[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by sarramkrop

If you talk specifically about rock or pop music and this forum, you'd be right, and in fact I've never been too keen on many rock n roll or pop bands that haven't got an american/anglosaxon blueprint on them, but then there's a huge wealth of electronic music (from early experiments to Industrial, glitch etc) or modern compositional music (something that the English are particularly bad at) that has little to do with rock and pop. Traditional folk, jazz, you name it.It depends on what your tastes are like and more specifically the degree of interest in music that you have in general, simple as that. Personally I find that the Japanese rock out better than both the Americans and the Britsh put together, these days. The Australians or the New Zelanders also come up with interesting variants of the rock formula sometimes. But if push came to shove and I had to choose between UK or USA, the Americans win hands down, if only because the sheer size of the place has made it possible for so much good music to come out of it over the years. There's also the age-old story that way too much British music happened simply because either the press or the sheep that took it too seriously felt that things that haven't changed the musical landscape as much as first thought, HAD to happen, rather than let things happen naturally. Ultimately music can be one those things that can age rapidly or aquire a timeless status like anything of variable quality, but the Americans (with its sheer number of ethnics,traditions and sceneries) have much more to choose from. And let's face it, the Americans don't brag half as much as the English about their own achievements, that's something that I have noticed on a number of occasions, be it on this forum or elsewhere.

edit - Pookie and demonrail666

excellent post.

This messageboard is interesting because Sonic Youth straddle two worlds: avant-garde/no wave/art rock and garage/punk/early hardcore. Those members with more of an interest in the former are likely to venture into new territories - which inevitably leads to uncovering stuff from all-kinds of countries. Other members, like myself, with a preference for the 60s-70s punk/garage influence, tend to be more conservative: sticking primarily to the already tried and tested. I admire the spirit of exploration that a number of the members have here. But when it comes to actually listening to most of the records they uncover, I'm often left slightly cold/bemused. Therefore, I tend to stay in my cave, listening to my Cramps albums, waiting for the next ice age.


"OK, which one of you fuckers stole my Ramones Headband?"

 

[tesla69]

Originally Posted by _slavo_

The BARDO POND.

Worth repeating over and over...they're playing in town next week, stoke!

[Glice]

Originally Posted by Пятхъдесят Шест

I'm so glad the two of you mentioned China.

China has the potential (and people) to revolutionize everything in the next ten to twenty years, and this includes music. We might as well throw India into the mix as well, the advancement of Eastern European countries (albeit at a much slower pace) should factor into the future of music and art too.

This is sort of off topic.

I was actually thinking about this last night - I generally don't think about things on this forum away from the forum - and I came to a similar conclusion. India already has an enormous trance scene - Delhi and Goa trance, which is very different to the Ministry of Sound type trance. Also, it's kind of why I mentioned Bhangra. It sells by the absolute bucket-load over here, thanks to the large British-Indian/ Pakistani populations, but so far as I know there's not much spill-over into 'mainstream' (which in this case might as well mean non-South Asian) culture. I've heard some people referring to Desi as a genre, but then others say it's just Bhangra with a different name - either way, I think I'm not alone in being horrifically ignorant of this music.

India and China are at a similar point now to where Japan was earlier in the last century - growing to be a large player in global economics. It really wouldn't suprise me if either country suddenly became the hot spot for exciting music; it wouldn't surprise me if they already are. But then, it could also be the case that everyone jumps on Senegalese hip-hop (which is already, as far as I can make out, splitting quite majorly with its American template). Actually, in the latter case, I think a lot of French chaps are jumping on African hip-hop in French and it's doing big business. Couldn't be sure though.

So yeah, those are some thoughts.

Edit: I forgot to mention - I think you can only really suggest America/ UK as having the 'best' music if you're referring to rock/ pop. If you're into Dance music, in whatever form it comes, I think it's incredibly unlikely you'd look to Britain, unlikely you'd look to the US since the early-90s and much more likely you'd be looking towards South-American countries or continental Europe. The old rock slant of the forum in full effect in this thread.

Originally Posted by Glice

I was actually thinking about this last night - I generally don't think about things on this forum away from the forum - and I came to a similar conclusion. India already has an enormous trance scene - Delhi and Goa trance, which is very different to the Ministry of Sound type trance. Also, it's kind of why I mentioned Bhangra. It sells by the absolute bucket-load over here, thanks to the large British-Indian/ Pakistani populations, but so far as I know there's not much spill-over into 'mainstream' (which in this case might as well mean non-South Asian) culture. I've heard some people referring to Desi as a genre, but then others say it's just Bhangra with a different name - either way, I think I'm not alone in being horrifically ignorant of this music.

India and China are at a similar point now to where Japan was earlier in the last century - growing to be a large player in global economics. It really wouldn't suprise me if either country suddenly became the hot spot for exciting music; it wouldn't surprise me if they already are. But then, it could also be the case that everyone jumps on Senegalese hip-hop (which is already, as far as I can make out, splitting quite majorly with its American template). Actually, in the latter case, I think a lot of French chaps are jumping on African hip-hop in French and it's doing big business. Couldn't be sure though.

So yeah, those are some thoughts.

