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  • Top 10 Reasons British Music is Better Than American Music

    old-wizard.com
    Written by Zeromage 162 Comments
    Last Updated:: August 7, 2009

    usa_uk_flagNot many people understand that British music is better than American music.  They don’t understand this because of the political hegemony that America occupies in the West and “The Blues”.  It’s time to dig out the reasons why British music has always been better than American music.  It’s obvious to us here at Old-Wizard, and has been since we started getting into music and realizing the patent difference in quality between the two countries.  Hopefully this list will only act as a preface to one’s actions of going back through the great music that the British made and realizing where the quality is.  If all else fails, then one will just be in a position of admitting that they have bad taste in music.
    10. Better Style

    Who were the trendsetters in music?  Well of course the British.  Everyone followed the style of British musicians and they still do today.  When Liam Gallagher grows his hair out so does a nation.  When Pete Townsend develops mod culture and style that goes along with it, a nation wears the style.  When The Stone Roses epitomized the “baggy scene” in loose pants, everyone started buying them.  No American band inspires this kind of mimicry.  The British know what great style is and combine their great songs with it.  The Americans write average songs and wear straight legged Levi jeans.

    9. Better Haircuts

    This is obvious.  Check out George Harrison’s hairdo.   Check out Robert Plant’s blonde curls.  Look at Liam Gallagher’s Zeus like hair.  What do musicians haircuts from America look like?  They’re thick dark pieces of shit and more often than not look dirty.  The Brits would never allow themselves to get away with having dirty hair.  Their rock stars; they’re the God’s of the modern age.  They can’t appear at shows with crap hair.  When style has been made by musicians, even in more blatant pop (E.G. Lilly Allen) it’s always been from British musicians.

    8. The Birth of Rave Culture

    Could you image a world without rave culture?  A world without DJ Shadow or Aphex Twins?  A world without the Chemical Brothers or Massive Attack?  Where would the beat be in music with Rave Culture?  Thank God for Tony Wilson and Factory Records for putting this absolutely essential music genre on the map.  The birth of the DJ was the birth of music as the groove, as it always should be.  The British bands that have spawned from this style are innumerous from The Stone Roses to The Happy Mondays, to New Order, to Monaco, to The Space Monkeys…all British bands…of course.

    7. More Ambition

    The Brits aren’t afraid to be big.  Starting with Lennon’s quote of being bigger than God which he stated simply as an empirical fact at the moment, The British weren’t afraid to take their music to the masses.  They weren’t afraid to dream beyond their bedroom and the music from Brits benefited from this attitude.  American music is afraid of ambition probably from some reaction to its cultural political surroundings that places itself in a position of manifest destiny.  So because of this we get lo-fi shit or boring bitch fests.  It’s time to turn modesty on it’s head and there’s no better place start than British Music.

    6. Shoegazing

    Britain gave us one of the best music genres in the past 20 years in Shoegazing.  Do you think Americans would be creative enough to come up with the sounds you hear out of “Loveless” or “Nowhere”?  Do you think an American could create a song like “Leave Them All Behind”?  They could copy it and it wouldn’t be good enough to even be covered by a small American “zine.”  Because of the Brit’s the music listener was able to enjoy Lush, Slowdive, and Chapterhouse.  There’s something distinctly British about these bands;  they all have imaginations, something lacking in most American music.

    5. Oasis

    oasis-bandIn case anyone didn’t know.  Oasis came from Manchester England.  That’s a northern city in England.  Oasis is one of the greatest bands of all time if not the greatest band of all time.  America doesn’t have an Oasis, nor did they ever have an Oasis or any band that could compete with Oasis.  Take whatever America’s best band has ever been (can’t think of many) and match it up against Oasis’s songwriting catalogue and Oasis will undoubtedly win.  In fact, take Americas top 5 bands and put their songwriting catalogue against Oasis’s.  It’s still a no-contest.

