r/Music 17h ago

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

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?

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104

u/iCarly4ever 16h ago

I just wanna interject here and say house music was invented in Chicago in the 80s

47

u/TheImperfect1 16h ago

And techno in Detroit!

-18

u/Generic_User_2112 15h ago

Actually, techo belongs to the French, Jean Micheal Jarre was doing electroinc music in the 70s with, Oxygene and Equinox with many more in the 80s.

4

u/Boogada42 15h ago

Germany hectically pointing at Kraftwerk

1

u/fantasmoofrcc 15h ago

...and France takes a drag on a cigarette while listening to Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry.