re: Why are the Brits so much better at rock music than Americans?

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The Stone Roses had one great album. It's admittedly fantastic, but geez, so did Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah! Hell, I'll put Washington DC by itself up against that list.

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Manchester > DC

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The Brits are pretty top heavy with the early bands, but for sheer volume of great music, I think we are ahead.. Not that it really matters...

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On a grand scale, it doesn't. Because we can buy any of those albums. But I do think deferring to some foreign entity that makes music for us does two things on a subsconscious level, both bad...

ONE. It devalues local music. Support your local scene. There is great shite being made a few miles from your house if you make the effort to find it.

TWO. It promotes the idea of the artist as the "Other". I am firmly against the idea there is an elite Other that makes art for the rest of us to consume. Rock, by its design, is something that anyone can make. It is electric folk music. It is music of, for, and by the people. Accepting that the best music comes from the UK promotes the idea that "I can't do this" and reduces the music fan to a mere consumer. Don't passively consume art, actively engage in it.

There should be no divide between the artist and the audience. We are all one. These songs are our scriptures...

that would make sense, the US is a bigger country. OP was talking about per capita

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Manchester > DC

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ah yeah

There is no American prog rock fool.

That is an exclusively British genre.

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There is no American prog rock fool.

That is an exclusively British genre.

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Rush is North American, fwiw. An outlier,indeed.

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Totally disagree here. How can you just assume there will be "great shite" near someone? Even so, many times the local music scene will be repetitive. Take your DC example, just variations of punk rock.

Why would you reject broadening the horizons?

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But it's pretty damn different punk rock. The ,ost famous bands are pretty loud and punky, but the Dischord scene also coddles bands such as Q and Not U, the Evens, Shudder to Think, OK Go, etc. which don't sound punk rock at all (but do keep the ethos of Dischord's do it yourself).

But go-go is funk, and not punk at all. Chuck Brown was a madman, as are his musical descendents.

But there's also Ani Difranco and Tori Amos putting out great folk records. As is Ted Leo, though he's closer to a punk band.

There's a strong house music scene, but I wouldn't know who to recommend, as I hate house music.

Eva Cassidy anchored a pretty strong local jazz scene until her death. There's great local blues being made, though Takoma Records has sadly gone defunct.

There is tons of great stuff happening right out your door. I know live in Dallas, and there's Denton up the road which has tons of aspiring art rock acts thanks to one of the best music colleges in the country. There's a fantastic metal scene supported by the remnants of Pantera though that isn't my cup of tea. The Kessler hosts some pretty good local jazz and blues, and the local rock scene seems centered on whatever Rhett Miller is doing today. You just have to go out and find it.

I am arguing about broadening your horizons. Support local artists. You'd be amazed what is happening and being created in a dark club near you. There's no reason to look longfully at England or worse yet, the past. And if it's not being created near you, create it yourself. Don't just accept the playlist they gave you. There's great stuff on it, sure. There's even more great stuff being made. How great is that?

Yeah, there is a certain element of "a band can't be good until nationally recognized", which hurts my soul. Actual national fame is kind of an accident, in most cases.

My wife and I are big fans of Seryn, who are never going to be big nationally, but we really enjoy their local shows, for example. There's never been more than 200 people for a show they headline we've been to (they open for national acts a lot, though).