    4. Better Record Labels

    This is certainly a difficult task to list all the great record label that came out of Britain.  For starters, there was Factory Records who hosted The Happy Mondays, Joy Division and The Inspiral Carpets just to name a few.  There is Creation Records who hosted Oasis, Ride, Swervedriver,  and Hurricane #1 just to name a few again.   There was 4AD which hosted the Cocteau Twins, Lush, and Slowdive just to name a few again.  Nude Records had both Suede and Geneva.  The list could keep going on.  No American label could match the quality output of bands on any of these British labels.

    3. Condemns the awful indie genre.

    British bands correctly condemn indie music whether it be American (which it is most of the time) or British (when some publication tries to tie them into that tag).  The greatest bands wanted nothing to do with it.  Ask Oasis if they’re indie.  They’ll laugh at the word.  Ask the Stone Roses if they were indie and Ian Brown will say “The indie scene is shit”.  Ask Brett Anderson about the word “indie” and he says “It’s a dirty word to me.  A word that means people who don’t know how to play their instruments or write songs”.  This penchant for criticizing indie music has gone a long way for making British music bigger and better sounding than American music.  American music has it’s head up its own ass too much too see that their own self-reflection and loathing is superfluous.

    2. Better Bands

    Think about it.  The Stones, Led Zeppelin, Oasis,  Pink Floyd, T-Rex, The Kinks,  The Stone Roses?  What does America have besides The Byrds and The Beach Boys?  One can make an infinite list of all the great British bands and barely be able to make a top 10 list of the greatest American bands of all time.   Who are the top 10 greatest American bands of all time?  We can’t even think of 5 off the top of our head right now.  This is a no-brainer.

    1. Better Songs

    The most obvious reason why British music is better than American music is the songwriting.  C’mon now,  Oasis, Radiohead, The Verve, The Stone Roses, Suede, Dodgy, Coldplay, Shed Seven, Travis?  These are bands that mastered songwriting craft to a T.  There isn’t one American band out right now that could come close to the quality of songwriting produced by these bands (except maybe for Wilco), and these are just the modern British bands.  We aren’t even putting Zeppelin, T-Rex, The Who, and Bowie on this.  There are too many no-brainers on this list.

162 Comments

  1. Frank definetly didn’t retire from fighting. He just got through fighting Nick Diaz,and losing I might add, back in April I think. Not quite sure on the date. He was the champ whenever he quite the UFC though. He quite because he said there was no one that could give him a challenge. Back then that might have been true, but definetly not now. He was also a coach in the IFL, along with his brother. They had two different teams, but they were both coaches.

  2. I dunno if Frank retired from fighting or not, but if he did, he could’ve gone back. I’d have to reread it, I just know it said he retired, but can’t concretely recall whether it was fighting in general(I think it was, but was short-lived) or just from the UFC.

    And I’m pretty sure that the Middleweight title he held was later reclassified(with an extra 5 lbs.) to Light Heavyweight.

    Also, on Tito Ortiz being signed with Strikeforce but never fought for them. Was it with Strikeforce or did you mix it with EliteXC too? Just wondering, it suddenly hit me I wasn’t sure which he’d been with.

  3. I might have mixed up the Tito thing because he was supposed to fight Babalou, and Frank who both were fighting for EliteXC at the time. My bad.

  4. S’ok. I referred to Jenna Jameson’s “nether regions” as “them” instead of “it” lol so I made a similar mistake.

  5. #5 UP2IP2 says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 3:10 am

    jesus lord

    Delta vs Ice

    NERD FIGHT!

  6. UP21P2 is right.

  7. STOP WITH THE MUSIC LISTS ALREADY!

  8. #8 JesseOssenkopp says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 3:50 pm

    I really adore this site and its lists, however I find myself less entertained with these music lists. Granted, the Old-Wizard guys love the complaints, but end result here carries the notion that Old-Wizard is losing its charm. True, not all lists should pertain to the genre of videogames, but that sgould also apply to music.

  9. cody works for O-W click his name!

  10. #10 Delta says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 1:45 am

    How’s it a fight, UP2IP2?

    As a fight, it’s about as lop-sided as 10 Krav Maga experts against a blind wheel-chair bound 11 year old.

