How was Green Light following the trend?

 

Um... because it's a hip-hop/club song with a catchy hook and rap verses and it's generic. Yes, it's UK, and yes, it's grime, but it's not much different to US club songs apart from that it's British. The lyrics are about partying, getting drunk and girls.

 

edit - I saw your edit on GL following the UK trend. Roll Deep could have been original but they decided to make the same song again. Their third single and album deserved to flop (maybe it'll teach people to be original!)

 

 

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Edited June 1, 201114 yr by danielMFAO

Radio 1 have a quota to play at least 40% British acts during daytime radio. It's nowhere near high enough IMO but at least they actually have one.

 

See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/playlist_faqs.shtml

 

Do you have quotas for certain types of music?

Because Radio 1 is part of the BBC and funded by the licence fee, we make a commitment that at least 40% of the music in daytime will be from UK artists. We treat this as an absolute minimum however and normally 45-50% of the playlisted tracks are British. We also play a range of genres, bringing together the best of each, rather than concentrating on just one area of music.

 

Interesting to know.

 

However, ISTM they select a lot of the UK playlist on the basis of which ones sound most like the non-British songs on the list...

Um... because it's a hip-hop/club song with a catchy hook and rap verses and it's generic. Yes, it's UK, and yes, it's grime, but it's not much different to US club songs apart from that it's British. The lyrics are about partying, getting drunk and girls.

 

But it wasn't a deliberate attempt to sound American like your other two examples. It was still very much a British grime/dance song, it just didn't do well because the sound was dead by the time of its release. Eventually these US 'club bangers' will die out as well in favour of a different sound... hopefully anyway, as it's getting a bit boring now.

Interesting to know.

 

However, ISTM they select a lot of the UK playlist on the basis of which ones sound most like the non-British songs on the list...

How do you tell if a British song sounds like US song or vice versa?

However, ISTM they select a lot of the UK playlist on the basis of which ones sound most like the non-British songs on the list...

 

I disagree, most of the British acts on the playlist are more indie/rock or grime/dubstep (both of which are vastly different to the non-British songs on the playlist) than American-sounding.

 

Arctic Monkeys, Katy B, The Vaccines, The Wombats, Tinchy Stryder, Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Brookes Brothers, Ed Sheeran, Hard-Fi, Jai Paul, True Tiger, Adele (even considering her US success), DJ Fresh, Lethal Bizzle, Jakwob, Lower Than Atlantis being examples of the above. And that only leaves a few British songs on the playlist that come close to sounding like the non-British ones.

 

I suppose what sounds American and what doesn't is subjective though...

The album chart is more the place for UK talent - Adele, Jessie J,Kate Bush, Noah & The Whale etc. As has been mentioned, the 'in' club banger sound is just being mass produced in the US, UK acts like the ones above aren't following. Adele and Jessie J have been massively successful in the singles chart, granted but I don't see Kate Bush teaming up with RedOne or David Guetta anytime soon :lol:

Neither did Aloe Blacc - but that didn't stop him from getting a big hit. Non-club music can still do well, so while this is partly a reason for the domination of American and lack of British acts it's not the complete reason.

 

Of course, in the case of Aloe Blacc he actually got the necessary support. He was added to Radio 1's playlist, which managed to get him into the top 40. Then his video got picked up for more rotation on the music channels, and he moved into the top 20. Then commercial radio picked it up and it blasted into the top 10 and is now set to go to #2 this week.

 

It seems most British acts only go through the first hoop and also get small amounts of the second, and maybe small amounts of the third on stations like Capital. Lots don't even get that. At the end of the day, British music is not getting the support - club-orientated or otherwise.

How do you tell if a British song sounds like US song or vice versa?

 

If it's urban, of course... ;)

If it's urban, of course... ;)

 

Explain grime.

Explain grime.

 

It's what I find when I don't clean my house often enough... :)

It's what I find when I don't clean my house often enough... :)

:rolleyes:

 

Explain dubstep.

And Green Light doesn't sound very American tbh. It sounds maybe like a track that Flo Rida and Pitbull would do, but they only emerged in the mainstream a few years ago, filling a relatively vacant, but growing niche at the time (rapping on dance beats).

 

A recent rap song from a British artist that I'd say sounds quite American is perhaps Champion by Chipmunk.

 

US hip hop tends to be less electronic, and often have a lot of percussion, guitar, piano, brass, etc.

But when you hear dance music you don't think 'this is American music'

 

 

I do, and I suspect that many others do as well. Doesn't matter much to me where an artist originates from though.

I associate dance music more with Europe more than the US, personally.

 

I don't know where dance music actually started off though, so I don't know really. :lol:

I do, and I suspect that many others do as well. Doesn't matter much to me where an artist originates from though.

 

So you would think 'American' when hearing, for example, One by Swedish House Mafia?

So you would think 'American' when hearing, for example, One by Swedish House Mafia?

 

Pharrell, the vocalist on the song, is American - so I guess you would. The instrumental on the other hand doesn't sound American and is more European.

Pharrell, the vocalist on the song, is American - so I guess you would. The instrumental on the other hand doesn't sound American and is more European.

 

I was referring to the instrumental, hence why I said One and not One (Your Name). But Pharrell doesn't really make the song sound American anyway IMO. :P

lol. I think the world would explode if One ever got to the upper reaches of the Hot 100 nowadays! :lol:

Edited June 1, 201114 yr by Eric_Blob

lol. I think the world would explode if One ever got to the upper reaches of the Hot 100 nowadays! :lol:

 

Why so? :unsure:

O/T.

 

Vidcapper you're an idiot. That is all.

 

ON topic again... IMO the reason why we have so many US artists Top 10 is because US artists have taken dance music, something that was a very European thing due to the backlash against Disco, and incorporated it into their music. That makes the need for dance music from British artists less prominent because the dance tunes from the US are getting much more heavy rotation because of the fact they're American songs.

Why so? :unsure:

 

Well, I was exaggerating. :lol:

 

But it would be really, really weird if that happened, as I'm sure you are aware. It's a great song, but how it would do well in the US, I can't think.