Is there UK bias on this site?? - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

notsquib

Gender: Male
Age: 26

I wonder why the top 9 on the overall albums chart are all from the UK, as well as the top album for almost every overall decade chart.
Is this site mostly british people?
Does the UK just make the best music?
What do you think??

MadhattanJack
Just to end the list...

Gender: Male

A lot of it has to do with radio actually, and to a lesser extent, television. In England, radio has always been more of a government/public-funded thing, whereas in the USA it's always been private companies operating under license. Since the profit motive in the USA is so much more pronounced, the stations were more ad-driven, and were all thus incentivized to play what their advertisers believed people wanted to hear — namely, hit singles. (And if anything, MTV only made that situation worse.) In the UK, you didn't have that, so bands were allowed to experiment more with the album format (if not in general), and when they did, they weren't penalized as much in terms of income if those albums didn't contain multiple hit singles.

With the rise of the internet in the mid-to-late 1990s, radio and MTV became less essential in American music marketing, and US bands began to catch up a little bit — but by then, the damage was done. The best-ever album list was already so UK-centric, the idea of achieving "creative parity" became little more than a pipe dream. That's even more true now, since these days people don't even buy entire albums, they just download or stream the individual tracks they like — or that they're told they should like.

Hayden

MadhattanJack wrote:

A lot of it has to do with radio actually, and to a lesser extent, television. In England, radio has always been more of a government/public-funded thing, whereas in the USA it's always been private companies operating under license. Since the profit motive in the USA is so much more pronounced, the stations were more ad-driven, and were all thus incentivized to play what their advertisers believed people wanted to hear — namely, hit singles. (And if anything, MTV only made that situation worse.) In the UK, you didn't have that, so bands were allowed to experiment more with the album format (if not in general), and when they did, they weren't penalized as much in terms of income if those albums didn't contain multiple hit singles.

MadhattanJack wrote:

With the rise of the internet in the mid-to-late 1990s, radio and MTV became less essential in American music marketing, and US bands began to catch up a little bit — but by then, the damage was done. The best-ever album list was already so UK-centric, the idea of achieving "creative parity" became little more than a pipe dream. That's even more true now, since these days people don't even buy entire albums, they just download or stream the individual tracks they like — or that they're told they should like.

I've split this into two for the sake of my comment— but these are both fascinating topics on the commercialism of music. The first one is something I don't think I ever really thought about (having not once in my life listened to UK radio... well, I've never listened to US radio either, but Canada's the same gist... and the last time I listened to the radio was probably 2008, but whatever)— overall, I imagine the radio culture is far more exciting across the pond.

I'm sure some of it would be depressing/sad/concerning, but these would both be interesting dives to explore. Especially in comparison with time. I'm not quite convinced anyone even really cares about what's playing on the radio anymore. Whenever I catch it out and about in public places I find it's peculiarly still usually playing hits from '99-'10.

And @notsquib— I'm going with no. 50% of BEA's top 10,000 is from the States. 27% UK. Population/ratio-wise, etc, etc, I think that's about fair. (and a healthy 4% from Canada in third Mr. Green

, albeit, that is a bit of a sharp drop)
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MadhattanJack
Just to end the list...

Gender: Male

Hayden wrote:

I'm not quite convinced anyone even really cares about what's playing on the radio anymore. Whenever I catch it out and about in public places I find it's peculiarly still usually playing hits from '99-'10.

People mostly listen to radio in their cars. But everybody's car has satellite radio now, or they're playing tunes (and audiobooks, podcasts, etc.) off their phones through bluetooth, or they've got a big hard drive or a USB stick plugged in... not everybody does that stuff, but it's enough. The people who aren't doing it are older people who are less comfortable with the new technology, which (I suspect) is why the stations are programmed to play older stuff. Also, the newer music has more profanity and sexual references in it — that's just a fact, not that I mind personally of course.

Quote:

And @notsquib— I'm going with no. 50% of BEA's top 10,000 is from the States. 27% UK. Population/ratio-wise, etc, etc, I think that's about fair. (and a healthy 4% from Canada in third Mr. Green

, albeit, that is a bit of a sharp drop)

Six of the top 7 artists, though, not just 9 of the top 10 albums. As you get into the higher numbers it's bound to even out and be more reflective of each country's respective population, but when there's that big a percentage at the top, if you ask me that has to mean something.

melisandre

Location: the swamp

notsquib wrote:

Does the UK just make the best music?

For the most part, yes Cool

Edit: though I also think this dates back to 60s London, which was presumably a bigger and better music scene than anything in the US at the time. This I think had a ripple effect in the UK and led to a lot of UK music entering the classic rock cannon.

Romanelli
Bone Swah

Gender: Male
Location: Broomfield, Colorado

Moderator

melisandre wrote:

notsquib wrote:

Does the UK just make the best music?

For the most part, yes Cool

Edit: though I also think this dates back to 60s London, which was presumably a bigger and better music scene than anything in the US at the time. This I think had a ripple effect in the UK and led to a lot of UK music entering the classic rock cannon.

I live in the US, and I have to fully agree with this. Especially when talking about the rock era, which covers a huge part of the album era.

As for the influence of radio, at least in America (I have never heard radio in the UK), the older and more rural stations were all about American blues and roots music. But once The Beatles hit, American radio was not at all defined by American music, and I don't believe it has been since. The US has had its share of great artists, but the UK has been ahead of the curve for sixty years now. America leads in other smaller genres, but not rock.

As for myself, my overall chart is 60% US. My collection is 62% US. So I'm pretty consistent in that way. I believe part of that is my love of music that is more American: Southern rock, alt country, Americana, which is the music I mostly play live. Makes sense, as I have spent my life surrounded by this music. My music is never based on what I hear on any kind of radio, because I haven't listened to radio since before a lot of people here were born, but more on what I am exposed to in the genres that I work in. I will also say that when I do discover music that is new and exciting to me, it's more likely to be from another country, and most likely from the UK, where music has always been more exciting and takes more chances.
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LedZep

Just wanted to say there are some amazing radio stations out there definitely worth listening to, don't let the majority of crap fool you.
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Finally updated the overall chart

2020s
90s

notsquib

Gender: Male
Age: 26

That's a great point about public funded radio, Canada definitely benefits from having public funded radio as well in some regards. I don't think that factor alone would be the only thing that would allow good quality music to rise to the top though. It's also worth considering that other music rating sites, like RYM are not as dominated by UK-based artists, so I would argue there is a slight lean on BestEverAlbums specifically.

Romanelli
Bone Swah

Gender: Male
Location: Broomfield, Colorado

Moderator

notsquib wrote:

That's a great point about public funded radio, Canada definitely benefits from having public funded radio as well in some regards. I don't think that factor alone would be the only thing that would allow good quality music to rise to the top though. It's also worth considering that other music rating sites, like RYM are not as dominated by UK-based artists, so I would argue there is a slight lean on BestEverAlbums specifically.

I'd not call it a bias, though.
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CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

I wouldn't call it a bias either. I could be mistaken, but I don't think most BEA users consciously decide what albums go on their charts based on whether the artists are from the UK or not. I think the UK leaning on this site stems from the aforementioned claim that UK simply produced more great albums over the years than any other country.
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