British Rock n Roll -- A Disproportionate Influence ??

I'm not really sure where I'm trying to go with this thread but it's something that's been rattling about in what's left of my functioning cranium for some time now.

Just this: it seems to me that most of the innovative musical sparks, in rock n roll in particular, since at least the late 50's or early 60's have had their origins in GB. Sure, there are great bands and solo artists representing the States, Canada, and many other countries, but overall it seems to me that almost always, the "new stuff" seems to have its genesis in Britain.

Even when you acknowledge the origins of rock in the USA, and the greats of the Delta blues and the Little Richard's and the Elvis Presley's etc., there's still something else going on here it seems to me. What is it in the Land of My People that makes them take a great idea and then make it even better? Or am I just gushing unnecessarily?

When you look at the number of spectacular bands and talent which has emerged since the 60's and continues today, the number is truly staggering. Not only talented performers, but original to the point of influencing music and culture all over the world. We're talking mega bands e.g. Beatles, Stones, Zep, Floyd, etc. On and on.

I'm not looking to generate a "best" list or anything like that. No, just trying to understand how a nation on an island a half a world away comes to exert such influence.

Making any sense here?

I agree with you although I've never thought about it before.
Perhaps it's just a case of an imaginative spark that is present in GB that maybe is slightly lacking in other places?
Or perhaps people just like to live dangerously here? Maybe they are afraid of ridicule and rejection elsewhere?
I include the question marks in case anyone takes offense!

I've taken offence. It's spelt with a "c" not an "s"!!!
That's where our British influence seems to have lost its way - American spelling!! One of the areas where the US takes a perfectly good collection of letters and changes it...

Musically though, brilliant stuff like Guns n Roses, Lynyrd Skynyrd (to name a couple) seems to be wholly American in origin.

Hmmmm.... Ok, let's have a lookie here.

British r'n'r was a pretty pale shadow of anything until Elvis showed the way; I mean, Tommy Steele?! Really? And even after Elvis, r'n'r in the Sceptered Isle was pretty tame until Gene Vincent - a Yank - made music with some real attitude...

The innovators - like Ritchie Blackmore, Keith Emerson, Nigel Olssen and Hank Marvin certainly did show the way forward with musical genius and some of the musical styles we now bang our heads to possibly did originate in Britain, but equally so did Eddie Van Halen, Stanley Clarke and Sandy Powell!

Punk, for example.... we sort-of reckon that the Sex Pistols were up front, but the New York Dolls, the MC5 and Iggy were arguably doing it before the Pistols broke.

I dunno that British r'n'r is more original than anything else - I, for example listen to all sorts of rock music of all genres, really, Canadian, Australian, NZ, German, Dutch, US, Scots, Welsh as well as all kinds of other music and have never thought much of it; good tunes are good tunes regardless of where they come from!

Ok, so I do get lost with spelling sometimes, although I did check it on google first!

music everywhere in the world changed after Bob Marley

born Feb. 6, 1945, and only 36 when he passed away, this year he would have been 70 years old.

Happy 70th Birthday Bob Marley