is why i dont think the op's point is a correct perception, or might not be correct.
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Old 21-09-2011, 08:14
Eric_Blob
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I think it's that the genre is not being represented. Radio stations and labels are telling us what we should like.

The average man in the street doesn't "think" he likes rock music. Yet when they do hear it, they often like it.
That's not quite how it works.

Firstly, the average man in the street DOES know what rock music sounds like. Most kids at the moment have parents that grew up on rock music, so they hear a lot of it as a child. Infact, that's probably one of the reasons they don't like rock music. Especially when they become teenagers, and want to rebel through music. Hip hop and RnB are popular for that, since most parents hate that type of music, so the kids love it.

Rock is one of the biggest genres around still. People DO know what it sounds like. You still hear rock music in films, on TV, etc. all the time. Most people know full well whether the like the genre or not.

Secondly, about radio, I think you're looking at this wrong. Radio force-feeding people music is absolute nonsense. There's plenty of radio stations out there such as Kerrang! which play lots of rock music. If people wanted to hear rock music on there, all the have to do is press a button to listen to it!!

The reality is with radio stations, all they care about is money. So they want the most people listening to their station as possible. Playing dance, hip hop, etc. on the radio gets the stations more listeners than playing rock music. There's not a bunch of 40 year-old men behind radio stations who have some sort of secret plot to convert all the kids in the country to RnB music. It's not that at all. They're just playing the songs which attract the biggest audience, so they make more money. Nothing more than that.
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Old 21-09-2011, 08:27
cloudsailor
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I would have thought Sweden, Norway and Finland were. Lots of metal/rock artists come from there. Nightwish etc.
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Old 22-09-2011, 00:59
masterquan
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Of all time easily. The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd are the most popular and acclaimed rock acts of all time. Those 4 alone are enough
America can't touch us. They admit it too.
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Old 22-09-2011, 01:10
CLL Dodge
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So we were. No-one of talent seems to want to plug in a guitar any more.
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Old 22-09-2011, 14:46
ags_rule
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That's not quite how it works.

Firstly, the average man in the street DOES know what rock music sounds like. Most kids at the moment have parents that grew up on rock music, so they hear a lot of it as a child. Infact, that's probably one of the reasons they don't like rock music. Especially when they become teenagers, and want to rebel through music. Hip hop and RnB are popular for that, since most parents hate that type of music, so the kids love it.

Rock is one of the biggest genres around still. People DO know what it sounds like. You still hear rock music in films, on TV, etc. all the time. Most people know full well whether the like the genre or not.

Secondly, about radio, I think you're looking at this wrong. Radio force-feeding people music is absolute nonsense. There's plenty of radio stations out there such as Kerrang! which play lots of rock music. If people wanted to hear rock music on there, all the have to do is press a button to listen to it!!

The reality is with radio stations, all they care about is money. So they want the most people listening to their station as possible. Playing dance, hip hop, etc. on the radio gets the stations more listeners than playing rock music. There's not a bunch of 40 year-old men behind radio stations who have some sort of secret plot to convert all the kids in the country to RnB music. It's not that at all. They're just playing the songs which attract the biggest audience, so they make more money. Nothing more than that.
Kinda agree with this.

The reality is that rock/metal music has always had an uneasy relationship with the mainstream. The reason it has survived and stayed popular (relatively speaking) is partly because it has largely avoided becoming a victim of fashions and trends, yet at the same time, the fact that it is currently not in fashion or trendy has led some people - wrongly - to proclaim the death of the genre.

Anyone who knows anything about the genre knows that it is thriving, but not through traditional outlets in the same way as R&B.
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