What Country Has The Best Music?

[Matthew Wilson]

I haven't included a poll because other than British and American music I haven't heard much else from othe countries.

Obviously being from Britain I'm bias towards my home country, in the 60s and 70s there was The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and Pink Floyd and even today there's greats like Muse, Kasabian and Biffy Clyro.

However this is just my opinion and I want to hear what other Escapists think.

 

[Cherry Cola]

I'm torn.

On the one hand I adore The Beatles and David Bowie with such passion that something passionate would feel less passionate in comparison to my passion.

On the other hand there's my avatar and name.

CAN'T DECIDE

 

[Baron Von Evil Satan]

The UK. Not only did they have a large amount of great bands in the 60's, but the more modern celtic/folk rock coming from there is my favorite genre of music hands down.

 

[TheHecatomb]

The Netherlands. We own the electronic dance music scene worldwide.

 

[Dogstile]

I would definitely say British. We got Black Sabbath after all

 

[Rafe]

UK because of...
Decent Dubstep
David Bowie
The Kinks
Celtic/folk in Ireland
Gerry Rafferty
Robbie Williams
The Who

But then again the USA has Lynyrd Skynryd, Jefferson Airplane, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, the best Jazz, Bob Dylan, Q-tip and the other good rappers!

Italy has got some fantastic piano pieces from Ludvico Einaudi and the like.

But Japan has got Nobou Uematsu and some crazy Japanese pop and rock.

I think for me, its between the USA, UK and Japan.

EDIT: Actually, David Bowie trumps all.

 

[Lukeje]

But then again the USA has Lynyrd Skynryd, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, the best Jazz, Bob Dylan, Q-tip and the other good rappers!

Ermm... The Who are English... What made you think they were American?

Edit: They're even mentioned in the OP as a British band.

 

[Rafe]

But then again the USA has Lynyrd Skynryd, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, the best Jazz, Bob Dylan, Q-tip and the other good rappers!

Ermm... The Who are English... What made you think they were American?

Edit: They're even mentioned in the OP as a British band.

I know they're an English band and I noticed them in the OP, sorry bout that, I surprised myself with that mistake.

 

[MikailCaboose]

Germany, because they've got Rammstein. 'nough said for my case.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I really can't decide.

Thin Lizzy are my all time favourite band, but there's really not enough other great Irish bands for me to be able to justify saying that Ireland has the best music. America has a whole load of my favourite bands (Anthrax, Streetlight Manifesto, Mastodon), and so does England (Black Spiders, Gallows, Motorhead). The real choice is England or America?

Probably America (just) overall, but of all the great recent bands I know, most of them are British (Gallows, Skindred, Black Spiders, Turbowolf, Trashtalk, Rolo Tomassi).

 

[silversnake4133]

Well, I guess it would really come down to which genre you like most.

Europe and the UK are mostly known for their electronic and dance music, Asia and Japan are predominately known for traditional classic music, the US is mostly dominated by Rap, R&B, Pop, and Country music, and the Caribbean and modern South American countries are known for their mix of Latin music, Regge, and Tropical-ish sounding classical music (to name a few). As for Rock music, I think that this genre varies since there are tons of great rock bands in the world (both mainstream and underground-sorry hipsters).

So whatever your personal taste is in music, you should probably check out the source of the largest output. Each country has their own strengths and weaknesses in the vast field of music, so I'd say that one can't really make a truthful decision for fear of sounding biased. So I'll just say that it would be better to grade countries on which genre is more well known there rather than make this an international popularity contest.

So as for my response, I guess I like a little bit of everything from each country.

 

[BlackStar42]

The UK. We have Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Alestorm, Motorhead, Slash, and many many more.

 

[Antari]

I wouldn't say any particular country has the best music. Because there are great musicians all over the world.

 

[SilentCom]

Music is an art, art is subjective.

As far as which country seems to be dominating the music industry in the international market, it would have to be both America and the UK. This is why you hear a lot of music from both these countries and not that often music from other countries. This is also why pop music is around.

 

[mireko]

I don't know about best. Can't/won't give an objective answer to this question, because I'm going to say Japan.

For the last couple of years, their music has kept me coming back for more. Noise rock (Boredoms, Ruins, Melt-Banana, Ni-Hao!, Nisennenmondai, Afrirampo, Ground Zero, etc) is my all-time favorite genre, so that may have something to do with it. A lot of the more traditional music (Syzygys, Chieko Mori, After Dinner, OOIOO, etc) is wonderful in its own way as well.

Of course, the US and UK have a lot of fantastic musicians too. Especially when it comes to electronic music.

 

[Lionsfan]

It depends on what you listen to. For me it's a tie up between the US (because we invented the Blues, Jazz, Rock, Hip-Hop, and Grunge), and the UK (whose artist's perfected Rock, and invented Punk). But yeah, there really is no way to figure out which country has the best since it's all subjective

 

[NeutralDrow]

Well, I guess it would really come down to which genre you like most.

Basically this.

Therefore, I nominate Finland. Because the country that gave us Nightwish, Ensiferum, Finntroll, Sonata Artica, Lordi, Korpiklanni, and The Rasmus is clearly doing something right.

 

[Cryfear101]

England ofcourse because were all clearly better than any other country in almost every aspect minus the Mules we call MP's in power.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Ireland!

We've had some great ones, especially for such a small nation.

U2
Clannad
Bob Geldof
Snow Patrol
Ash
Sinead O Connor
Damien Rice
Enya
Cranberries
Riverdance
Thin Lizzy
The Pogues
Rory Gallagher
Wolfe Tones

Then again, we did also inflict Westlife and Boyzone upon the world...

 

[trooper6]

There is no objective answer to this question. Musical taste is subjective.

One person might say Jamaica due to its dominance of Ska and Reggae.
Someone else might say Germany due to its dominance of the symphonic tradition.
Someone else might say Italy due to its dominance of the bel canto Opera tradition.
Someone else might say the UK due to its dominance of the choral tradition and early music sound.
Someone else might say the US due to its its dominance of the bluegrass tradition.
Someone else might say China due to its its dominance of the Canto pop tradition.
Someone else might say India due to its its dominance of the Bollywood musical tradition.
Someone else might say Ghana due to its its dominance of the High Life musical style.

There have been a gazillion types of music from all around the world over the last couple of thousand of years: Gamelan, Rai, Blues, Skiffle, Norwegian Death Metal...you name it.

Which country you think is best will be heavily affected by which styles of music you prefer.