A Breakdown of International vs. Domestic Music Appreciation

*This article was originally written for Think Like a Label. I’ll be posting some of my favorite and most popular pieces for TLAL here on Thirty Roses with kind permission from Think Like a Label owner and editor Jeremy Belcher.

America has always been considered a melting pot. In so many ways we, as a culture, subscribe to a ‘come one, come all’ philosophy, yet, that mentality seems to apply towards music only to a certain extent. We gladly welcome and accept imports from the UK. How could we not? They’ve given us artists who reign among some of the greatest in the history of music.
We’re even okay with Irish bands, on occasion, as well; they’re close enough to England that we can comfortably give some chance to a band described as “being from the same country as U2!”

I like to believe that my country isn’t a nation of musical xenophobes, but I’m hard-pressed to come up with another explanation.

International, Import, or World Music?
Just recently, I happened upon a list of the “100 Greatest International Rock Artists.” This web site stated that; “any artist was eligible, that performed in a rock music style and was born or formed outside the USA and UK.”

Seemingly, this implies that the USA and UK are somehow the same. It should also be noted that 24 of the 100 artists are from the mystical land of…Canada.
(To see for yourself, go HERE)

I always remember my favorite record store and how it classified music. They had your standard categories; pop, rock, rap, country, etc. Then they had the ‘imports’ section, where I used to go for my Oasis and Radiohead singles (‘import’ = British). Then, there was the ever-elusive ‘world music’ section. The ‘world music’ department consisted of all music that was by non-American and non-British artists. Why weren’t the English artists ‘world music’ worthy? And why wasn’t a record by a singer from Brazil thought to be an ‘import’? Was it fair, or even logical, to put a Polish folk band’s album next to that of a metal band from Peru?

International Band: Exhibit A – Why is the Chinese band, Noughts and Exes, not selling albums (digitally or physically) by the zillions? They are an indie folk/pop band whose music begs to be placed in a film starring Zooey Deschanel. Their melodies are gorgeous, harmonies lilting, and lyrics, universally relate-able. They should be on the road, riding to their next sold-out stadium gig, but rather find themselves in a situation where most of the people who read this article will Google ‘Noughts and Exes’ to find out who they are.

This is despite TimeOut magazine naming their 2010 self-released album,”The Start of Us,” one of the best of the year. It is also despite Time magazine listing them as one of the top artists to watch in 2011. Noughts and Exes also launched a Kickstarter campaign and successfully funded their latest record, but how many in the U.S. will hear it? In all honesty, a record which would be just as at-home in an Apple or Volkswagen advert, as it would be playing on your MP3 player, won’t be heard by nearly as many people as it should.

International Band: Exhibit B – Amadou and Mariam, a duo from Mali, have been performing together since 1983. On the heels of their track ‘Sabali’ (from the album “Welcome to Mali”) being named by Pitchfork Media as one of the “100 greatest songs of 2008,” they played Glastonbury’s main stage. Additionally, they’ve played at Lollapalooza, the iTunes Festival, and collaborated with the likes of Damon Albarn, Beth Orton, K’Naan, and David Gilmour (yes, the one from Pink Floyd). Most bands fantasize about one day playing their music for thousands of people. Not because of the desire to have notoriety or attention, per se, but rather to share that great experience with a large audience. Such an opportunity was bestowed upon Armadou and Mariam when they served as the supporting band on tours for the likes of U2, Coldplay, and Blur.

These are huge accomplishments– yet, where is the press about them in America? It seems to me that if an extremely talented, husband-and-wife musical duo from Des Moines, Iowa had achieved even half of the things that Armadou and Mariam boast on their résumé, it would be all over the pages of [insert name of your favorite music publication, here]. However, there are the occasional exceptions regarding the successes of international bands within the U.S.. Obviously, Bob Marley has always enjoyed a tremendous amount of respect and popularity amongst the masses, and he was of Jamaican origins.
Swedish singer, Robyn, has also enjoyed a degree of success on this side of the Atlantic, and so have Germany’s Tokio Hotel. For some reason though, as a whole, it can’t be accepted.

Why are these examples the exceptions, rather than the norm?

It stands to reason that artists tend to enjoy more successes in their home country. At heart, we all love a success story and, if an artist is enjoying acclaim and breaking into new territories musically, those who share their citizenship get to share in the pride of claiming them as “their own.”
That said, do you think there will come a time when an artist from Japan can enjoy stateside success alongside artists from India, Colombia, and Ghana?

Music is the only universal language that exists in the world. Why can’t we, collectively, embrace this fact, rather than isolate ourselves from it?