  11. o and bush’s IQ is 125. slightly above average.

  12. @JesseOssenkopp:
    We decided to take a much needed break from video game lists, as we felt they were getting too stale and repetitive. We’ll be getting back to gaming in about 2 months, where we’ll be talking about a lot of different games (we’ve been playing a lot of old two player games lately, like Bomberman and WWF Raw). We also have these lists in the works:

    Top 10 Liberal Idiots
    Top 10 Beer Countries
    Top 10 Reasons Sweden is the Best Country in Europe
    Top 30 WWF Wrestlers

    For now you’ll just have to be patient, as we’re a little burnt out, and keep in mind, we do this site for free, as a hobby. So for now, everyone’s gonna have to suffer through about 2 more months of music.

  13. #13 President Steve says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 5:00 pm

    I for one think its funny how people think they have a right to DEMAND what the authors of this site write about. Its their site, not yours, and as Zeromage said, they don’t get paid for this. No one is forcing anyone to come to this site, yet, the same people are here for every new article, still leaving comments about how much they hate this site. I for one enjoy the opinions expressed on this site, even though I hardly ever agree with them. They articles are always well thought and well written. But I would like to request to Zeromage to start deleting comments from people who just come here to complain. Its incredibly annoying. I can’t figure out why anyone would take time out of their day to complain about what some random person writes about. The whole Oasis thing is a perfect example. I can’t count how many times someone has left a comment telling Zeromage to shut up about Oasis. I’ll say again, if you don’t like it, LEAVE!

  14. #14 Ralph says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 5:13 pm

    Considering the fact that the writers of this site constantly MAKE FUN OF their own readership, and the fact that even people who purport like the site don’t even agree with it, I’m amazed ANYONE comes here at all. There’s a lesson in human psychology somewhere in here…

  15. ok, as long as you write about games in the future, i can wait.

  16. #16 Sammy says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 9:57 pm

    Steve,

    People taking time out of their day to comment on this particular site, in a negative way isn’t any worse than you taking time out of your day to defend it. If they didn’t want people to leave comments for one there woudln’t be a place for it, and for two they have to have known that negative comments would be left when they write based on their opinions. See what I’m saying?

  17. Sammy…..

    It doesn’t make sense though that they come over just to say they hate what the article is, every week, and give the impression that they’re never coming back to the site…..just to complain next week about what the article is!!

    And Ralph makes a good point about a lesson in psychology here.

  18. #18 Sammy says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 6:43 pm

    While I agree it doesn’t make sense for them to leave hateful commets, and then make it seem as if they will never come back only to make yet another hateful comment on OW’s next topic, I still have to say that it also doesn’t make sense to me why President Steve would even bother with these people. Obviously their pretty childish to continue coming back time after time, and yes there is a lesson in pyschology that can be learned from this. That being said why bother with them if you know it won’t do any good? Why take time out of your day to leave a comment on their hateful comments? Like I said before they are obviously childish. Children have a tendency to do things just for attention. So why give them the attention by responding to them in anyway? I say you just ignore them, and act like the comment was never left. Who knows, It just might work. Also it just seems like Steve is being a kiss ass honestly, and to tell you the truth I just don’t like kiss asses. That is just my opinion, and, maybe I’m the only one that feels that way.

  19. Dunno if Steve’s being a kiss-ass or not, I normally just skim through the comments complaining about the articles being music again, and the comments responding to those. So I just get the gist of them. But he could be responding due to being annoyed by so many comments complaining about the articles being music articles again.

  20. #20 Noel's Nose says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 4:16 pm

    Oasis, Joy Division, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, Tony Wilson, Factory Records, Suede, Brett Anderson, Ian Brown, New Order…10 reasons alone, and you’ve mentioned them all!

