Why did Britpop & 90s UK indie not really make an impact in America...

Why did Britpop & 90s UK indie not really make an impact in America, when American grunge/alternative rock made a decent splash in the UK?

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sounded too much like disco

for the same reason you have tons of mcdonalds in london by barely any nandos in NY

Too British.

too much profitable music came out at the same time there's only so much room on the charts

britpop at the time was mediocre. american music was kino

Because it was just bad and forgettable. there's a reason Radiohead is about the only group that has actually stuck around and hit iconic status.
same with landfill indie from the 2000s.

It's still far superior to the rotten chav trash that comes out nowdays.

It’s appeal was too niche musically and image-wise for the American mass audience.

Look at Suede, the first new band to get the Britpop tag. Huge hype around them before they even put out their first single, on the covers of UK music mags and everything. Music execs in America take notice, they get signed to a major label, a promo team starts shopping their music to college radio and commercial alternative stations (culminating in moderate airplay for the single “Metal Mickey” in certain markets). They get booked on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno; the highest rated show an act could get booked on, save for SNL on a good night. What happens? A collective shrug. The album fails to chart on the Billboard 200 (nor would any of their others). They go on tour in tiny clubs around the country to middling reviews and bored crowds.

Meanwhile, their support act was a brand new band from Ireland whose debut album had flopped over in the UK upon release and received little media attention - The Cranberries. However promoters noticed that the audiences reacted far more to their performances than Suede. At the New York stop of the tour, an MTV executive who had come for Suede loved the opening act so much he left and immediately had his people contact the Cranberries’ label to get their videos in rotation. The following month the video for the song “Linger” was becoming one of the most requested videos on the network. The promoters insisted that the billing be swapped and that The Cranberries headline the rest of the tour. Word of mouth begins to spread. Then radio picked up “Linger”, the single was re-released and went Top 10, the album started selling like hotcakes. “Dreams” was released as the followup single and became similarly huge; the album sold over a million copies. By 1994, they were headlining sold out concerts to tens of thousands of people. “Zombie” came out and went stratospheric.

The difference was in the musical content, lyrics, and image/aesthetic.

Suede were too niche; androgynous gay looking heroin addict guy making very dated sounding 70s glam rock (a style which at the time never quite made it over here like it did aim the UK) singing about topically British subjects vs. chic Irish chick making cross format catchy pop songs that anyone could relate to (The Cranberries played well on alternative, pop, adult contemporary, even harder rock stations - depending on the song). They were a band who tapped into a vast audience of everyone from headbangers to Lilith Fair goers.

good posts!

it's weird that suede, pulp, etc even toured america, like who the fuck could connect with them outside of a couple of thousand anglophiles on the east coast. did they try to capture some lingering new romantic goodwill or what

also it's clear that as mtv came to dominate everything and cd overtook vinyl america had less and less use for "song" songs. they want music you can just have on in the background (ie all of grunge), which is why oasis -> radiohead -> coldplay were the bands that became big and blur's first u.s. hit was song 2 which is just a nonsense rock-out throwaway (and the surprise mtv/college radio hit, which i guess is what these bands hoped for, is such a brief window of time anyway, and highly unlikely to be repeated)

It sucked

British singers who over-emphasize their terrible accents when singing rarely did well in America, regardless of the era.

because BRITpop was psyop for british public. the powers that be didn't gave a shit if that "genre" was popular in US or not

grunge sucks dick britpop kicks its ass

Wtf is britpop? Like the Who?

90s classic rock influenced British bands

Suede were far too challenging for Americans.
Cranberries were boring AOR and popular with "I'm Irish" LARPers.

Americans prefer bland, simplistic music fronted by bland people. Very similar to their tastes in TV and food.

this. America creates culture to export to the rest of the world. when we import culture its only to Americanize it and re-export it

Most British rockers personas are too socialist for US culture imo, not as relatable for the average American.

Tech companies might be the exception but otherwise you are living in the past. The 80s was really the peak of the export of American culture (Levis, Mickey Mouse, burgers). Sadly you are in decline and losing relevance, there is nothing aspirational about America these days.

Brit pop was simply too foreign to anybody but the indie/college radio and anglophiles. Only Oasis had any sort of mainstream crossover and even that was short lived.

Says the country who’s been in rapid decline since World War II ended

I mean sure you can say that if you want but look at the major media landscape globally and tell me it isn't dominated by american companies and american productions. even if everyone shits on mcdonalds and starbucks and [INSERT BRAND HERE] they're still all global brands that are recognizable and also are ambassadors or american culture in a very real way.

america may have no culture to spread, but we're damn sure still gonna try to do it

Ah yes as opposed to Britpop and British food which totally aren't bland and simplistic either.

Top post-grunge US bands of the 90s were: Dave Matthews, Hootie & The Blowfish, Creed and Nickleback.

It is isn't unreasonable to suggest Suede, Radiohead, Blur and Pulp were a little more interesting and varied in what they did.

Don’t forget matchbox 20

The British Invasion had already happened and that music was better

Also Live

Ditto the second British Invasion in the 80s

they're both shit

Because America is culturally dominant and culturally insular and incurious.
It's why rap/hip-hop is now the dominant musical garbage in every corner of the world.

I don't think it travelled well, so you had (for example) Blur and Sleeper writing songs about London and Pulp doing songs about Sheffield in such a way that didn't really mean a whole lot to non-Bongs or even Bongs who don't know those areas.