Why is it primarily England and the USA that consistently produce good bands?

Question

I'm not trying to knock the rest of Britain and Ireland, as I know Ireland has produced, amongst many others, U2, arguably one of the greatest bands of all time. Scotland has produced, amongst many others, Primal Scream, another excellent band, and Wales has produced Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics etc, all excellent bands. But there never seems to be a consistent flow of great bands. With Scotland, Wales and Ireland, people could argue that it's to do with the size of the population, but surely in countries such as France, Germany, Spain and Italy where the population is at least the same as Britain, often bigger, there is so rarely an act that breaks through. They may be massive in their own countries, but they would crash and burn if they came here. The only bands I can think of off the top of my head is Air from France, Kraftwerk from Germany, Bjork from Iceland and The Cardigans from somewhere in Scandinavia I think.

Answer 1

Does Abba give you a clue?.European bands often record in their own language and the worldwide big money recordings are in English creating a world wide audience and bigger profits for the companies that promote them.

Answer 2

America is known by some people to be quite religious. England are quite religious as well but, although some may well be more religious, it is just not as religious a country as the USA. However, over here in England, we do kind of have our own branch of Christianity; Church of England. this is what most English Christians are. However, there are quite a few Catholics over here as well.

Answer 3

There's very few non-English singing bands that get popular in the rest of the world, or the U.S. Rammstein and Sigur Ros are the only ones to come to mind right now. Most of the music we hear is from people from English speaking countries.

Answer 4

he's right - European bands speak their European languages and nobody in other markets such as Asia (which is a big market by the way for Western music) nor the USA (Americans rarely speak another language) would care if they existed.

Though I'm not in favour of ignorance, I did even watch German and French movies before and listen to their music and I am from India - I think they are as good as everyone else's.

Answer 5

Ah now,come on.there is so much trash in the british charts.Just because they are in the charts doesnt make them a worldwide phenomenon.Who is the clown that goes out with champagne or chardonnay or chantelle?complete toss.Ireland has an awful chart music scene but I will give in to the fact that you mentioned U2.But you forgot Thin Lizzy.And Boyzone:(