Music (written in Tennessee, the home of US music)

Music is important in life, imagine (not meant as a reference to John Lennon) a world without tunes, without lyrics or the memories attached to hearing something you’ve not heard for a while, music can bring untold joy and also extreme sadness, it's both a sign of celebration and lamentation. One of the things both America and Britain have in common is a shared love of music and musical artists, with both singing in English, they are easily able to cross the Atlantic and perform to audiences and it’s not even possible to decide who makes the better music, America has Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Elvis (only needs one name, you know I don’t mean Costello) and Michael Jackson, Britain has The Beatles, The Stones, Led Zeppelin and Elton John, both have sold millions each side of the pond, both have sold out arenas too and both have legions of fans not just in these two countries but around the world.

   It’s all good having mainstream artists crossing over in 2011, it’s easy to have access to them in this day and age with music TV channels, the internet and an untold amount of radio stations specializing in every type of music you can name and even more that you can’t.

Elton John

   The start of modern music as we know started in late 40’s/early 50’s America, growing from predominately black church gospel music, jazz and blues (though no-one should ever discount classical music, most modern classical music devised nowadays is used as movie soundtracks). the world famous Sun Studios was opened in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1950 and artists like B.B. King, Johnny Cash, Elvis (Presley not Costello remember) and Jerry Lee Lewis made records, other acts like Bill Haley & The Comets, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry were also producing songs which are still played and loved over 60 years later. From this new sound of ‘rock and roll’, many aspiring artists heard something which resonated in a post war Britain, people like Keith Richards, John Lennon (ironic that an American killed John Lennon in New York, or was he aiming for Yoko and she ducked?) and Pete Townsend heard this new sound and were inspired to learn how to play guitar (before it was mainly the banjo or piano that was learnt on British shores) and they spent many an hour trying to tune into the infamous pirate radio station Radio Luxembourg to hear the new songs by these artists that belonged to them, not their parents, this was a huge catalyst for the post war generation to step out the shadows (Cliff Richard stayed with them) and have their own lives and culture.

   In the mid 60’s, Britain had a wave of artists and bands that were inspired by this movement, we’ve all seen famous images of The Beatles landing in New York in 1964(The extent of Beatlemania in the United States is evidenced by their single and album sales. "The Beatles had the Number One single for 59 weeks during their six and half years spanning ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’s’ first appearance at the top on 1 February 1964 and Let It Be LP's last Number One Week, 4 July 1970. In the same period they topped the LP charts for 116 weeks. In other words they had the Number One single one out of every six weeks, and the top album one out of three). Over the decades countless artists have crossed over, though I’m not sure about American artists, certainly British artists are deemed to of truly made it once they have ‘broken the States’ which means made a name for themselves over there (for that reason Robbie Williams is a loser).

   In recent years American artists before they have become mainstream in their homeland have gone to the UK, made a name and become popular which has then transferred back, I remember The Killers supporting British Sea Power (remember them?) above a pub in my hometown of Lincoln (England) in 2003, this was a venue probably as big as the room your reading this in, it held about 80 people and was very cramped. The Killers and Kings Of Leon come to mind as bands who felt and knew they had talent, they knew they could move onto a bigger stage but felt undervalued in their home countries so tried in the UK, a country they wanted to spend time in and play to fans they knew would adore them. I feel the UK is more cutting edge in musical tastes, people want to be trendy and music bible NME (New Musical Express, a weekly music magazine) help people discover new bands and give them a platform, though America is a HUGE country so touring and making your name to a larger population isn’t as easy to do, ultimately good talent always shines through (except Justin Bieber, seriously, WTF?).

There are only two differences I can see between these two musical cultures, first is live music, I have been to gig in London on a Saturday and the following Friday I went to one in Nashville (aka Music City USA), it seems as Britain is a far smaller country than the States, artists don’t have to travel far to tour in comparison so quality and quantity is huge, in the UK, I live over the road from the famous Wedgewoodwatch through each song and applaud at the end. It’s not that either audience is more appreciative, it’s more about the energy, maybe I need to go see more in different venues across the States, it’s a perfect excuse to.

