As an American, to be told by a British Music friend "Americans don't understand pop music at all"

[Spicechinodiva]

A great friend of mine, Basically set me back when we were talking about how the US prefers Madonna's Santa Baby over The UK version by Kylie Minogue.

 

Madonna's Version is huge on Radio during Christmas season, recorded for A charity album called A Very special Christmas. 

 

But he told me a comment that had me shook "Americans don't understand Music at all". 

I was like why you said that..

 

He's Like You're pop music is Very Hip hop and R&B, that's not pop, you shut out everybody that isn't American, the only time you embraced British pop music was when TLC was MIA and destiny's child was a hit or miss (referring to The SPICE Girls, of course).

 

I was like well The Spice girls knew they had to set camp here and stay here for at least 7 months to actually breakthrough, that's why it was successful, they actually put in the work to make it happen. 

 

To me it was very ignorant if his end. 

I said, look you have to put in the work, once the pandemic is over, you know everyone who wants to make it, has to sacrifice until a breakthrough happens.

 

Yes, Steps opened for Britney Spears in the US, abd she returned the favor on their Arena tour of the UK. 

 

But it wasn't going to happen, yes they all have talent, but it would have worked in the clubs, but not mainstream America. 

 

European culture is more open, than the US, it's okay to be Super gay or Super camp and have that history selling çareer. ..

 

Our country is Very different, you have to market in conservative markets. 

I did say, we shut out our own musicians who had successful careers outside the US. 

Scissor sisters is an American band, fronted by one of the most campiest gays of all Jake Shears, they were far more successful outside the states, Anastasia and Tina Turner as well, so we do sometimes deny our own people, but they still have huge careers outside the US. 

 

We do it to, it's just our tastes are different than what you guys actually prefer. 

[DignifiedLove]

The US is more diverse and broad when it comes to musical taste and preferences.

No offense but the UK seems like they’re mostly into the same 2 or 3 genres of music, mostly just pop, electro and trance.

Then again, the US also had some bad moments too like being responsible for making post-grunge a thing when it was arguably one of the worst genres in musical history. 

I will say I do think UK is top tier when it comes to 90s and 2000s trance though.

[redacted statement]

I didn't even know there was a Madonna version. Revoke my stan card, omg...

[Spicechinodiva]

48 minutes ago, iAlwaysSingLive said:

I didn't even know there was a Madonna version. Revoke my stan card, omg...

You've probably heard it, but didn't know it was her. 

 

Ironically all my Madonna friends said, I've loved this version but had no idea it was Madonna. 

[PokemonSpears]

31 minutes ago, Spicechinodiva said:

You've probably heard it, but didn't know it was her. 

 

Ironically all my Madonna friends said, I've loved this version but had no idea it was Madonna. 

[GMFlop]

Different culture, hard to judge. 

[PokemonSpears]

I mean, it is a very subjective thing, so to say "Americans (or any other country) don't understand music at all" is like, completely unnecessary.

However I do think the US has missed on a lot of genres and artists from other parts of the world due to how closed they are to listening to something different or as you say "being conservative".

 

Even Britney's case, who is American, I think she's so much bigger, so much more respected as an artist everywhere else than in the US. How many songs of hers did great internationally but in the US they were "flops"? But that only means Americans have a different taste or a different vision. Similarly, there are many artists that are supposedly so big in the States but are no one outside of their country.

To me, if you ask me, if I was an artist or whatever, I would feel more proud or I would consider like they've achieved more if they have success in many countries than just the country they're from, but again, the US being the most powerful country in many aspects, why would they even care what other countries like or prefer? So I kinda understand the situation.

 

And it's not only the US. With hispanic music, there are many artists from Spain that in Latin America they're huge, but in Spain they had no success at all.

[IAmJustAKnee]

@Spicechinodiva I don't know if this was partially what you were implying in the OP but (I'm saying this from an ignorant POV 'cause I wasn't alive during those times) but yeah many need to put in the work as in so many artists from like the UK most likely didn't get into the U.S. because the singles weren't actually released here to begin with 

[IAmBorg]

I don’t know about that but I feel like other countries are more ?open? Could be completely wrong. But here we have music from so many languages. Languages we don’t understand at all. And that’s not because we don’t have any good musicians in our own country. We just enjoy music for the music.

[SlaaayBitch]

6 hours ago, Spicechinodiva said:

 

What in the myah lauper is going on!!

[Stefani]

My issue with British music fans (other than them being quite pretentious) is that their definition of pop music consists of mostly dance stuff. So they pretty much hate anything that lacks a dancey beat on principle, although they occasionally make exceptions for cringy ballads.

[Stannedforever]

 I will never forgive USA for letting Anastacia flop in her own home country. For me she is in top 10 most iconic female artists of early 00s and she deserved so much more success. 

