I don't know if this is just due to my personal music taste, but I've been thinking about it recently and noticed that there don't seem to be many standout 'epic' British artists, most of the artists who leave a huge legacy or produce decent music these days are from overseas. Why is this? Why is British music so poor?

The popular UK artists like Jess Glynne, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding, Little Mix seem to have something missing...

Meanwhile (mainly America), Canada and Australia have produced people like Madonna, Kylie, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Avril Lavigne, Rihanna, and currently great artists from those places include Lana Del Rey, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Fifth Harmony, Ariana Grande, Britney Spears, Iggy Azalea etc.

Adele and One Direction are the only huge recent UK artists who I think will leave a legacy. What is it about British music that lacks this buzz/star quality?

One thing I have also noticed is that British rap music is very poor. The vocal tone of the rappers seems cringey and try-hard, with the intense almost-put-on London accent (having said that I like Dizzee, who is an exception) whereas the American rappers seem much more refined at it. I don't udnerstand this new trend with artists like Stormzy. In comparison to Lil Wayne, Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa, Tyga etc the UK offers up Tinie Tempah

You mention Madonna, Michael Jackson etc. Well I'll trump them with Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Smiths etc. You really haven't thought it through.

I have thought it through. I'd take Madonna and Michael Jackson over all of those... it may just be my personal taste. I still think none of those have the same overall star quality as those I mentioned.

I think the fact that the 3 headliners at Glastonbury were all from UK shows British music is doing alright. I was actually think the same thing about US when I watched it, where are there big acts? All they have are 90s survivors like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Foo Fighters. Headlining acts from US tend to only be hip hop or rnb stars now, which maybe suits you judging by your taste but not me..

But if you are talkin about the top 40 which it seems to be by the music you are listing as being 'great' from US, we do have a US dominance at the moment but most of the acts you list are definitely no better than ours. I really think its your taste as you dont like grime and that is the big thing in British hip hop

As for picking a couple of 80s acts and saying they trump anything Britain has done without listing any older Uk acts in comparison is a bit unfair. Uk is regarded as the greatest music nation in the world with US being 2nd and that will never change.

i have no idea why the beatles, the rolling stones, pink floyd, led zeppelin, the who and queen are so poor. it's probably something in the water

Thanks for the reply. I guess my taste is pop foremost and thinking about it I'm wondering if maybe it's a case of the UK pop music being more cheesey than American pop. Little Mix seems like an act for little girls for example. Ellie Goulding seems unremarkable and less classy, seems to have less of an 'image' than the polished American female popstars like Selena.

Your post is interesting though - cause you've shown you like the more typical bands type music, and this might be why I resonate more with the American stuff as pop dominates it more these days and bands are more popular in the UK still with Coldplay etc.

Love Pink Floyd

Personally I don't think any of today's pop music, has anything on the 80's pop music from the UK.,,,might not have created the superstars, and there was a lot of sh*t, but there was also a lot of good.

I stopped reading right there. Because that's exactly what it is.

i don't understand how someone can have a music taste which is almost specifically American/Australian though. I mean, all the singers are singing the same language. I'm trying to put my finger on what it is. If it is that it's down to my taste, what has separated American and UK music over the last several decades and why would that make me prefer American music?

UK music has a less epic feel IMO but I don't know why. American and Australian artists just seem to know how to up the ante and bring it.

Even Elton is better than most of those the OP mentioned.

I think it's money US acts have more money to throw around in general compared to UK acts so I guess many are more glamorous must admit I thought US pop was better than ours in the mid-late 80s but in 90s uk was way better in than US

You can't "put your finger on it". It's like trying to determine why you find certain comedians funny. It's entirely subjective - you like what you like.

It is hard for a British band or singer to have a sustained career and make it 'big' because the market has become so crowded with the internet. A band has to generate a certain degree of success themselves and be self-funded before being picked up by a label and only then will money be invested in proper studio production, as opposed to so called bedroom or backstreet basic recording facilities.

UK surfer punk is..well terrible.

Californian surfer punk is a different ball game.

Out of the countless thousands of tracks on my computer, I thought I'd see how many of them are by American artists. Some are only one or two tracks, but I was actually quite surprised how many there were. Even so, it's still only about 1 or 2 per cent ...

Alice Cooper
Blondie
Bob Dylan (only five tracks – I've deleted all the rest)
The Breeders
Canned Heat
Cheap Trick
The Dead Boys
Foo Fighters
Iggy & The Stooges
Jane's Addiction
Jayhawks
Jimi Hendrix
Johnny Thunders
Joni Mitchell
Link Wray
Lou Reed
Loudon Wainright III
Louis Armstrong
Marilyn Manson
Marissa Nadler
Mazzy Star
Mercury Rev
Mountain
Neil Young
New York Dolls
Nirvana
The Pixies
Simon & Garfunkel
Smashing Pumpkins
Sonic Youth
Sun Kil Moon
Throwing Muses
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross with Karen O
Ty Segall
Ultra Vivid Scene
Velvet Underground
White Stripes

Are Joni Mitchell and Neil Young actually Canadian?

