The British or the Americans?

I've often wondered what would have happened to rock/pop if The Beatles hadn't come along. It certainly wouldn't have been the same. Perhaps Dylan would have carried the torch and taken another direction, but then again, maybe he did that anyway. I think what The Beatles did was so immense that it can't be fully comprehended without looking back at the state of AM radio at the time( in the U.S.). Motown/pop, Four Seasons, Beach Boys hmmm...
Anyway, The Beatles and Dylan are the two most influential artists of the genre since the initial explosion in the 50's. One Brit, one Yank.
 
from my europ/german point of view it is like this:
In the early 60`s, when popmusic started, almost nobody had a recordplayer. Popmusic was mainly brought to Europa by AFN networks radio.
But: There was literally millions of pro-musicians that played in millions of bars and nightclubs each day..those where the guys that spread the message around, live, better than any radio...The british were the best, cause the way they played they encouraged any young kid in town to do the same and find some friends to be a band and play those 3 chord songs..(multiply Rock´n Roll, so to say)
I recall the worst day in my life, when I went into my favourite bar, and there was no band playing anymore...I was told about a brandnew invention from Britain, called "disco" which ment that the clubowner had to pay just one person to play some records, instead of paying 4 artists (plus free cockroachhotel, gonorrheachicks, canfood and lots of pills) ..which meant the death of hundreds of pro bands, and millions of unemployed musicians...
This, for me, was the day Rock´n Roll died...
Rock´n roll was IMO mainly distributed by live playing british musicains that worked their ass off each night, bringing it to the smallest lousiest town in Europe, just to make a better living other than beeing unemployed in Liverpool...
or such...
 
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To be honest, the German influence of Karlheinz Stockhausen and the resultant German 'Krautrock' bands like Cluster and Kraftwerk are greatly under-appreciated. Those guys are vastly more influential than people give them credit for.
 
rootheart said:
I recall the worst day in my life, when I went into my favourite bar, and there was no band playing anymore...I was told about a brandnew invention from Britain, called "disco" which ment that the clubowner had to pay just one person to play some records, instead of paying 4 artists (plus free cockroachhotel, gonorrheachicks, canfood and lots of pills) ..which meant the death of hundreds of pro bands, and millions of unemployed musicians...
This, for me, was the day Rock´n Roll died...
Rock´n roll was IMO mainly distributed by live playing british musicains that worked their ass off each night, bringing it to the smallest lousiest town in Europe, just to make a better living other than beeing unemployed in Liverpool...
or such...
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Disco gets a lot of press for killing R&R here in the states, too, but I think R&R just finally collapsed after a 20 year reign. After Frampton Came Alive and went off like a supernova, who could top that? Plus a lot of us boomers that were teenagers during the arena rock era became young adult males on the prowl for young females during that open sex/sexual revolution period. Discos were the place to meet chicks, not the steady live rock bars.

I know a lot of rockers consider me insane, but I did like quite a bit of disco music, mainly the rhythm section. I don't see how any drummer couldn't like that grooving bass riff from Disco Inferno, or anything played by Louis Johnson. That guy played drums on the bass and was a human metronome.

But in this competition mentioned in this thread, I would have to give it to the Brits. They took some awesome music that was being played here in the states, and sold it back to us. They obviously weren't as racist as we were back then, or we would have noticed it right under our very noses.
 
westerner1;572174. They obviously weren't as racist as we were back then said:
This may be the most ignorant comment on this forum.. Congrats!
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nhzoso said:
This may be the most ignorant comment on this forum.. Congrats!
Click to expand...

Listen ace, if you want to call me out on this, then let's hear your argument. Dropping a peronal slam just perpetuates a problem this forum has that is well known in other drum and cymbal forums, and is why a lot of knowledgeable people don't post on drummerworld.
 
westerner1 said:
Listen ace, if you want to call me out on this, then let's hear your argument. Dropping a peronal slam just perpetuates a problem this forum has that is well known in other drum and cymbal forums, and is why a lot of knowledgeable people don't post on drummerworld.
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OK there CHIEF! When ever you make a comment try not to lump a whole nation into it, maybe you were racist back then but that does not mean everyone was. It also does not mean there were none in Britain, trust me slavery was not invented in the USA. I stand by my 1st post also. That was a very general ignorant statement...sorry!
 
Slavery wasn't invented by the British either, but concentration camps were.
 
nhzoso said:
OK there CHIEF! When ever you make a comment try not to lump a whole nation into it, maybe you were racist back then but that does not mean everyone was. It also does not mean there were none in Britain, trust me slavery was not invented in the USA. I stand by my 1st post also. That was a very general ignorant statement...sorry!
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Listen, this was not meant as an indictment on anybody. Just a realization that "back in the day", most Americans were not flocking to Clarksdale, Mississippi, New Orleans, Memphis, or Chicago to catch the latest acts of John Lee Hooker, Howling Wolf, Willie Dixon, Albert King, et al. The British were eating that stuff up. Look up the roots of Led Zeppelin sometime, if you haven't already, but it reads the same for the Stones, Cream, John Mayall, The Yardbirds, Deep Purple, etc.

I am not being pro-British at all here, just simply citing an obvious observation that most people should clearly see. America has changed immensely since the days of being able to paint a stripe between the Black and White sides of town. I lived those times. I know they existed.
 
Mediocrefunkybeat said:
Slavery wasn't invented by the British either, but concentration camps were.
Click to expand...

IMO ..e.g. .in the 60es in Germany there was some kind of musician slavery...pro bands played each night from 8:00 to after midnight..., they had no rights, they slept in slum conditions...all the club where in the hands of Jews..but doing this job, british musicians really started to distribute "beat" music around...as there was no record player and no tape recorder and no internet...hands up for those musicians, they gave their life to fight for what we meanhwile consider "pop music"... or such...
 
I'll feel America's history launched the starting of most of 20th century music contemporary music. I don't know if it's ignorant to think like that, without really being firmly knowledged, but to me gospel music is the beginning of pop music history. Blues and jazz remains strictly american music in its emergence. Ahmad Jamal did say "Jazz is the american classical music", so did say Art Blakey.
These three styles, gospel, blues and jazz is the base of what hear today, then gave probably the biggest contribution.

Then it is another matter about rock’n’roll, who gave out the most influencable sounds ? British and German rock did have some of the most innovative way of playing rock music. During the seventies, music from all over the world had an impact on music. Can did mention they were mainly influenced by indonesian music, Beatles had Indian indluence. Reaggea and ska music, who’s originally issue from Trinidad and Tobago’s calypsos, spread out of jamaica and contributed to sounds of so many major artists (Peter Gabriel, Police, Clash). Let’s not forget The Winston’s 1969 Amen Break without who drum’n’bass, jungle, electronic wouldn’t have that much incredible stuff to offer our ear.
Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman did maybe pay a very big contribution to today’s improvised music and free Jazz, but who are now spreading out the actual best of it ? I’ll say the Scandinavians, and specially Norway.

I’ll would rather say the biggest contribution to todays is originally american (or further in history, it is for sure Africa. But this is not what the thread is asking), todays influences and contributions are worldwide.
 
There is alot of people saying jazz came from America. It was largely orchastraited untill Stephan Grapeli is credited for started improvized jazz in cafe's in paris. And don't forget Miles Davis had a british bass player on bitches brew.
It is no single country, Thats what comunication gives you.
 
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