Which countries produce good music? (2014, credit, movies)

[Chitowner86]

As I have become a more sophisticated music listener, i have realized that some countries are way above others when it comes to music.

My top list would be.

The Americas

The US (we all know rock, jazz, blues)

Brazil (so many musical rhytms you won't be able to count them)

Columbia (from modern top hits often with Columbian singers , to the back beats that you hear in electronic european music, columbian music is severely underrated, people just don't realize how common it is to hear columbian music, they just don't know it originated there)

Cuba (who doesn't know of cuban musical wealth, bolero, salsa, mambo and just about anything cliched as tropical)


Europe
The UK (this is undeniable)

Italy (very good, although traditional)

Germany (past its stereotype of David Hasselhoff, Germany actually produces very good electronic and techno)

Asia
South Korea (k pop)

Africa (pretty much anywhere, Sinatra called Africa the musical continent and he wasn't wrong)

Honorable mention to turkey which has a vast musical culture.

[AntonioR]

In the music sphere, whenever you put a radio station in Latin America and they are playing regional favorites (as in the singers are popular throughout the region), the singers are usually from Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Spain, United States.

There are singers from other places that are popular (for example Laura Pausini from Italy), but in those cases they are outliers since most singers tend to be from the countries listed (some singers that come to mind are Paulina Rubio from Mexico, Ricky Martin from Puerto Rico, Juanes from Colombia, Juan Luis Guerra from Dominican Republic, Oreja de Van Gogh from Spain, etc).

Some countries don't produce enough music or singers that are heard throughout the region (Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile, Costa Rica, etc).

Often times there might be a genre thats invented in one country, but most of the singers that become popular throughout the region are from another country. That's what happens with Merengue which is native to the Dominican Republic, but most singers of the genre that are well known through the region are from Puerto Rico.

[euro123]

horrible thread, it's a matter of personal choice + it's not fair to compare a total output of a country of over 300 million like America vs say Albania, Hong Kong, Israel, Swizterland....we need some sort of "songs per capita" lol or similar measure.

[Fabio SBA]

It's very hard today to find some good music. I don't know, however, if it's because I'm getting older (I'm 38 y-o) or because the music of nowadays really sucks.

I'm addict of classical music; thus, I would say that the best music was historically written by composers mainly from Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Russia.

As for popular music, Brazil used to produce very good music until the 80's: Bossa Nova, Samba, MPB (Brazilian pop) and even the regional music, but since then we can hardly find something worthy to listen - we have today the "Rio funk" (which could be more properly named if we replace "n" to "c"), and the so-called "sertanejo", which sounds as terrible as the name itself. The same applies to Argentina, which went to the classy tango to the... cumbia.

USA, UK and northern Europe also has plenty of good music, but again: the music of some decades ago used to be better than the music of nowadays. Maybe Colombia and the Caribbean still produce some good music... maybe.

[UrbanLuis]

Originally Posted by euro123

horrible thread, it's a matter of personal choice e.

[gres]

euro123 is right. Btw, for all its money the US is not very constant quality-wise. They ruled the place in the 1920s-1950s, made the best musicals like Singing In The Rain and even Best Foot Forward, Broadway Rhythm and Give A Girl A Break & also offered fame to tap & ballet dancers and gymnasts. Tom & Jerry had lots of classic music-wise.

Then they got eclipsed by the UK in many waves since 1964 The last truly great US pop music era was in the late 2000s & early 2010s (2008-2014). Then trap and mumble rap happened...

Italy in the 1950s-1970s and somewhat less in the 80s (From "Volare" to "Tornerò" to "Mama Leone" to italo disco).

Germany in the 1970's/80's could even make it big abroad ("Fly Robin Fly", Nena, Modern Talking, Sandra etc.). Since the 90's both Germany and Italy haven't been able to match that!

Sweden has produced some very catchy & successful pop music ever since Abba. Britney and Backstreet Boys' first albums were Swedish productions.

Basically for pop music US, UK and Sweden rule with Swedes often being the masterminds behind many American songs and Brits often making waves of much better pop music than the US.

composers mainly from Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Russia.

Don't forget Hungary! Bartok and Lizt. Even Russians used a piece from the Hungarian Radio chorus as the main theme of the iconic "Nu Pogodi".

India, East Asia, Latin America circa 1940-2014, and Subsaharan Africa. LatAm did wonderful ballads like Guillermo Davila's "Cantare Para Ti"; soap opera music was outstanding in general in those years, but their recent music like reggeton and similar is utter crap. There's a reason why to this day the effervescence of Carmen Miranda gets referenced or parodied. I like Pitbull though.

Turkish music was good in 2003-2013 then declined in quality just as Turkish soaps became too commercial. I also prefer Indian sounds to Turkish & Arabic. Thank God for India keeping dancing and musical movies alive! I could only wish Hollywood would recreate the 1935-1955 musicals, making dancers, contortionists, celebrity voice immitators & similar acts employable again. Most US stars nowadays have barely any talent.

