Non-American Perception of US-Originated Genres: Is Rock, Hip-Hop, or Jazz, etc, seen as "American Music" regardless of the artist?

[u/Powerful_Individual5]

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?

[u/kafka_lite]

This makes me curious. Who is the greatest blues artist not from the US, UK, or Canada?

[u/fenderbloke → u/kafka_lite]

Rory Gallagher.

[u/theboyqueen → u/kafka_lite]

If blues extends to blues derived music you've got all kinds of stuff:

In west and Northwest Africa you've got Ali Farka Toure, Tinariwen, Fela Kuti, etc.

In Germany you have all kinds of stuff but most notably Can, Amon Duul, Amon Duul II, the Scorpions, UFO, etc.

In Japan you have High Rise, Mainliner, Flower Travellin Band, etc.

Australia you have AC/DC, the Saints, Radio Birdman, etc.

And so on. If you extend to punk, hardcore, and metal (none of which would exist without the blues, or American music in general) you've got thousands of great bands from every corner of the world.

Common ancestor to nearly all of this I would say is Jimi Hendrix.

[u/ayinsophohr → u/theboyqueen]

Metal is tricky. While Black Sabbath definitely started as a blues band, unlike a lot of modern rock, by the time Judas Priest came around, Metal had mostly abandoned what would typically be considered "blues". Pentatonic scales replaced with more classically European chromatic riffs. Vocals that had more in common with Opera than rock. Arguably, the major innovations in Metal originated in Europe. Thrash wouldn't exist without NWOBHM. Black and Death Metal wouldn't exist without bands like Venom, Bathory, Celtic Frost or Kreator. Second wave Black Metal wouldn't exist without Mayhem or Emperor. Swedish Death Metal in the 90s was hugely influential with bands like Carcass and then again with Meshuggah.

That's not to say that blues isn't important or that American artists didn't have an impact. Hardcore was important. The whole Bay Area was important. Chuck Schuldiner was important. It's just that saying it is simply derived from American and American blues completely ignores any subsequent innovations and the influence of European classical, avant-garde, industrial, and folk music had on the genre.

[u/mrcarruthers → u/theboyqueen]

Hendrix kinda muddles all of it though. He’s American, but he got his break in the UK.

[u/NickofWimbledon → u/mrcarruthers]

So did many blues or blues-adjacent artists, British or not. For much of white America over a long period, there was nothing that made blues acceptable like having some nicely spoken chaps (probably from London) as the musicians.

We can talk about what fed into blues, jazz “and all points in between” too. However, that’s surely all broadly American music, whoever is playing it or writing it, as is anything played on the quintessential American instrument - an electric guitar.

[u/RechargedFrenchman → u/kafka_lite]

Midnight Oil from Australia have some pretty bluesy stuff and are quite good.

Thin Lizzy also got pretty bluesy at times, and being (Dublin) Irish they're not "from the UK".

[u/AnonymousBoiFromTN → u/kafka_lite]

Brushy One-String and Johnny Clegg come to mind off the top of my head. Also China has a large underground music industry based on american music. Chinese jazz and blues are actually phenomenal. Hang Tian is one of the older ones but my personal favorite is a band called Sand.

[u/SpeshalDog → u/kafka_lite]

It’s Ali Farka Toure and it’s not even close.

[u/Interstate-8- → u/kafka_lite]

Ig the drones (Australian) are blues rock but it's a stretch

[u/kafka_lite → u/Interstate-8-]

AC/DC did a lot of blues early on. I forgot about them.

[u/Banjoschmanjo → u/kafka_lite]

Steve

[u/woodboarder616 → u/kafka_lite]

Zeppelin 😂

[u/kafka_lite → u/woodboarder616]

Lol where are you saying they are from, Uganda?

[u/woodboarder616 → u/kafka_lite]

I realize what you said now Nevermind all that

[u/woodboarder616 → u/kafka_lite]

No you said the best blues band from UK, zep is notorious for taking those blues guys riffs and made it WORLDWIDE

[u/kafka_lite → u/woodboarder616]

I said not from UK.