Post subject: Is the British music scene in decline?
Us Brits are very proud of our music heritage however I was just looking at the make up of my decade charts and noticed a huge slump in British artists for this current decade? Obviously my taste and charts alone are not a gauge for concern so was wondering if everyone reading this can check their charts to see if there is anything in this theory.
Here are my stats for UK vs US artists for each decade.
2010's : UK 18% US 64%
2000's : UK 44% US 44%
1990's : UK 59% US 36%
1980's : UK 67% US 26%
1970's : UK 50% US 32%
1960's : UK 34% US 57%
It's quite interesting that my decade charts show an increase in British artists since the 60's which peaked in the 1980's before a gradual move towards this US dominated current decade.
The Night Slugs, Hyperdub, and Modern Love labels' rosters are the most interesting things happening outside of Joanna Newsom since 2006 in recent music, outside of one-off albums like The Idler Wheel... and Good Kid and Public Strain
Two reasons for this, I think. First, bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and The Kinks dominated the 60s and 70s...and they were pretty tough acts to follow. But also, in the last 15-20 years music from other countries has become more accessible than ever before, and it is perfectly logical that there would be a smaller percentage of American and British artists dominating user charts. Having said that, I really can not recall the last time I heard a British artist who really impressed me.
Here are my stats (cuz Im Canadian I figured I'd add Canada to it)
2010's US 57%, CND 19%, UK 12%
2000's US 58%, CND 22%, UK 14%
1990's US 90%, CND 3%, UK 5%
1980's US 55%, CND 36%, UK 9%
1970's US 20%, CND 20%, UK 60%
1960's US 29%, CND 0%, UK 71%
The British music scene definetly dropped significantly after the 70's with the American hair metal phase and the grunge phase almost completly alienating them. However the Brit punk scene seems to be on the rise during the 2000's and 2010's but is still squashed by the large amount of american bands.
Some of my fave stuff from the 2010s...
They've all got very low amounts of views, though, for whatever reason (discovered a couple of those bands just by fluke). There's one or two "older" bands still making good stuff as well (ones that the critics have kinda stopped caring about).
Actually only got round to checking out Young Fathers a couple of weeks ago and they're probably the first "acclaimed" or "hyped" UK act I've liked for a long while.
Most of my favourite UK music tends to be from the '80s and '90s - it's what I grew up on, basically, and I think a lot of folks underestimate those decades as the prevailing wisdom / narrative seems to steer listeners towards the '60s and '70s.
Overall, yes, it seems to be. If I had charts from every decade between the 60s and 90s the UK albums would be in majority. Since the beginning of the 00s, the US albums would be in majority.
Looking at the 2010s best albums, there are only a handful of UK records in the top 50, and some of the bands are from the 90s or 00s (Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys), there are only a few acts which are new and make good music (Alt J).
I don't know excellent UK bands nowadays. Maybe I am wrong or I don't know the music scene that well. But my impression is that their music is not as strong as it was....20 years ago...or 40 years ago.
Last edited by TracyJacks on 06/08/2015 06:56; edited 1 time in total
Overall, yes, it seems to be. If I had charts from every decade between the 60s and 90s the UK albums would be in majority. Since the beginning of the 00s, the US albums would be in majority.
Look at the 2010s best albums, there are only a handful of UK albums from the top 50 albums, and some of the bands are from the 90s or 00s (Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys), there only a few acts which are new and make good music (Alt J).
I don't know excellent UK bands nowadays. Maybe I am wrong or I don't know the music scene that well. But my impression is that their music is not as strong as it was....20 years ago...or 40 years ago.
You're quite right TracyJacks, just had a look at the top 100 albums on this site for the 2010's.
Most are older already established artists...Radiohead, PJ Harvey, Arctic Monkeys, Gorillaz, Kate Bush, David Bowie, Muse, Coldplay & Noel Gallagher.
This lot released their debuts towards the end of the last decade...Mumfords, Foals, Adele, Florence & The Machine & 2 Door Cinema Club.
Which leaves the following 6 new artists who have made a notable impact according to BEA in this current decade...Alt-J, The Vaccines, Yuck, Jake Bugg, James Blake & Django Django.
i'm not sure any of these 6 are gonna leave much of a mark in the history of popular music if I'm honest
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