[irish_bob]

Originally Posted by Chitowner86

As I have become a more sophisticated music listener, i have realized that some countries are way above others when it comes to music.

My top list would be.

The Americas

The US (we all know rock, jazz, blues)

Brazil (so many musical rhytms you won't be able to count them)

Columbia (from modern top hits often with Columbian singers , to the back beats that you hear in electronic european music, columbian music is severely underrated, people just don't realize how common it is to hear columbian music, they just don't know it originated there)

Cuba (who doesn't know of cuban musical wealth, bolero, salsa, mambo and just about anything cliched as tropical)


Europe
The UK (this is undeniable)

Italy (very good, although traditional)

Germany (past its stereotype of David Hasselhoff, Germany actually produces very good electronic and techno)

Asia
South Korea (k pop)

Africa (pretty much anywhere, Sinatra called Africa the musical continent and he wasn't wrong)

Honorable mention to turkey which has a vast musical culture.

sweden , extraordinary contribution for such a small population

[Chitowner86]

Sweden does have good music.

Ireland has also contrubuted well for its size. What puts me off is those Celtic tones they add, like that Celtic nasal thing they do when they extend the lyrics.

[bellatrixwand]

Originally Posted by gres

euro123 is right. Btw, for all its money the US is not very constant quality-wise. They ruled the place in the 1920s-1950s, made the best musicals like Singing In The Rain and even Best Foot Forward, Broadway Rhythm and Give A Girl A Break & also offered fame to tap & ballet dancers and gymnasts. Tom & Jerry had lots of classic music-wise.

Then they got eclipsed by the UK in many waves since 1964 The last truly great US pop music era was in the late 2000s & early 2010s (2008-2014). Then trap and mumble rap happened...

Italy in the 1950s-1970s and somewhat less in the 80s (From "Volare" to "Tornerò" to "Mama Leone" to italo disco).

Germany in the 1970's/80's could even make it big abroad ("Fly Robin Fly", Nena, Modern Talking, Sandra etc.). Since the 90's both Germany and Italy haven't been able to match that!

Sweden has produced some very catchy & successful pop music ever since Abba. Britney and Backstreet Boys' first albums were Swedish productions.

Basically for pop music US, UK and Sweden rule with Swedes often being the masterminds behind many American songs and Brits often making waves of much better pop music than the US.

Don't forget Hungary! Bartok and Lizt. Even Russians used a piece from the Hungarian Radio chorus as the main theme of the iconic "Nu Pogodi".

India, East Asia, Latin America circa 1940-2014, and Subsaharan Africa. LatAm did wonderful ballads like Guillermo Davila's "Cantare Para Ti"; soap opera music was outstanding in general in those years, but their recent music like reggeton and similar is utter crap. There's a reason why to this day the effervescence of Carmen Miranda gets referenced or parodied. I like Pitbull though.

Turkish music was good in 2003-2013 then declined in quality just as Turkish soaps became too commercial. I also prefer Indian sounds to Turkish & Arabic. Thank God for India keeping dancing and musical movies alive! I could only wish Hollywood would recreate the 1935-1955 musicals, making dancers, contortionists, celebrity voice immitators & similar acts employable again. Most US stars nowadays have barely any talent.

The UK absolutely never "eclipsed" the US for "great pop music", or whatever that means. The UK's exports since the 60s/70s have been Cheryl Cole, Charli XCX, and these same-y new wave groups, even during the heyday of the supposed British invasion, America was churning out way more artists and inventing a wider array of genres than the UK ever was.

Beyond that, you have contemporary artists like Ed Sheeran, Adele, and Amy Winehouse who are famous in the UK, but utterly unoriginal. I don't think you can call that "better" than anything the US has produced.

The 90s Britpop scene literally came about as a rejection to US musical hegemony and the grunge scene, and it was nowhere near as inspired or globally popular; it was same-y sounding pop rock songs attempting to recapture nostalgia for, you guessed it, British bands of the 1960s.

The UK only produced a handful of popular bands in the 60s and 70s, all of whom were mostly derivative of American artists. America has always had the more influential and more diverse music scene, quality is subjective though.

But the UK has been very poor quality since the 70s, and the country hasn't been able to compete with the US since. And again, their music is extremely derivative. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones started as American blues/rock and roll cover bands, and they routinely sampled American blues and rock and roll songs in their own content. If that's the best the British music scene can do, than it kneels at the feet of the US's. Lol.

Swedes aren't the "masterminds" behind many American songs, it's literally the other way around. Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys are not American musical treasures, lmao. You're trying to give an utterly undue amount of credit to Europe for today's popular music landscape where it absolutely isn't earned. The most disgraceful form of cultural appropriation.

I don't think Britain doesn't produce good music, but their mark on the modern musical landscape is nowhere near as indelible as America's, and they've been riding on the success of the same 5 to 7 big rock groups from the 60s/70s to elevate the name of their national music scene ever since. They haven't been able to produce their own succinct rock genre apart from American influence, and their pop and hip hop music is utter dreck.

[Joe90]

I'd say everywhere does.