Edit: I forgot to mention - I think you can only really suggest America/ UK as having the 'best' music if you're referring to rock/ pop. If you're into Dance music, in whatever form it comes, I think it's incredibly unlikely you'd look to Britain, unlikely you'd look to the US since the early-90s and much more likely you'd be looking towards South-American countries or continental Europe. The old rock slant of the forum in full effect in this thread.

The local takes on hip hop have been around for quite some time now, with a varying degree of success depending on the size and marketability of a particular country. A Chinese take on hip hop is bound to beat any competition by the sheer amount of prospective output, population and the never-seen-before-pace that their economy grows at. This without mentioning the large Chinese immigrant population that exists outside the country itself. I'd be careful about comparing the situation in Japan last century to the current state of affairs in China, because the economical growth in this country is about 10 times as speedy of that any other has experienced before, including the USA. That means quicker turnover of ideas and their replacement with what can be perceived as better.

[Glice]

Aye, fair point. I'd like to point out that the Chinese hip-hop I've heard has been, without exception, appalling.

Chinese hip-hop .

[pbradley]

With a name like MC HotDog, it has to be good.

Originally Posted by Glice

Aye, fair point. I'd like to point out that the Chinese hip-hop I've heard has been, without exception, appalling.

Chinese hip-hop .

Of course the size of the country also means that the turds produced are bigger. I'll get to upload some pretty good and interesting Chinese music at one point.

ps: I love Hang On The Box, by the way. Their take on pop punk in broken English is not original but thrilling all the same.

[Glice]

MC Hot Dog
LMF (I actually quite like this one)
MC Sha Zhou - this is, brilliantly, called straight outta Qingdao.

[atsonicpark]

I don't have anything else to contribute to this thread except to say that Hang on the Box is fucking amazing. NO SEXY!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by Glice

MC Hot Dog
LMF (I actually quite like this one)
MC Sha Zhou - this is, brilliantly, called straight outta Qingdao.

Check this out. It's a superb record, and I think it was reviewed on The Wire a while ago, but I'll have to check past issues at home:
http://www.post-concrete.com/005/index.html#

edit - I was right, the cd was reviewed by The Wire.

[Torn Curtain]

Originally Posted by Cantankerous

led zeppelin blatantly ripped off from american blues artists

Yes, but there's more to Led Zeppelin than blues. They also have Celtic and Eastern influences (which is why I like them, they're no fucking AC/DC or Ten Years After).

[Toilet & Bowels]

i've seen those bhangra clun night posters (or at least that's what i presume they are) around london but i've never heard a note of the music, i keep meaning to look that stuff up on the internet.
if chinese hiphop is anything like japanese hiphop then it probably
stinks, generally i can't get into people rapping in foreign languages anyway though.

Originally Posted by Toilet & Bowels

i've seen those bhangra clun night posters (or at least that's what i presume they are) around london but i've never heard a note of the music, i keep meaning to look that stuff up on the internet.
if chinese hiphop is anything like japanese hiphop then it probably
stinks, generally i can't get into people rapping in foreign languages anyway though.

Let alone other languages (never heard a single hip hop crew that rapped in other languages that I like) , I find it real hard to like hip hop that isn't american.

[Dead-Air]

Originally Posted by sarramkrop

Let alone other languages (never heard a single hip hop crew that rapped in other languages that I like) , I find it real hard to like hip hop that isn't american.

Huh, I've heard quite a lot of French hip hop that sounded pretty cool to me. Admitedly, nothing that I've come to follow, but then I'm not a hip hop fanatic, to begin with.

As for which side of the pond, both and neither. Music is becoming less geographic by the second, and mostly, I think this is a good thing.

[demonrail666]

Some foreign lang Rap is Ok. I mean I've listened to a lot of it from America and Britain where I haven't understood a bloody word, and still enjoyed it. As for Grime, that could've baffled the nazis with the density of its codes.

[Dead-Air]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

Some foreign lang Rap is Ok. I mean I've listened to a lot of it from America and Britain where I haven't understood a bloody word, and still enjoyed it. .

I've been really getting into the album Absence by Dalek and the rapping is so burried in the mix below all the noise that I often can't make out what he's saying. The words are just rhythm in it's purest form. Granted, there's a lyric sheet, and the lyrics are quite good. That kind of brings the whole trip back for me to the old hardcore punk experience of needing to read the lyric sheet to know what the fuck the singer was on about.

[hazel]

Originally Posted by SynthethicalY

So where do you think innovative music is being made right now? I just want to know so I can have some pointers.

i think it's hard to tell cause innovative music has probably always seemed most innovative to younger people (thru college age). as you get older, the innovation looks more like what it really is, little tweaks and a certain amount of the loss of the previous forms meaning ..as far as where, maybe quantity (number of people/bands/artists) contributes to innovation.. more mediocrity *eventualy* spurs innovation, and more innovation also kicks up the ole competitive spirit . i say eventualy cause of course there's reverse 'bandwagon' flow in music/art

[lungfish]

Europe had Mozart.
enough said.
haha.

[pbradley]

"Leck mich am Arsch" was the first ever punk tune.