Yeah of course Britney and Selena Gomez are far, far more epic the Zeppelin, Maiden, Bowie, Queen, The Who. etc....

Maybe taking this more seriously than I should, but British music used to have traditional British values like musicianship and songwriting craftsmanship and the artists people have cited - Beatles, Who, Queen, Zeppelin, etc - were all old-school in that way. Some time in the 80s British music became much more about partying and clubbing and less about good, well-crafted songs. Even punk was old-school in that it wasn't a revolt against good music, it was a revolt against the muso lifestyle of boogieing along, singin' the blues and payin' yer dues.

I can't think of many recent British artists who've achieved great success whilst still writing great lyrics and melodies in the way that British bands used to, and that bands form other countries still do. There's the Mumford & Sons genre of anthemic roots pop I suppose. Not exactly original but going back to traditional values of strong writing and performing.

What you say may or may not be true, but none of the artists in the OP's post - Lana Del Rey, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Fifth Harmony, Ariana Grande, Britney Spears, Iggy Azalea fit that bill either.

There are plenty of really good British bands and artists around. They may not be hugely succesful in the way that The Beatles, Zeppelin and the Stones were, but that's more because of the current obsession with bland corporate pop music and visual effects over content than any failing in the music itself.

Pixies were only originally big in Europe, particularly the UK. Not really relevant just a tidbit you probably already know

Hendrix of course only made it after he moved here too.

Mad props on Ultra Vivid Scene, very little known band considering their quality I saw them live in London after Joy was released and there was hardly anyone there, they should have played a pub

is the op referring to current music?... i assume so because we lead the world historically (im not going to argue with those of you who would cite america did that).

yeah well some of you know ive got a bee in my bonnet about the snowflake generation or millennials (born 1981 - 1997) . they appear to be bereft of creating anything new and exciting in music (or in comedy) (until this referendum they were very quiet about politics too) .

of course that is a generalisation, there are exceptions, but theres no genre defining style, no new genre, nothing. it says it all when cold fcukin play headline glasto..

where are our pop groups?.. our guitar based bands ? those that exist seem to be limited to the rock scene and arent troubling mainstream,.

it comes to something when american groups like 21 pilots are arguably the current scenes best pop/rock act, to my limited knowledge theres no british guitar act in the charts (i dont count coldplay because theve been going for 15 odd years so arent really of 'this' generation)

I think British music is wonderful, but I respect your opinion. I would even say that the huge diversity of wonderful British music acts at the minute is exactly what's stopping any one stepping in and becoming THE iconic sound of the moment. There is simply too much choice out there for it all to pool around a single band or artist wholly. I think this is especially impressive for such a small island to have so much output and diversity.

I think the concept of a household name has just changed in general nowadays - or did it ever really exist? Are there rose tinted glasses there? Generally nowadays the household names are firmly within pop because their music can be used in ads and they can appear on the TV in music slots on e.g. Loose Women and the national lottery draw without offending anybody. Or they already appear on children's tv programs.

Some of my favourite British acts of the last five-ten years that would be less likely to get exposure in this kind of way would include Goldfrapp, Alt-J, The XX, Florence and the Machine, Chvrches, Hot Chip, MIA, Jessie Ware.

All acts with substantial back catalogues, multiple albums and singles, and evolution of sound comparable to any of the indie and pop rock acts that would have got more airtime and exposure to concentrated markets in the 80s and even 90s just due to the fact there were less ways to watch music on tv etc. How much success of certain acts of the past is just due to them being hammered at you all the time because there were only so many tv and radio stations to choose from?

The OP is a Lisa Scott-Lee fan, lol.

I think part of the alleged problem is that many British artists just sound American or start off sounding quite British (Ed Sheeran, Coldplay), and then once they hit the big time start sounding really American. In all my years I have never known the sounds, the styles and the genres of the charts to be so homogenised. Hard to believe it's just over two decades ago we had the angry wit of Pulp and the social wit of Blur. Even ten years ago, the likes of the Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand and Mika all sounded very British. It has got to the point now where if you don't sound American and you don't make that EDM/hip-pop hybrid that now saturates the market, you basically don't exist.

None of which had the same impact on music as The Beatles, Stones, Led Zeppelin and countless others. Even though I am not a fan of Adele, she is the biggest selling artist at the moment and oh she's British.