Views from the other side

The UK as you might know is the unofficial 51st state of the USA. Any US tourist over here will feel right at home. A Starbucks on every corner, kids in GAP and Stussy gear on skateboards, Coke,Big Mac, Haagen Daz, Dunkin Donuts, ER. It's all here, even saying 'research' American-style. There's also been loads of US expats who've tried to make it over here before trying to crack the US. So, I'm interested to know whether the following are as big a deal in the US as they are in the UK.

Friends, Will & Grace, Frasier etc - high profile in UK but only around 2m people actually watch them
Ruby Wax - gives Americans a bad name
Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson etc - huge with 12 -16 year olds
J-Lo,Sarah-M Gellar, Britney, Jennifer Aniston - generally the most popular for poster sales, polls in men's mags
Buffy, Smallville, Dark Angel etc - again high profile but not big terrestrial TV viewing figs
Budweiser - not my taste. Still, Bud's big with men in the 18-40 age group.
Independent beers - e.g. Samuel Adams, Anchor etc
R n B, Rap - main chart fodder
Boy bands - frequently polluting UK airwaves. Backstreet Boys more popular than N Sync
ER - mainly popular with women even post Clooney
Club music - trance, prog house. mainly home-grown and Euro acts. not trendy any more but still sell. Danny Tenaglia draws big crowds.
'Realistic' cop shows like NYPD Blue
Soaps - Dallas and Dynasty were massive. current US soaps dont get much of a look in now
The Simpsons - considered by many here to be the best TV programme to come out of the US. Still popular. Homer recently voted #1 in greatest TV character poll.

I always thought that Canada was the 51st state...

Don't you guys drink Guinness anymore? Budweiser? My goodness? What is happening to the UK!?!?!

As a side note, I went to the LCBO the other day and discovered draught Guinness - in bottles!!! It was the coolest thing! And it says to drink it straight out of the bottle! The only downside was that it tasted lighter than the canned draught, which, according to my UK-travelling friends, is even lighter than the real McCoy (a Guinness in Dublin over 900 calories, and I believe the Canadian canned stuff has like 300 calories).

Dont really think we're the 51st state
THe US has given us alot of watered down commercail material, but at the end of the day poeple pay for it, so i cant really say it's being forced down poeple's throats...
The US has given us: SONIC YOUTH (i cannot emphasise their greatness), REM, Nirvana (would have felt more at home in the UK in 77, but the fact they werent at home made them intresting, Sebadoh, pavement, just the whole late 80's early 90's alt thing! Dance music! Yes, I really like dance, just not the watery comerialised stuff that floods our charts, but it has really been furthered by the europeans... RAP! Grandmaster flash, takes great pride in my record collection...
To be honest though, I think we gave to the US more influence than the opposite, just because the US acts that cross over have been through the Whole commercaily minded american selection process, while the stuff here becomes popular with less of an emphasis on shifting units (which does tend to mean it flops with the mainstream, but you find it influences alot of musicains a few years down the line, take THE FALL as an example, or better still JOY DIVISION).

By the way, I really dislike most american comedy, with exception of the simpsons ranking pretty high up (yes, it's heretical, but it's not far from monty python), and at the other end JACK AS$! AMAZING tv program, the kind that young men up and down down the country would love to have made but didn't have the time or the guts (lets be honest)...

I don´t know about USA our UK but I can tell you the situation in Sweden and Bosnia:

Friends: popular in Sweden, not much in Bosnia

Nu metal bands: were very popular in Sweden but are now fading to black as well as boy bands but the have pretty big status in Bosnia actually.

Sexy girls: Off course popular evrywhere but for ex. Britney is pretty much fading away and in Bosnia they never made a huge impact (singer-girls). Movie stars/porno stars are the biggest sex bombs in both countrys but in Bosnia a couple of bosnian singers (girls) are pretty hot and popular down there.

Series: Not that popular but series like Boston Public, South Park, Simpsons, Malcolm in the Midlle and That 70´s show are huge in Sweden. Older american series like Melrose Place, Baywatch and Beverly Hills rule in Bosnia.

Budweiser: Not popular at all. In Sweden Norland´s Guld rules and in Bosnia Lasko and Zlatorog. Heini is pretty popular in both.

Rap RnB: is gettin big again (was pretty dead for 1 our 2 year) but is now goin´ strong much thanx to 50 Cents new album. RnB wich was huge just a couple months ago seems like a little bit old now when 50 has entred the scene. In Bosnia neither of these musical styles are popular.

Boybands: as I mention earlyer are pretty stone dead in both.

Club Music: pretty popular on Swedish dance floors but hell no in Bosnia. In Bosnia, bosnian folk music rules.

Cop stuff: Unpopular

Soaps: If you watch the you´re considred as a freak espcially if you watch bull like Sunset Beach our Ocean Ave. But in Bosnia Spanish/Mexican soaps rules.

The Simpsons: Pretty big in both. Now South Park and Futurama are on air too so there´s a big challange between them. Definitly not big as it´s in US.

What happened too Monty Python, Benny Hill, Faulty Towers (my Favorite) those were all great U.K. shows.
I always heard jazz and blues were big in europe, is this true?

Not that popular actally. You never hear music styles like that on radio.

Rock/Metal is popular over here and is (thanx god) growing and growing. Oldies rule espacially Iron Maiden. Metallica has gained other kind of fans now, Guns aren´t that popular anymore as they were in the early 90´s when they dominated. Dream Theater is pretty huge over here actally, evrybody knows who Yngwie is but few of them like him. Punk music was pretty huge but is pretty gone nowdays. Stuff like Creed and Nickelback and Him are huge over here. Limp and Korn are slowley fadin´ away but Linkin Park are pretty big as well as Sum 41.

I will bring classical music back! *LOL* next week starts the construction of my new guitar!!!! YAAAAAAY!! 36 frets rule!!!

I was a big fan of the British show "Red Dwarf". They were playing it here in the US in the mid to late 90's. What ever happened to that show? Is it still on over there?

[Edited by Leedogg on 04-18-2003 at 08:31 AM]

yeah, red dwarf was genuis for the first few series...
but then it got watered down and commercialised for the american main stream, as more charecters were added, plots became less surreal and complicated... and it kinda sank with outta a trace...
I think some of the old series are being re-run on late night BBC 2... but this is comming from some one who cant afford a tv at thier place, and can only get to watch tv at their parents... :rolleyes:

I think that jazz is fairly big here, it's not mainstream ofcourse, but it's there....

Man and I thought good metal was dead... I guess it just moved to Bosnia and Sweden... What's the cost of living over there? I might have to move to where the music is good...