    Of course, #5 should be moved to the #1 slot, and you get major points off for the mention of Wilco. How can people with such great taste in British music like such shite American bands? At least you aren’t praising Kings of Leon…

  21. #21 P.SO The Earth Tone King says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 5:29 am

    I love this site because you guys are so insanely bias that its laughable. I have a great deal of respect for British music. I definitely respect the individuality and the quality of the different genres that have emerged there from Shoegazing down to Dubstep. However, you guys refuse to acknowledge the American influence on English music and the rest of the world. We invented rock and roll…

  22. #22 else3573 says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 4:03 am

    Uh, how did the british “invent” everything?? They stole blues from america and based most of their music on that in the 70’s, they based punk rock off Reggae from Jamaica, they’ve stolen hip hop and made terrible attempts to refine it, and as far as raves go, wasn’t Detroit the home of that entire scene (Illegal parties playing Techno music)??

  23. #23 else3573 says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 4:12 am

    As for “great” american bands, with large discogs or at least 2 excellent albums, how bout:

    Metallica
    Alice in Chains
    Aerosmith
    The Ramones
    Bad Brains
    Pearl Jam
    Alice In Chains
    Foo Fighters
    Earth Wind and Fire
    Parliment
    Soundgarden
    Nirvana
    Red Hot Chili Peppers
    Dead Kennedy’s
    Jimi Hendrix Experience
    Credence Clearwater Revival
    The Doors
    Jefferson Airplane
    etc.?

    I’m not a huge fan of all these bands, (and I’m sure someone trendoid poser will make some snarky remark to sound hip since these bands are way too well known and not nearly esoteric enough to be “cool”) but most have had sucessful careers and made some stellar tracks.

  24. Awesome. I agree, British music is so much more awesome, and for some reason the music listening population there has much better taste than here.

    I must disagree on Oasis though. Even though they’re awesome as a band, they definitely don’t live up to “greatest band of all time.” They’re way too egotistical, and unwilling to change (until the last minute, right before the broke up.) But Radiohead, Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, Floyd, even Libertines and Babyshambles (if they got their shit together). Sweet music.

  25. #25 alberto says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 5:18 pm

    Hands down British rock is better than American rock.

    BORN IN THE USA…
    BORN IN THE USA…
    BORN IN THE USA…
    BORN IN THE USA…
    BORN IN THE USA…

    How is that for a great american rock song :D
    They really put an effort on those lirics.

  26. #26 Sammy says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 3:57 pm

    Alberto,

    If you are going to critique something the least you could do is make sure you spell everything correctly. It is LYRIC not “liric.” Now let’s get down ta’ bidness. I have never been a huge Springsteen fan, or a fan of his in any capacity really. So to judge American music based on ONE bad song is a bit condescending to the rest of American music. I mean are we to go on the premise that “one bad apple ruins the whole bunch?” I for one will not do that. I mean honestly can YOU say that all british written lyrics have all been gems? “Slowly walking down the hall Faster than a cannonball” Yeah that was a real winner there wasn’t? Ha. Seems to me that was just filler, and that is supposedly your BEST band, atleast according to Old-Wizard. Then again maybe I just don’t get the symbolism……yeah I think not. That was just a stupid lyric written by an obviously high Noel Gallagher. Look, The point is you can’t judge American music on one crappy song, just like you can’t judge British music on an ENTIRE CRAPPY BAND, simple as that my friends.

  27. #27 Delta says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    Wait, Sammy, are you saying Alberto’s British? It’s unclear if that’s your intent, but due to English not being his primary language, I would assume he’s not.

  28. #28 Morty says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 7:07 pm

    This article is racist.

  29. Morty, how is an article racist when it refers to their opinion on what MUSIC is better from two different nationalities which largely are composed of the SAME RACE? How the FUCK is that racist, you fucking retard?

    It’s one thing to call him an idiot if you disagree on him saying British music is better than American music, but RACIST? Go kill yourself right now to prevent you from ever reproducing. We don’t need you in the gene pool.

  30. If you ask me, some American songs are very great but what I don’t like is some of their songs in the contemporary times is just pure crap. They don’t last long. I mean, you listen to their songs and after how many months you don’t like them anymore. British music isn’t like that.

  31. Your comment is being moderated. We are currently destroying the illusion of free speech to which you hold so dear…we are in control.

    Damn i didn’t know this!!!!!