   The other difference is country music, it’s a regional thing, and it’s historically about things affecting the lives of people in the southern States, like farming, barn dances or….ticks! (Brad Paisley(?) had a no.1 hit in the States with a song about Ticks!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tiPndMqxLQ  ). Artists such as Mr. Tickman Paisley, Taylor Swift and Toby Keith are household names and sell records in huge volume but overseas, they don’t do so well as it’s a style and of content people can’t relate to, a top London thinks a tick is something put in a box if something is correct, not some literally blood sucking parasite (I did get a tick a few weeks ago in my leg and had to pull it out with tweasers, I don’t think I can ever get used to the bugs here, because of so many bug bites my legs look like the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan). To me it seems almost uneducated and painful to have to hear but having delved into it more, it seems pre 1980(ish) it had huge meaning and content but since then, the artists seem awful corporate cookie-cutter recycled garbage which is what country isn’t meant to be. Music evolves though and as I don’t like it, I can just tune into another station.

Ultimately when people are asked to name a favourite artist, band, song or album, they automatically bunch American and British artists together, I’d say Johnny Cash, Oasis, Nirvana and The Beatles and not even think of the nationality of either. Movies in the UK are either American or British, music is simply music and that is in my opinion, the closest bond the two countries have.

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Sport, plain and simple

   The most dominant sport by far in the United States is ‘American’ football, the most dominant in the UK by far is ‘soccer’, only by virtue of the fact that sports like baseball, hockey and basketball get a fair bit of coverage in the States compared to rugby, cricket and boxing in the UK could I have the opinion that the dominant sport in the UK is bigger and more popular than in the States (though NFL runs from September to February and they play less than half the games compared to soccer in the UK). Though the English Premiership (top national soccer league) is the most profitable league in the world (not bad considering there are 229 international teams, each with a league of some sort), Forbes recently compiled the 50 most valuable sports teams http://blogs.forbes.com/kurtbadenhausen/2011/07/12/the-worlds-50-most-valuable-sports-teams/ where, although the current English champions were ranked no. 1 on the list (@$1.86billion/£1.14billion), all 32 NFL (America’s American football league) had each of it’s 32 teams listed in the 50 compared to a total of 3 English ‘soccer’ team and 7 ‘soccer’ teams in total. This shows that as a sports league, the NFL is the most financially rich sports league in the world; amazing considering that about 95% of the global audience IS Americans!

   I recently went to see the Nashville Sounds baseball team, though I saw a handful of Sounds shirts, I also saw 2 Manchester United shirts (oddly, the only other English soccer team shirt I have seen is Derby County which was in a doughnut shop in Detroit), so this shows that the most valuable sports team sells merchandise all over the world, it made me smile. The most valuable NFL team is the Dallas Cowboys ($1.5billion/£0.91billion) though I can’t say I’ve ever seen someone wearing any of their merchandise.

I was lucky enough to spend a day at a county soccer tournament for children of various ages in Macon County, Tennessee and there is two huge differences between participation in the States and the UK, first is the amount of children joining in and wanting to play, in the UK at each age there would be a team, ie under 6, under 7, under 8, all the way up to under 16 or 18 and then an adult team and in most cases, there is more than one team at that age level and teams travel from across the area to play each other, at the event I went to, they have up to four teams but only at under 4, under 6, under 8, under 12 and under 18, a 13 year old would have to play against people 5 years older than them which means they can have less physical ability and lose interest. The other point is that they have mixed sex teams at all ages, I have never seen this before and an 18 year old boy tackling a 13 year old girl seems….wrong, though ultimately, the people that want to play, get the opportunity to play and that’s all that counts.

