Best Ever Albums

Re: US/British critics: the lists a matter of nationality ?

teodor_matz — Sat, 5 Jan 2013 16:27:07 GMT

Author: teodor_matz

Posted: 01/05/2013 21:27

HigherThanTheSun wrote:

:-k

Surely the least biased lists would come from countries where there is less national or regional representation in their lists rather than more? ie not the US or UK.

I guess you have that thing in most countries, in Sweden you do at least. 30% of the albums on our best of the year-lists tend to be Swedish. But we got a really good music scene here 🤣

Re: US/British critics: the lists a matter of nationality ?

Anonymous — Sat, 5 Jan 2013 16:06:27 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/05/2013 21:06

cartoken wrote:

But were the Americans really more exposed to The Idler Wheel is Wiser than the British ?

I haven't heard one person mention it here.

Re: US/British critics: the lists a matter of nationality ?

cartoken — Sat, 5 Jan 2013 15:46:36 GMT

Author: cartoken

Posted: 01/05/2013 20:46

looks like it's both, exposure and Patriotic bias. this is another proof that music is reaaaally subjective !

Re: US/British critics: the lists a matter of nationality ?

HigherThanTheSun — Sat, 5 Jan 2013 13:03:33 GMT

Author: HigherThanTheSun

Posted: 01/05/2013 18:03

Maybe not the population as a whole, but probably the critics and the people who are really into music. I think I'm more likely to get recommendations from friends of UK artists than US.

EDIT: Or maybe it is just patriotic bias, I'm not sure.

Re: US/British critics: the lists a matter of nationality ?

cartoken — Sat, 5 Jan 2013 08:09:19 GMT

Author: cartoken

Posted: 01/05/2013 13:09

But were the Americans really more exposed to The Idler Wheel is Wiser than the British ?

Re: US/British critics: the lists a matter of nationality ?

HigherThanTheSun — Fri, 4 Jan 2013 19:15:47 GMT

Author: HigherThanTheSun

Posted: 01/05/2013 00:15

teodor_matz wrote:

The US critics have a better reason to ignore artist outside the US (...) Therefore i think the US critics are more right in their listmaking.

🤔

Surely the least biased lists would come from countries where there is less national or regional representation in their lists rather than more? ie not the US or UK.

Re: US/British critics: the lists a matter of nationality ?

HigherThanTheSun — Fri, 4 Jan 2013 19:09:14 GMT

Author: HigherThanTheSun

Posted: 01/05/2013 00:09

I think it's the same for most music fans, not just critics. People are just more exposed to music from their own country than others. Even amongst BEA users the bias is clear.

Re: US/British critics: the lists a matter of nationality ?

Anonymous — Thu, 3 Jan 2013 19:31:20 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/04/2013 00:31

To me, the US has a bigger difference in the focus of the more mainstream press and the more "indie" or "underground" or whatever you want to call it press. The UK critics seem to universally embrace both more mainstream and indie music, while the US critics have a greater divide. More mainstream press, like the god awful Rolling Stone and most newspapers, seem to be more hesitant to put more indie music on their charts, as they don't' carry the name recognition of the bigger, more classic artists. Meanwhile, the US indie press puts a greater emphasis on indie rock, but are now starting to more embrace mainstream music as well. Pitchfork's recent charts show this.

Re: US/British critics: the lists a matter of nationality ?

Hayden — Thu, 3 Jan 2013 18:15:52 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 01/03/2013 23:15

teodor_matz wrote:

The US critics have a better reason to ignore artist outside the US since the US is so big, and it therefore comes out more music from the US. In the UK you have like maybe 50 good, high profile, pop groups that are active, about 5 good rappers that anyone know who they are, 2 soul singers etc. In the US you have at least 10 times the good pop groups, 20 times the good rappers, and like 50 times the good soul singers (i'm just guessing here, but you know what i'm talking about). Therefore i think the US critics are more right in their listmaking.

Ya ^

Re: US/British critics: the lists a matter of nationality ?

sheep21 — Thu, 3 Jan 2013 17:50:35 GMT

Author: sheep21

Posted: 01/03/2013 22:50

And in good ol Australia, the results are mixed. Triple J top albums are pretty much a 3rd american, 3rd british, 3rd Australian. Tame Impala came in at 1 of course.

Re: US/British critics: the lists a matter of nationality ?

Anonymous — Thu, 3 Jan 2013 16:18:58 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/03/2013 21:18

critics want to support their country, therefore they will focus on acts from their country, whether they like the music or not.

Re: US/British critics: the lists a matter of nationality ?

teodor_matz — Thu, 3 Jan 2013 14:45:21 GMT

Author: teodor_matz

Posted: 01/03/2013 19:45

The US critics have a better reason to ignore artist outside the US since the US is so big, and it therefore comes out more music from the US. In the UK you have like maybe 50 good, high profile, pop groups that are active, about 5 good rappers that anyone know who they are, 2 soul singers etc. In the US you have at least 10 times the good pop groups, 20 times the good rappers, and like 50 times the good soul singers (i'm just guessing here, but you know what i'm talking about). Therefore i think the US critics are more right in their listmaking.

Re: US/British critics: the lists a matter of nationality ?

junodog4 — Thu, 3 Jan 2013 14:02:01 GMT

Author: junodog4

Posted: 01/03/2013 19:02

Critics are more aware than most, but much of it has to do with exposure. UK critics gain more exposure to UK artists, and the same with US critics with US artists.

Re: US/British critics: the lists a matter of nationality ?

ShaneSpear — Wed, 2 Jan 2013 17:30:11 GMT

Author: ShaneSpear

Posted: 01/02/2013 22:30

Quote:

14. Django Django - Django Django (US ranking #96, of course the British loved it: #4)

I don't know about the others, but I do know that Django Django came out about 5-6 months later in the US than it did in UK for some reason. Also, I know from watching a lot of Sky this year (soccer, wrestling, etc) that they used Django Django's Default as their commercial music for something or another for a while, so that saturation probably didn't hurt.

Re: US/British critics: the lists a matter of nationality ?

videoheadcleaner — Wed, 2 Jan 2013 17:03:54 GMT

Author: videoheadcleaner

Posted: 01/02/2013 22:03

I agree nationality has something to do with it. Look at the end of year thread for triple j's list from listeners and most of the entries are Aussies and/or independent artists.

The list depends on the reader therefore genre, nationality and artist recognition/prestige/respect (Bruce in the Rolling Stone list, Tame Impala on the triple j list) all play a part.

US/British critics: the lists a matter of nationality ?

cartoken — Wed, 2 Jan 2013 16:42:55 GMT

Author: cartoken

Posted: 01/02/2013 21:42

Just noticed that the US and the British critics don't agree about everything this year, especially about two albums: (the source is the top albums of 2012 by acclaimedmusic)

11. Apple, Fiona - The Idler Wheel is Wiser (US ranking: #2 but only 76# for the British critics)
14. Django Django - Django Django (US ranking #96, of course the British loved it: #4)
🤡

you've got the same difference in ranking for other albums too : The US loved (Beach House
, Killer Mike, Father John Misty, Miguel...etc) but the the UK preferred (The XX, alt-J, Actress, Hot Chip...etc)

... but both the US and the British critics agreed that Channel Orange is the best album of the year (the rest of the world too actually).

Of course the american critics love the american artist and the british the british artist.

Just wondering if the nationality factor is the only explanation ? cultural differences ?
what do you think ?