Do Europeans have better taste in music than Americans?

http://blogs.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/2009/07/kings_of_leon_you_have_bad_tas.php

well aside from the fact Katy Perry is a talentless whore...and I do like Ke$sha and Lady Gaga. Hell I am even guilty of the unforgiveable sin of enjoying Taylor Swift's music.

But you know I think they're going by what brainless tweens are listening to.

 

America invented Country and Western, I think that's all you need to know about American tastes in music.

 

Even I hate Country I do like Johnny Cash but it's hard not to. that Man was bad ass til the end.
Willie Nelson is great too but for the most part Country sucks....
SIGH I like Taylor Swift too...not sure if it's becuase I think she's cute or if I really like her songs...

Alot of the stuff I'm listening to lately is from Europe, Cradle of Filth, a bunch of Slovakian metal bands, Rammstien. (yeah alot of metal)

But I also got a hold of the UK version of Now that's what I call music and the 74 volumes that came out across the pond are of a better quality than the us ones (then again there's universal Crap like 911 and S Club 7)

 

Oh, you like ke$sha? AND Taylor Swift? Your judgement of [random pop artist A] being talentless is instantly discredited. Oh, and your ears must hate you.

 

yeah but see at least THEY write their own songs. Katy Perry doesn't even do that.

Of the 3 I like (Kesha, Taylor the other 2) I Lady Gaga the most since not only does she have the best voice but her image and songs are all her own. (Irony- the song playing right now as I type is Rammstien's Zwitter)

I have a thing with pop songs though some get stuck in my head and depress the shit out of me.

I found listening to Rammstien right after sticky sweet pop songs fixes that. (Mutter is my pop music Oxy clean)

 

I don't really know much about what people in other countries listen to, but I know that most of the stuff that gets much attention in America sucks. It seems to me that this wasn't always the case - there was a lot of good popular music in the 60s and 70s, but after that it seemed to go downhill. Then again, that's probably because I like rock. Of course there was rock after that (some of it really good), but it seems that most of the rock that became very popular after that point was kinda mindless and there only to make its listeners feel like they were really cool. That's just my opinion, though.

Anyway, back on topic, I think the masses in general tend to favor things that are simple and happy and that reinforce whatever beliefs they already have. If there are exceptions to that it's probably because it's occasionally in style to try different things (though mostly not).

 

I think for my generation (which I guess would also be 99% of this board too) we're going to look at the 90s the way our parents look back at the 60s

The 90s just has so much great stuff in all genres which bothers me that music now is so watered down seeing as how bands now have a pool of greatness the decade before (two decades now)

Granted the 90s had it's faults Achy Breaky Heart (which was NOTHING compard to what ELSE Billy Ray Cyrus gave us) and Metallica aweful Load and Reload. But Oasis, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and countless others came out of the 90s.

In the last 10 years we got...uh what? We went 10 years with no new legends being born in Rock or otherwise. We just had tolerable music and that's it. Looking at the turn of the century decade I can't think of 1 awesome amazing band that rose up and rocked us all.

I am optimistic great music will return though.

UGH...side note again...I have Kesha's Backstabber and Rammstien's Ich Will stuck in my head at the same time...YOU HAVE NO IDEA how weird it sounds.

I mean at least Zwitter and Lady gaga's poker face would make sense (points if you get that joke)

 

:nod:


Personally the 90's is my favorite era for music. Stuff today is just crap. ALMOST all of it.

 

Personally I think after the 80's American music just dropped. All you seem to hear from the states (At least here in Japan) is rap shite, repetitive "rock" bollocks or some "Diva" whaling away.

Yes, I do think European, especially British is much more tasteful. That's not to say everything is great mind you. There's still an awful lot of crap.

Yakumo

 

I think the problem mainly is with Record companies. Which primarily are run by greedy bloodsucking leeches. In the last 2 years I think MOST of the so called "hits" were all written by the same person.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Gottwald

and look at Coldplay in the last year they've been accused at least 4 YES 4 times of plagarism and they're just a 2nd Rate U2/Radiohead knockoff as it is.

Two Friends of mine Matthew who is roughly my age and Caleb an 18 year old are amzing musicans. Matthew if he was 10 years older no doubt would've had a few hits under his belt and Caleb he has the right look but musically he wouldn't be considered "Marketable" by said leeches.

Those two blow me away with their musical talent.

If music is going to get good again then I think the business model for the industry needs to change. I'm encoraged by Vinyl's comback and the rise of bands releasing their own materal without a label. It's going to be hard for the amazing Indie people to get noticed though I think Rock Band is a step forward getting the little guys noticed (that self publish thing they have)

I DO from time to time still buy music. But the frequency of which I do is getting less and less.

It doesn't help that the MTVs and VH1s don't play music anymore and in the oft chance they do it's probably something that sweede produced or wrote.

That all said as long as Rick Rubin is producing albums for a broad group of people good music will still trinkle out.

You would know you live in Japan the land of Manufactured shit music. A weebaoo would say Jpop and Jrock is superior in every way to American pop but mostly it's some visual kei band or some 15 year old plucked off the street given songs to sing and maybe paired up with an anime and save for very few (Shiina Ringo and The Pollows) All jpop/jrock sounds the same.

And can we really respct the musical tastes of a country where Alyssa Milano was a recording star?

I mean yeah I have a softspot for Morning Musume and L arc en ciel but most Jpop/jrock is garbage...and they're even more guilty than the States of manufactured popstars.

The Rest of Asia isn't rosey either... Jackie Chan YES THAT JACKIE CHAN was a huge recording star through most of Asia at one time.

WTF

 

From the article:

When was the last time anybody actually listened to the radio for music? No wonder all this guy is hearing is crap, he's listening to the damn radio.

 

lol..is this a serious question?

 

In the sort of music I mainly like, European electronic music is generally a lot better than American stuff. But it did originate out of America (well, Chicago house etc). Have been listening to American duo Voodeux, who are very good. First time I've heard decent techno out of America...

 

Turn on the radio in London, and its the same crap as anywhere else. So I would say no, they are no better then anyone in another country.

 

Surely music as a whole is a personal preference?

 

Another one of those random questions that really makes no God damn sense! There are times that your inner little voice needs to retain a lid on itself and not express it's every utterance. This Q is akin to "Marmalade, is it better than Strawberry Jam" > Who gives a shit! :banghead:

It's one reason this site is going South and I tend to spend time elsewhere now.

 

In the daytime, maybe. In the evening, that's when the stars come out. Mostly Radio 1, but hey. Also, 6 Music plays a big pile of off-the-wall music all day (albeit more on the Indie side than Radio 1).

At least in the UK, some of the national radio stations come up with their playlist themselves based on what they think is good - as opposed to the US where the greater majority is what they're being paid to play.

 

I do wonder sometimes whether we should have a tally going on for 'who asks the most idiotic questions'. And then whether we can get an 'ignore' button installed

 

If thats the case, then plenty of stations in the US play some more unique stuff at night as well.

 

My simple and short answer would be that Europeans aren't as prejudiced about music as americans.

Being less conservative and more open minded plays a big role in what music you end up/allow yourself to hear.