    Don’t worry I’m a Filipino but I am pro British. I love British culture, accent, literature, songs, and movies.

  32. Fedrico…..

    They moderate your comments until it’s approved, to prevent SPAM comments on here. You’ve been approved, so you won’t get that anymore.

  33. #33 Alberto says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 4:05 am

    @Sammy

    Actually, I have to confess, you got me on that one.

    I work for a mayor company Music in Mexico city for arroud 5 years in the purchases department. I have to learn about both countries rock. I personally like British Rock, better. The main reason is Because they have more known bands,than USA. Does actually that makes them better? maybe not, but they have a lot of names in the island. American rock is actually pretty good, also believe it or not Latin rock is pretty good, but they have not the same type of marketing behind them as the Americans or British. I’m sure is the same in almost every country in the world.

  34. Who are the British bands that are famous in the USA today?

  35. #35 to much spare time says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 12:26 pm

    is this list a fucking joke? im british and am proud to say i hail from the same nation as some truly great bands (beatles, led zep, rolling stones, stone roses, the cure, joy division etc), but this is a celebration of british musics past, have you heard the fuckin shite that comes out of britain now? one night only, n dubz, tinchy stryder, mika, scouting for girls, the ting tings, biffy clyro, snow patrol, razorlight, attack! attack!- to name but a few of the soulless fame hungry talentless cunts who clog up the airwaves with their asinine mor shit, granted britain can still do music alright occasionally but for the most part its fuckin dirge of the highest order

  36. #36 Felix says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 4:00 pm

    “America doesn’t have an Oasis, nor did they ever have an Oasis or any band that could compete with Oasis. Take whatever America’s best band has ever been (can’t think of many) and match it up against Oasis’s songwriting catalogue and Oasis will undoubtedly win. In fact, take Americas top 5 bands and put their songwriting catalogue against Oasis’s. It’s still a no-contest.”

    Tool
    Jane’s Addiction
    Smashing Pumpkins
    Pixies
    Alice in Chains

    Let’s double it to 10:

    Faith No More
    Rage Against the Machine
    Nirvana
    Zwan
    Soundgarden

    That was easy lol.

  37. #37 Felix says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 4:07 pm

    Yes, I did say Zwan.

    Oasis simply haven’t got the musical quality, songwriting, versatility or innovation to be considered a top echelon band of their era, let alone of all time.

  38. felix i think flaming lips and the stooges should be on there also but yeah good list

  39. #39 Joan Vitrel says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 8:11 pm

    Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Canned Heat, The Allman Brothers Band, Marshall Tucker Band, Grand Funk Railroad, Lynard Synard, The Doobie Brothers, MC5, The Velvet Underground, Television, Kings of Leon, My Morning Jacket, The Strokes… are also american bands… why to miss them?

  40. #40 Matthew says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 9:17 pm

    I do agree with your point that british music is better than american, however i do not agree with your point that oasis maybe one of the greatest bands of all time if not the greatest bands of all time. If oasis were so good then they would have broke america, the beatles were 1000 times more succesful, much more influencial, if it wasnt for the beatles there would be no oasis, and also you say that America have only gave us two bands, this is wrong, guns n roses, nirvana, aerosmith all massive and they were massive everywhere unlike oasis, i really do not think you have done your research and i would like to hear your thoughts on this

  41. #41 Matthew says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 9:18 pm

    here your just talking pish really mate

  42. I agree that british music is better but seriously this list sucks.
    10.no comment
    9.what does this have to do with music?
    8.I’ve never heard of any of those bands….
    7.I’m sorry, what?!?!?
    6.agreed
    5.Oasis are great but britain’s put out some way better stuff.
    4.?
    3.Indie isn’t even a genre, WTF?
    2.no argument
    1.ditto.

  43. James A:WHAT???/??? How is this racist? It’s one thing to call this guy tasteless, or idiotic, or even biased, but RACIST? Seriously!

