The Decline and Fall of the British Music Scene?

What with the lack of sales for NO's latest, and the piss-poor quality of some newer groups, excepting Travis and Radiohead, is it possible that the British music scene (much less the American...god knows we have our share of shit) is in decline? Just wondering what might be going on across the pond, in case anything might come along to possibly upset the frat uber-rock that seems to breed in the states...

I think the GB scene is healthier today than it has been for the last 9-10 years. The music scene is very fragmented, with little cross-over between genres - but there are some exciting new bands producing good stuff. I have recently bought interesting albums by Zero 7, Simian etc. Even The Charlatans - a band I'm not really into, have released an excellent album - Wonderland. And with the promise of more (new) New Order material, and the return of Johnny Marr with the Healers, I think things are looking good.

Originally posted by Sébastien Boisvert Speaking of which: remember the band Afghan Whigs? They had their share of success in the 90's, made a very good song called Rebirth Of The Cool, and also covered New Order's Regret as you can hear in the cover versions audio section of this site.

Well, what a lack of timing!!! That band would have created a lot of controversy if it started their career today. :D

S.

Yes, quite - and you obviously know about old thrash metal veterans ANTHRAX now considering changing their name too - true!! Blimey, this world can be a really fucking screwed up place, can't it? Remember the Gulf War ten years ago and how many songs got banned for just having contentious words in their titles (like The Cure's "Killing An Arab", Fer Chrissakes!!!!), and other bands had to change their names temporarily like MASSIVE ATTACK, who had to drop "Attack" from their name for a bit. Mad, eh?

I once had a band called"La Väche qui rit". We were the first ever intergalactic,interactive band.Even long before there was any internet! Maybe that is why we never got any gigs?

Well, America's music scene isn't much for talking, all the best stuff seemed to die out with Nirvana or fall out of the radar. I like what I've heard of the Strokes, and the Old 97's are pretty good, and Weezer finally came bakc from the brink with an excellant album. So it's not so bad overall, but MTV is dominated by the same old same old...

Here in Britain at the moment it's all 'REISSUE REPACKAGE REISSUE REPACKAGE RE-FLEECE RE-EXTORT" This week in the top ten album charts alone, there are no less than SEVEN greatest hits albums - most of them already issued in some form before (Beautiful South, Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Pink Floyd), others a volume 2 instalment (Madonna), and others, just a money-grabbing chronicle of shite just to tempt the sad gullible fucking festive record buying public (Steps, Gabrielle, Westlife, etc etc....)

This is the time of year when the best thing one could possibly do is get hold of the record company marketing execs who insist on doing this year after year and throw them all onto a pile of debris, comprised of their own wretched creations, douse them with paraffin and set the bastards alight. It's the least we could offer them as a friendly festive gesture in return......