It's no secret that I think the country with the best mainstream musical taste is England (or maybe the UK across the board). While US airwaves are filled with schlock by Yung Jucc, Yung Bucc, or Yung Crap featuring Soulja Boy, the UK airwaves proudly trumpet groups like The Streets, Portishead, Radiohead and more electronic acts than I can possibly list.

This week though, the UK truly proved itself to me, when Madonna's newest album lost the top spot on the UK charts to these guys:


So "these guys" may look like a middle-aged boy band, but really, they're German techno/hardcore/happy hardcore performers, Scooter. They are the group that is responsible for super cheese rave hits like "How Much Is The Fish?" and "I'm Raving." It represents everything that I can't stand about Candy Rave culture. In fact, if you want to see how bad things are, this is the title track from the number one album in the UK:



At this point, you might think I've lost my mind if I'm happy that album is number one anywhere, let alone the UK. Most would see this as an example of the decline of taste in one of the best musically educated countries in the world. But also on the top five is Madonna's actually solid new effort and the new Portishead. In fact, Portishead's album debuted at #2 last week.

So what does this all say about UK Mainstream music? To an outside observer like myself, it shows that the powers that help push mainstream music on the British masses, are far more open minded than their US counterparts. Most US mainstream music follows the style of the last "surprising" hit.

Why are we seeing so many UK female solo singers in the US right now? Because Amy Winehouse "came out of nowhere" to find a receptive American audience and now every major American label and every commercial radio station is falling over themselves to find the next Amy Winehouse.

After Lil Wayne or Lil Jon blew up, we saw 800,000,000 southern hip hop singles get released to major airplay, when really, only a handful were of high enough quality to earn that much exposure.

Think of every sub-genre fad, whether it was introspective Brit Pop (i.e. Coldplay, Travis), swing revival (Brian Setzer, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Squirrel Nut Zippers) or even teeny bopper singers (Britney, X-tina, Hillary Duff, Mandy Moore) and the trend that emerges is pretty simple. One band that has a song that is going to appeal to a lot of people somehow sneaks up on major American labels (because they are so out of touch with American listeners). That song breaks huge, suddenly major labels think that particular genre or sound is what everyone wants, and before you know it, T-Pain is singing the hook on every other song on the radio.

In reality, American listeners and consumers are just like everyone else. They want good songs. Not bad carbon copies of the first good song.

The UK's charts and radio always seem to reflect quality of the individual act, as opposed to the act being part of the "herd of the moment." Now before someone brings up the Spice Girls, or Babyshambles or anything else that is the polar opposite of Radiohead when it comes to critical quality, keep in mind that when I say "quality" I don't mean intrinsic quality of the song, but instead it's ability to appeal to the masses on its own. "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba may be three of the most pointless minutes in the history of mankind, but anyone with an ear for a hook knew that was going to be a hit. US radio stations, MTV and marketing execs only knew that because it was going to be big because it was first a hit in England. For further examples of record labels being caught off guard, please see Coldplay's "Yellow", Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head" and Amy Winehouse's entire presence in America.

So to bring us back around to Scooter. I can't say that I really like happy hardcore (which is what I would call Jumping All Over the World's musical style). And I won't be buying that album. And I think Scooter has no chance of ever crossing over to the States. But you'd have to be pretty jaded to deny the catchiness of the chorus. I think it's a great world where a simple hook, even if its one you don't like, can still rise to the top of the pop charts. And still have a Portishead album in the top 5 of those same charts. Unfortunately, that part of the world is on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Oh well, there's always Radio 1.

God Bless Britannia!

Simple Masher

I don't have an mp3 to post up. So you're going to have to make due with a wonderful but very simple mashup that I only have a youtube video for right now. It's space disco maestros Metro Area mashed up with Michael Jackson. More specifically, it's the beats for Orange Alert with MJ's "Bad" vocals. Seems simple enough that if I can't find a copy of the remix, I'll just remake it on my own.

I'm not really sure what the visuals have to do with this mashup, but it seems to work.



Back soon with some actually downloadable music for you. And links to new mixes and such.