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Unwanted over the Atlantic

Mourne Kransky

19:47 / 24.04.02

I've heard references twice today on the radio to the fact that, for the first time in 39 years, nearly forty, there are no Brits in the US Billboard Top 100. Is this true? Does it matter? Our charts are, I presume, still full of American choonz.

Matthew Fluxington

19:58 / 24.04.02

Here's the story.

This quote irks me in a major way:

Asher said it was "painful" to watch the struggle to try to sell Travis's Why Does It Always Rain? to America. He said: "It was the kind of literate music we do better than the Americans - they just don't get it."

Oh fuck off! We've got enough crappy sappy rock bands of our own, without fucking TRAVIS having hits over here too!

wembley can change in 28 days

22:22 / 24.04.02

I love Travis, but that's still the funniest thing I've read all day.

Matthew Fluxington

23:33 / 24.04.02

here's the current Top 100 of the US

rizla mission

08:42 / 25.04.02

This quote irks me in a major way:

Asher said it was "painful" to watch the struggle to try to sell Travis's Why Does It Always Rain? to America. He said: "It was the kind of literate music we do better than the Americans - they just don't get it."

Saying things that stupid should get that guy sacked from his job and laughed at for the rest of his life..

Reminds me of a crusty old bugger I heard on the radio once complaining that modern pop was a load of rubbish: "Why don't people write genuine songs with worthwhile lyrics anymore .. like 'Hey Jude'".
I nearly wet myself.

But anyway, US has Destiny's Child, UK has Coldplay.

Viva USA, I say.

And there's probably no records from Finland in the top 100 either, I mean, who gives a shit?

suds

09:17 / 25.04.02

"they just don't get it"
travis?!
what is there to 'get' about that song?
it's a boy singing about how it always rains on him. he thinks it may be because he lied when he was seventeen. it's not rocket science! that kind of thing really pisses me off. i think that asher guy is a meanie.
plus, the american singles charts isn't so much of a big deal as it is in the uk. people concentrate more on how well their albums are doing in the charts rather than top ten singles.

The Natural Way

09:50 / 25.04.02

Travis suck. The americans are well shot of them.

"My, Runce, how constructive we are today..."

Cherry Bomb

19:28 / 25.04.02

I actually think the biggest reason this has happened is not because there are no US top 40 suitable bands in the UK at the moment but actually due to the prevalance of R&B and Hip-Hop in American Pop music today. Neither genre has as large a following in U.K. as they do in the U.S.

I'd say here in the U.S., nearly every American teen likes at least a few hip-hop songs. At this point, it's just ingrained in the youth culture. I was really surprised that not every English kid between the ages of say 17 && 25 felt the same way.

It actually makes me kind of sad that there are no U.K. songs are on the charts this week - but then I hope that means we're on the crest of something big in pop music, like the british invasion or something. But I am a music romantic.

Matthew Fluxington

19:43 / 25.04.02

Well, I don't think hip hop/r+b is really the issue here - traditionally, on the US charts, 'black music' is strictly the province of American artists. The reason this has happened is mostly because UK boy/girl pop acts simply cannot compete with US domestic teen acts for that market, and more so because rock radio is dominated by horrible US/Canadian rock music, and there just plain aren't any UK acts that cater to US rock stations. The only big modern rock radio hits from UK acts of the past year were Coldplay's "Yellow" and Gorillaz (note: more a US act than an American act, by membership) "Clint Eastwood". Radiohead do okay, but get little radio airplay. Dido had a few big pop-charts hits, thanks to Eminem.

I don't know. I don't think this says anything about UK artists, but it says a lot about how tight US corporate radio formats are.

Saveloy

06:51 / 26.04.02

Pete Waterman (big 'manufactured pop' producer and label owner in the 80s/90s, made Kylie) was dragged onto Radio 4 to talk about this and said pretty much the same thing as Flux, with a dash of Cherry Bomb. He said that UK acts would be wiser to market themselves in France and Germany, where the tastes AND marketing/distribution systems were closer to ours. Didn't consider America to be that important, as a market. But oddly enough, he then said something along the lines of "we've got to get back to the music, we're waiting for the new Beatles. If you're out there guys, come on in, cos we really need you now." Eh?

The Natural Way

10:26 / 26.04.02

You know, that just strikes me as a really surprisingly stupid/naive thing for a music-industry bod to say.

Margin Walker

07:01 / 14.08.02

*bump*

Excerpt from a recent L.A. Times story:

Britain Is Trying To Draw Up Plans For Its Next Pop Invasion

"On market share measured by rankings in Billboard's Top 100 album chart, U.K. artists scored 18% of the action in 1965 (beat boom bands), 26% in 1972 (the prog and heavy rock era) and a whopping high of 32% in 1986 (glam pop, abetted by Dire Straits, in the early days of MTV, when British videos ruled).

The last decade, however, saw the Brits hit the skids, bottoming out in 1999 with 2% of the market, provided in its entirety by the Prodigy's "Fat of the Land" collection."

Is the US culturally deprived because Take That were never huge here? I think not.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

10:44 / 14.08.02

Asher said it was "painful" to watch the struggle to try to sell Travis's Why Does It Always Rain? to America. He said: "It was the kind of literate music we do better than the Americans - they just don't get it."

Give the guy a break. It must be difficult to try and market a band when he's banged up for assault with a deadly weapon...

No star here laces

11:12 / 14.08.02

Well, Daniel Bedingfield is in there like a trouper at 43. Think So Solid can break the US? Me either...

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