  44. else3573:Metallica has gone waaaay downhill, Limp Bizkit-level suckage. The Ramones were good, that said they probably wouldn’t even make my top 80 bands ever. who the h**l are Bad Brains? Pearl Jam was massively overrated, What was so great about them? Alice In Chains are highly underrated and it’s good to see them get some respect, but as good as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Queen, The Stones, John Lennon, etc.? No way! Aerosmith are one of my favorite bands, I’ll give you them. You said Alice In Chains twice, moron. Foo Fighters are AWFUL. I’d rather listen to Good Charlotte or The Simple Plan. Earth, Wind And Fire I’ll give you. Parliment I’m not familiar with, so can’t comment. Soundgarden sucked. Nirvana I’ll give you, they’re my favorite american band (Dylan not being counted as a band), and my 3rd favorite band of all time after The Beatles and Zeppelin. Red Hot Chili Peppers…well, same as The Ramones. who the f**k are Dead kennedy’s? Jimi Hendrix Experience I’ll give you. CCR I like, but I wouldn’t even put them on my top 120 bands. The Doors, I’ll give you. Jefferson Airplane sucked.

  45. #45 Troll 4 Life says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 3:57 am

    What are you morons doing listing just bands?

    Have you ever heard of Chuck Berry? Elvis? Bob Dylan? Aretha Franklin? Ray Charles? Stevie Wonder? Little Richard? Jerry Lee Lewis? Buddy Holly?

    How about the last few years: America has given the world Jay-Z, Outkast, The N.W.A., Biggie, Tupac Eminem, hell, just about every hip hop artist.

    America invented rock and roll, jazz, blues, soul, and hip hop in one century, all England invented was heavy metal. Hell, England doesn’t even have the best rock band of the past 20 years, The White Stripes and The Flaming Lips are Americans.

    And I thought you fuckers at Old Wizard were stupid, your commenters are even stupider.

  46. Troll 4 Life actually has a point. but Aretha wasn’t that good, and neither are the hip-hop artists you mentioned. I’m not saying they’re not good, but…blah! but, yeah, what ARE you guys doing listing just bands? it makes the list a lot shorter.

  47. America invented all the genres that the British hoped all over so swiftly LOL

    Without America, The british would still be singing that folk mess.

    2nd, The only genre The british made a huge impact on was Rock……and Rock simply

    as far as Soul, Blues, Jazz, R&B, Hip Hop and every other American genre….They got no coverage

    The majority of their influential artist are all Rockers, While America has influential artist in every major Genre……Where is the British Aretha Franklin? Marvin Gaye?, Frank Sinatra? etc? there are none.

  48. And for the record, England didn’t even invent Heavy Metal, it was a combination of American, British & Canadian Psychedelic bands, hell the first band to use the term Heavy Metal was Canadian, Steppenwolf

  49. God damn it. Am I reading this right? Are you idiots actually comparing a broad range of music (most of which you aren’t aware of) from two different countries, and using the mainstream music of one country to justify it being better than the other? That’s pretty asinine. Also, Oasis blows.

  50. #50 Har(Killing Is My Busuness...and is Good!) says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 9:19 am

    Hahaha you do realize that British did have good bands and had British metal invasion but the fact is people like Dave Mustaine and James Hetfield took it and Americanized it and we got thrash we all know that Megadeth had faster heavier and more technical riffs, bass lines, solos, drum patterns then anything during that time. Where was thrash metal in the UK in the 80’s oh yeah! they need to import American bands because they had shit except of course the brittish invasion bands in the 80’s and they had punk and that music is terrible and American thrash had bandoiler belts common that is bad ass and the fact that American 80’s metal bands had the “I don’t give a fuck what you think” attitude and thrash didnt go for your mainstream BS. oh yeah forgot Oasis, Radiohead, The Verve, The Stone Roses, Suede, Dodgy, Coldplay, Shed Seven, Travis are so terrible I can’t belive and cold play is gods way of revenge for putting up jesus on the cross and guess what they are MAINSTREAM. Ok good brittish bands are from 1960’s-1980’s except for some of the really terrible bands like the sex pistols.Really good british bands would be Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath. USA is great when it is 1960’s-1980’s well and Pantera is great to and they saved metal in the 90’s.

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