Americans just need to take the leap of faith. It's one thing to take inspiration from others... but another thing to copy them. Maybe the mentality in the UK is such that we refuse to be like others. I always loved the Beatles' music, but I wouldn't want to write any music like theirs. I'd want to write MY own music.
In a way, it's quite sad... my observations (and this is merely an opinion) is that there are far more talented musicians in the USA than in the UK. But the UK, with its lower proportion of excellent musicians, somehow manages to defy the odds and produce bands that aren't scared to try something different.
Americans - dare to be different!
I don't agree that the UK refuses to be like others. The very point about bringing up RnR in this thread, was to illustrate how desperately all the UK bands in the 50's wanted to be like Elvis. But on the flip side, all the US bands wanted then to be like the Beatles.
If any musician on any side of the pond ever wants to exceed "Beatles", then it makes sense to assimilate that method, then exceed it (hence own style picks up) .
Neither side gives itself permission to do that,. which I think is retarded. Before one can run, shouldn't they first learn how to walk?
All this ideology about new different sound is fine...but it seems to me that most self proclaimed musicians just use that "be different" concept as a smoke screen to hide their inability to express what their lives are really about, with any real precision.
Bands who dare to try something different, actually havent found it since the 50s- 60's
Radio Head is good, but they are in danger of becoming one long song... Can anybody imagine them as the absolute and sole thematic backdrop to life? I cant.
I Love NIN, but at the end of the day, its all gimmick, bells and whistles. Quite entertaining, but again, very narrow, limited representation of the greater universe. That's precisely the problem (as I see it) with modern music. Its becoming spiritless and banal.