Have England and Canada produced a single good band between them since the Beatles?

[Buck Birdseed]

Jamaica is considerably more productive per unit of population, and the US is in total, so no they're not, no matter how you look at it.

Actually, Asher and Drake collectively illustrate an interesting point: The UK tends to have relatively good taste when it comes to buying records by American bands, while the US seems to have absolutely bloody awful tastes in British music. I mean, the US has skipped over what good british music there has been (Glam Rock, UK Punk, etc.) in favour of bland classic-rock and second-rate indie, while the UK seemingly has the ability to take interesting-but-not-mainstream US trends and make them massive (Obscure Soul, Punk, House, Grunge, whatever). And then kill them off by applying their lack of touch to them, of course, but they're better at selecting music than making it.

[Drake Tungsten]

There's someone who has been drinking...

[Asher]

Originally posted by Buck Birdseed
Actually, Asher and Drake collectively illustrate an interesting point: The UK tends to have relatively good taste when it comes to buying records by American bands

You lost me right there...

Look at the UK's Top 10. It has the likes of Christina Aguilera, Nelly, and Jennifer Lopez in it.

[St Leo]

All five of those are total crap, Leo.

Are you questioning the musical judgement of a mod? Bif and Sum41 rock.

Edit: You removed Swollen Members. Why?

Rap's not my favourite genre.

[Immortal Wombat]

Everyone's music taste sucks. Face it - 99% of all music produced anywhere is utter garbage, and finding the 1% that is not is so little to do with geography that it makes this entire thread pointless.

[Buck Birdseed]

Originally posted by Asher

You lost me right there...

Look at the UK's Top 10. It has the likes of Christina Aguilera, Nelly, and Jennifer Lopez in it.

Why doesn't it surprise me that you would be the one to think immediately of the charts?

I mean, popular in subcultures that then spread into the mainstream- occasionally the hateful cool-cred ones I described in the other thread, but surprisingly often relatively normal, middle-and-working-class groups like The Skinheads or The Mods, adopting interesting music from abroad as "theirs" and thus boosting the profile of such music until it's subsumed into the mainsteam. I doubt your precious Nickelback would exist today if bands like The Pixies and The Sonic Youth hadn't become exceedingly popular with certain groups of record-buyers in britain 15 years ago...

[Asher]

Originally posted by Buck Birdseed
Why doesn't it surprise me that you would be the one to think immediately of the charts?

When someone says something in a general form like the "UK's music taste", mainstream music tastes are a direct implication of that.

If you want to be specific, you should be specific...

I doubt your precious Nickelback would exist today if bands like The Pixies and The Sonic Youth hadn't become exceedingly popular with certain groups of record-buyers in britain 15 years ago...

My precious Nickelback?
They're an okay band, for all the crap everyone says about them.

They write simple catchy songs that are okay for a while and get old pretty fast. Thus, they're an okay band. Not good, not bad either.

A bad band, for example, would be The White Stripes.

Nickelback is 10x better than The White Stripes. Yes, I said it. And yes, all you music freaks who think The White Stripes make music can kiss my Canadian ass.

The White Stripes have less technical talent than Nickelback, their songs aren't nearly as catchy, the vocals are extremely underwhelming, and their songs are overall...boring. I'd clap if I saw them perform at a Jr High talent show, but even if this was a local high school band I'd think they were bad.

[Drake Tungsten]

"The Sonic Youth"?

[Buck Birdseed]

Whatever. **** off.

[Gangerolf]

buck, you've been reading **** hebdidge?

[Zero]

nobody mentioned garbage. I like them, tho they don always make great songs.

[molly bloom]

What a silly question.

I like some Canadian music: Mary Margaret O'Hara, Jane Siberry, early Rankin Family stuff, Skinny Puppy, Neil Young, Jon Hassell and Michael Brook, and of course I like lotsa Brit stuff, including but not limited to,

Portishead, Massive Attack, Lloyd Cole & the Commotions, Stereolab, the Associates, Morcheeba, Moloko, St. Etienne, Sheila Chandra, Robert Wyatt, Curved Air, the Soft Machine, Pentangle, The Future Sound of London, the Grid, Soft Cell, Afro-Celt Sound System, Peter Gabriel, Roxy Music, David Bowie, Brian Eno, Dusty Springfield, The Fire Engines, Carmel, Texas, Skunk Anansie, 23 Skidoo, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Magazine, the Human League (in early and later forms) B.E.F., Teardrop Explodes, Steeleye Span, June Tabor, Shara Nelson, Soul II Soul, Marc and The Mambas, Monty Norman, John Barry, the Slits, 801, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Badly Drawn Boy, the Pet Shop Boys, P.J. Harvey, Tracey Thorn and EBTG, New Order and the the, Joy Division and the Smiths.

As for producing crap music, well, every country produces disposable music- the U.S.A. gave the world the musical delights of the 'challenging' Whitney Houston, the 'gritty' Liberace, and the 'hard core' sound of Mariah Carey. We can also say 'thanks' for Styx and Kansas, Pat Boone and soapy ******* such as NKOTB.

But we can really say 'thanks' for Alberta Hunter, Nina Simone, Leadbelly, Sly and the Family Stone, The Velvet Underground, Talking Heads, Son House, the Four Tops....

[Felch]

Garbage is from Madison. And while Wisconsin is a rather northern state, it's not Canada.

Nina Simone does kick ass.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Felch X
Garbage is from Madison. And while Wisconsin is a rather northern state, it's not Canada.

Nina Simone does kick ass.

Shirley Manson, the lead singer of Garbage, is from Bonnie Scotland, and was last in a group called Angelfish, and before that, in Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie.

Music knows no geographical boundaries- just think of good fusion music such as that of Angelique Kidjo, Massive Attack and Michael Brook remixing/playing with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the Welsh, classically trained John Cale playing with the Velvets, the 'non-musician' Eno's contribution to the first two Roxy Music albums, and the funkified, Afrotwist version of Talking Heads (from Remain in Light onwards).... reggae is big in Morocco, for instance, and North African rai fuses traditional Arabic/Maghrebi songs/lyrics with electronica, disco and reggae influences, and black african stylings.

[RedFred]

I am still trying to figure out the Canadian influence on the Beatles. Was it Ringo that was the closet Canuck? I always wondered about him.

Good post by someone with some taste, Molly Bloom. Named off a good chunk of my record collection. Although I'd add NEOA4, Massive Attack, Bauhaus and Shriekback to the list.

Canada produces a lot of small indie bands and even a disproportionate share of kabillion seller pop crud like Adams, Furtado and (shudder) Dion. But not to much inbetween. At at this particular moment, unless you like East Coast celtic, not much exciting stuff.