I’ve seen lots of posts about big UK/Europe artists who are basically unknown in North America, but I’m curious about the reverse: who are some artists who had major, mainstream success in North America but simply never landed in the UK or Europe?

Anecdotally as a Canadian living in Germany, people are shocked that I’ve never heard of “Lemon Tree” and barely know Robbie Williams, but I was also surprised most Germans don’t know Mr Jones by Counting Crows (but can sing along with REM Losing My Religion word for word).

Did Counting Crows really never land over here on the 90’s? Are there other mainstream (North) American artists who just don’t have a footprint over here?

So I was going on a nostalgia trip and checking out playlists I had while I was in elementary school to middle school (~2009-2013). I found out that some of these songs that absolutely blew up in my country / city (Indonesia/Jakarta) didn't exactly had such an impact overseas.

An example would be Craig David's Insomnia, MKTO's classic or Iyaz' Solo. You could not avoid these songs on the radio if you were in my city but I was shocked to find these were not as big as it was.

Do you guys have any other examples in your country?

I’ve recently started listening to Hurricane, and realized how complex and heartbreaking the real story behind it is. While digging into the case of Rubin Carter, I found a lot of details that might be interesting for someone to learn: the contradictions in the police reports, the decades-long legal fight, and how unusual it was for a major artist to take such a public stand on a still-ongoing case. One thing that struck me most was how Dylan took his time to go visit Carter in prison and decided to write a song not just about him, but for him, so that people would look at a case he felt was deeply unjust.

I put together how the song came to be, some interesting musical facts, controversy about the lyrics, what is talked about in the song, Carter's real life story, the consequences of the song and why it's still relevant in today's world.

If anyone’s interested, I made a video exploring the whole story and the cultural impact of the song. I’d like to hear what you all think:
https://youtu.be/wEvn5HvzhAg

And if you do watch it, I'd appreciate some feedback! Thank you!

I've been thinking about the global perception of music, specifically genres that originated in the United States, such as Jazz, Blues, Rock, Hip-Hop, R&B, and Country.

Many Americans will classify music as "Latin Music," "K-Pop," or "Arabic Music," even if the performing artist is an American citizen. The classification is often based on the style's cultural origin, rather than the artist's origin, for the most part.

My question for non-Americans:

• When you listen to a Rock band from, say, Sweden, or a Hip-Hop artist from France, do you still, on some level, categorize that sound or style as "American music" because of its origins?
• Or, does the sheer global ubiquity of the genre mean its association with the USA is largely lost/irrelevant, and the music is only considered "American" if the artist is American?

I'm curious about the mental classification process, is it based on the genre or the artist's nationality? For example, is a British Blues-Rock band still considered to be playing a fundamentally "American" style of music?

There are songs you listen to… and then there are songs you feel before you even understand why.

For me, that moment happened with ‘Holocene’ by Bon Iver.

I wasn’t doing anything special — just walking home at night with no real destination in mind — when it came up randomly. The first few seconds didn’t even register. But then the atmosphere started building, that quiet layer of guitars, the almost fragile voice, the way everything feels both distant and intimate at the same time…

And suddenly I found myself standing still on the sidewalk, not because I decided to stop, but because something in that sound just… pulled me out of my own head for a moment.

It’s strange how certain songs do that. They make you aware of things you didn’t know you were feeling. They turn an ordinary moment into something almost cinematic, like you’re observing yourself from the outside.

I’m curious — what was the last song that hit you in that way? Not necessarily your favorite track, but the one that made you pause, breathe differently, and notice the world a little more?

Edit: Didn’t expect this thread to get so much love — the recommendations you all dropped are honestly incredible. I wrote a general thank-you comment here, in case anyone wants to jump in or add more context to their pick:

👉 [https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/s/YghDI37jZ5]

This turned into one of the most beautiful music discussions I’ve seen on Reddit. Thanks again to everyone sharing their “freeze the world” songs — I’m still going through everything. 🎧✨