[Alexanda]

5 hours ago, Stannedforever said:

 I will never forgive USA for letting Anastacia flop in her own home country. For me she is in top 10 most iconic female artists of early 00s and she deserved so much more success. 

At least europe was there, to see the talent. 

But in general, everywhere it's different.
I would call Mariah Carey local for example, she had hits outside (like Without You) but mostly everyone in my country is not here for her songs that are pretty much RNB. (Touch My Body was in the top 10 because of our americsn idol version) 

Funny enough they play her christmas song every year. 

The same with Britney, not much airplay, but her christmassong is on the radio.

But it's true, the american charts are not very international, unreachable almost for someone who isn't american. English or not. Europe don't care too much: Spanish, french or another language, it would chart everywhere.

[jordeezy river red]

REAL Americans only acknowledge THIS "Santa Baby" 

 

[Jamie Lynn Forever]

most mainstream pop is fkn trash and xmas music is trash 

uk or usa same trash 

[Blackout2006]

Did he lie tho?  Y’all made Invasion of Payola the best-selling rap female album in the US ,boycotted Britney for her own personal struggles and a radio boycott for a unprofessional reason, gave only 8 or 12 Grammys to MJ but 22 Grammys to Beyoncé and Kanye, did Anastasia dirty, hold a ageist and ***ist music industry, became the main reason for why streaming destroyed the music market, boycotted Janet just because her skin got exposed, hav an extremely invasive and toxic media, and much more reasons I can list. There’s after all  a reason why so many stars like Rihanna and Britney sometimes run to the UK

[DignifiedLove]

14 hours ago, Stannedforever said:

 I will never forgive USA for letting Anastacia flop in her own home country. For me she is in top 10 most iconic female artists of early 00s and she deserved so much more success. 

No offense but she was one of, if not the most disposable pop act of the 2000s. Nothing about her stood out that wasn't already seen in America where competition is way more stiff. 

[DignifiedLove]

8 hours ago, Alexanda said:

At least europe was there, to see the talent. 

But in general, everywhere it's different.
I would call Mariah Carey local for example, she had hits outside (like Without You) but mostly everyone in my country is not here for her songs that are pretty much RNB. (Touch My Body was in the top 10 because of our americsn idol version) 

Funny enough they play her christmas song every year. 

The same with Britney, not much airplay, but her christmassong is on the radio.

But it's true, the american charts are not very international, unreachable almost for someone who isn't american. English or not. Europe don't care too much: Spanish, french or another language, it would chart everywhere.

Because the UK's short attention span in music is mainly invested in flamboyant and/or electro-inspired pop unlike the majority of Mariah's material.

Funny you say that though when there have been PLENTY of UK acts who had successful crossovers and maintained relevancy. Coldplay, Radiohead, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Ed Sheeran, 1D, Fleetwood Mac, George Michael, David Bowie, etc. We just aren't here for your disposable pop and hip-hop acts.

[Alexanda]

1 hour ago, AGUILEGEND IS A QUEEN said:

Because the UK's short attention span in music is mainly invested in flamboyant and/or electro-inspired pop unlike the majority of Mariah's material.

Funny you say that though when there have been PLENTY of UK acts who had successful crossovers and maintained relevancy. Coldplay, Radiohead, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Ed Sheeran, 1D, Fleetwood Mac, George Michael, David Bowie, etc. We just aren't here for your disposable pop and hip-hop acts.

That's not what i meant, let me put it this way: I don't think Mariahs chart positions worldwide are that impressive, considering the fact, that she is so huge in the US. )

Quote

The third and fourth biggest markets for recorded music remain the United Kingdom (+7.2%) and Germany (+5.1%)

So:  She had like 5 top 10 singles, many flops, 2 number ones (Without You, All I Want For Christmas) 

And i did not want to take the success from the UK away (btw. 1D is not a good example, i mean 1 top 10 song here  ) but the us-charts are very english (language) based, so you won't see randomly a french singer or spanish singer in the billboardcharts often, that's what i wanted to say.  And i don't think they are less talented, but you see it a lot in Europe. 

 

[Spicechinodiva]

8 minutes ago, Alexanda said:

That's not what i meant, let me put it this way: I don't think Mariahs chart positions worldwide are that impressive, considering the fact, that she is so huge in the US. )

So considering this: She had like 5 top 10 singles, many flops, 2 number ones (Without You, All I Want For Christmas) 

And i did not want to take the success from the UK away (btw. 1D is not a good example, i mean 1 top 10 song here  ) but the us-charts are very english (language) based, so you won't see randomly a french singer or spanish singer in the billboardcharts often, that's what i wanted to say.  And i don't think they are less talented, but you see it a lot in Europe. 

 

Tje biggest German hit in the US, is literally about the cold war and the end of the world. 

 

Read the actual English translation to 99 luftballons by NeNA, the most successful German act of all time ..

 

It's pretty dark,  cos in 1983, West Germany thought there would never be peace at all,  and the country would be destroyed one day.