Why is most music we listen to from just a few countries? - Music

Defago

Your Most Favorite User

Gender: Male

Age: 32

Location: Lima

These last couple of days have been amazing, so no way I'm letting it die off.

Most of the music listened and regarded as "good music" both by individual users and overall charts are usually originating from a few countries, namely the US and the UK. Most charts have over half of their albums belong to the US and about 40% belong to the UK. Why is this? Is it because the musical scenes in these countries is more developed then the rest of the world? Is it because the Western media dictates what's good and what isn't, or at least directs the fads? Is it because the musical ideas all western music is based on are more pleasant to the human being than those based on, say, African musical ideas? Is it because it's the status quo? Why isn't music from every country as well appreciated as US music is? Is it intrinsecally "better" or is it a matter of what are we used to? Will globalization help even out the playing field, so one day we will see a truly country varied music scene?

I'm from Peru and most of the music I listen to is American, so it's not a "where you were born" thing. It's reasonable that some countries have a more musically inclined society than others, but it's (to me) fascinating that two countries with very similar scenes have about 90% of the music listened to in the whole world.

Discuss.

Jasonconfused

If We Make It We Can All Sit Back and Laugh

Gender: Male

Location: Washington

Well a lot of our Western music does have African roots. Anyway, I just find the music from these countries to be better. Why? I'm not sure. Great question. I guess a lot of it does come down to the cultures we grow up in. Then again, when you take Western music to different countries, it gets embraced like crazy. Maybe there is something inherently more appealing about it.
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JMan

Maybe because these few countries not only have many more music companies and album distributors not to mention the really big ones like Epic, Sony, Atlantic, etc., but can afford to print more albums and promote sales more.

Patman360

Serenity Now

Gender: Male

Age: 33

Location: Cork, Ireland

Moderator

I always believed it was a language thing, maybe I'm completely wrong however but English appears to me be the common language to converse in throughout the world, this site being a prime example, we're all from different parts of the world, yet we all communicate through English, wheter it's our first language or not, this in turn appears to apply to the music, film, television and I'm sure numerous other industries, we all know the majority of internationally renowned artists out there, be it on this site, the radio, wherever, create music in English, no doubt there are exceptions to this rule, but they aren't overly common. Therefore with English being the language of choice throughout the world in my opinion, music artists from fluent English speaking countries will no doubt have some sort of advantage in terms of popularity. I think that's the gist of it anyway.

Great thread idea by the way! Applause

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Jasonconfused

If We Make It We Can All Sit Back and Laugh

Gender: Male

Location: Washington

Patman360 wrote:

I always believed it was a language thing, maybe I'm completely wrong however but English appears to me be the common language to converse in throughout the world, this site being a prime example, we're all from different parts of the world, yet we all communicate through English, wheter it's our first language or not, this in turn appears to apply to the music, film, television and I'm sure numerous other industries, we all know the majority of internationally renowned artists out there, be it on this site, the radio, wherever, create music in English, no doubt there are exceptions to this rule, but they aren't overly common. Therefore with English being the language of choice throughout the world in my opinion, music artists from fluent English speaking countries will no doubt have some sort of advantage in terms of popularity. I think that's the gist of it anyway.

Great thread idea by the way! Applause

This argument makes sense, but I think it's more than that. I say that because sometimes I show my mom old music that she might have heard when she was younger (she was born and raised in El Salvador and didn't learn English until her 20s) and sometimes she'll be like "Oh yea I loved that song and my friends and I would all hum the words even though we had no idea what it said." And she'll always be surprised at the lyrics that she had heard when she was younger but never understood. There's definitely something about Western melodies that seem to have a universal attraction.
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Patman360

Serenity Now

Gender: Male

Age: 33

Location: Cork, Ireland

Moderator

Jasonconfused wrote:

This argument makes sense, but I think it's more than that. I say that because sometimes I show my mom old music that she might have heard when she was younger (she was born and raised in El Salvador and didn't learn English until her 20s) and sometimes she'll be like "Oh yea I loved that song and my friends and I would all hum the words even though we had no idea what it said." And she'll always be surprised at the lyrics that she had heard when she was younger but never understood. There's definitely something about Western melodies that seem to have a universal attraction.

Good point, maybe my idea would be more suited to a modern situation, as I presume English is now more universally spoken throughout the world then it was, say 20/30 years ago.

Another idea would be money, I'm not saying El Salvador was a poor country, but compare it to the UK and the US, especially in the past, there surely were better recording facilities, availability of instruments, etc. in the US and UK in the '60s compared to countries in Central America, allowing more artists to create music in these countries. Just an idea.
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Jasonconfused

If We Make It We Can All Sit Back and Laugh

Gender: Male

Location: Washington

Patman360 wrote:

I'm not saying El Salvador was a poor country

Well I'm saying it is Razz

My mom's house growing up was made of mud.

You make a good point though. Western music is very studio based and written in a way that it will appeal to a larger audience. A lot of poorer countries seem to focus on music that is far more local, often ritualistic, and it wouldn't really translate all that well to other countries.
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Guest

That is a great point, Jason; Western music tends to be very general, not sticking to a specific culture or tradition, because if it alienates people it won't be as popular, whereas a lot of other, perhaps poorer, countries make more locally relevant music.

Patman360

Serenity Now

Gender: Male

Age: 33

Location: Cork, Ireland

Moderator

Jasonconfused wrote:

Well I'm saying it is Razz

My mom's house growing up was made of mud.

You make a good point though. Western music is very studio based and written in a way that it will appeal to a larger audience. A lot of poorer countries seem to focus on music that is far more local, often ritualistic, and it wouldn't really translate all that well to other countries.

I see, I'm not overly familiar with the country so I couldn't really comment.

Definitely agree with your point, I can see that in the traditional Irish music we have here, very very little of it is known on an international scale, it isn't really designed to go beyond a local scale. I could never imagine traditional Irish music being played on prominent American radio stations, etc.
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Robert Anton Wilson

Epic Proghead

Gender: Male

Age: 57

Location: Inside

The fact the the site is a unilingual English site leads to most of its users being likely English speaking individuals which in return will likely be most exposed to English language music.

i have friends that would create charts of French language albums much more impressive than mine (though they did help me a lot) but they will not do it on a unilingual English website.

Create a similar site in Spanish and you will get quite different charts.