   There is a huge difference in crowds at sporting events between the two countries, at the baseball game I went to, it was a family event, husbands, wives and their children all went together, it was a pleasant atmosphere where if the home team hit a home run or caught someone out they cheered, if the opposition did, the home fans applauded. This is completely different to most sports games in the UK, go to watch a local game such as Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur  (2 local teams from north London less than 4 miles apart) and you’ll hear every swearword you can imagine and a whole load of new ones, there will be anti-Semitic chants towards Tottenham due to links with the Jewish community and anti-French abuse aimed at Arsenal as they have a French manager and a handful of French players, last November I was in north London to attend a concert and arrived early, this was on the day of a match between these two and it was almost impossible to find a pub or bar that would let us in as we couldn’t show allegiance to either side, only ticket holders would be allowed to enter drinking establishments to avoid any confrontation and violence. Compared to a baseball game, the only confrontation would be fans wanting to buy the other fans a drink or congratulating them for their team’s performance.  This was a culture shock for me and I’d love to attend an NFL game to see if this is the same crowd that attends American football games or if It trends to a more male dominated arena (literally). The only difference I can think of is passion, though I can’t believe people could be more passionate that American fans, before any event, they play the national anthem, someone will hold the American flag and everyone stands with their left hand on their heart and sings along (I stand but feel a traitor if I was to copy the action and sing) and I have huge respect at that national pride and that shows the passion Americans have. Therefore I can’t give an excuse to the abuse heard in English football/soccer, it stems from a past of hooliganism and gangs that went purely to fight other fans, this was supposed to of been wiped out in the 90’s and I can only suggest the physical abuse has transferred to vocal abuse and still exists today. It would be interesting to take an MLS soccer fan to watch Manchester United play Liverpool (traditionally the biggest rivalry to England) and see what they made of it.

   Another American tradition is wrestling, not amateur like in the Olympics but the showmanship and spectacle like WWE/F, TNA or WCW. It seems most towns have a wrestling promotion locally as again, it’s a family tradition to go watch. The show we went to was run by SWA, a promotion based in Kentucky http://swawrestling.2ya.com/ who with roughly 75  people in attendance (mostly out back smoking or running after their children) put on a show where it was evident the grapplers in the ring where living their dreams, this has to be the epitome of the American dream (not a reference to Dusty Rhodes), working all week and on a Saturday night, they feel like kings as they wrestle. The quality of the wrestling isn’t what you’d see on TV but why would it be, these guys are amateurs and most likely not getting paid, I’d highly recommend it.

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I'm growing...

One of the great things about America is the fast food, it’s what they have given to the cuisine world and have mastered down to a fine art. The rest of the world is following suit so you really have to travel with intent to not see a McDonald’s, outside the pyramids is a Pizza Hut (located above the KFC!),  a Starbucks (not strictly fast food but fast drink) at the Great Wall Of China and even a McDonald’s on the hallowed grounds of the Louvre in Paris (the French did petition against it but eventually gave in, some things never change) and surely it’s only a matter of time before Burger ‘King’ opens outside Buckingham Palace (i should trademark that idea). Who doesn’t come to the US and not want to try fast food, to see if it tastes the same, try new ones and see how fast the service really is?

   Over the past few weeks, off the top of my head, I have eaten at Pizza Hut, Burger King, Wendy’s, McDonalds, Taco Bell (They say that Mexican food is so good, it makes your mouth water. That's nothing, I've eaten Scottish cuisine and it makes my left arm ache), Hardees’s,  Arby’s, Tim Hortons (a doughnut fast food place….seriously!), KFC, Subway and Sonic. It’s amazing that each one can be uniquely different in such a fierce competitive market. First of all, the price of food is so cheap, for $1 (62p) I can get a McDouble, that’s a bun, two burgers and a slice of cheese (I opt out of the pickle and onion, I could make out it’s from amazement at them having to be losing money and them trying to recoup some of this back…..but it’s because I don’t like pickle and onion) and in a drive through, it’s ordered, paid for, received and eaten in less than a minute! Nowhere else in the world could I do this.  I don’t need to preach of the calorie content as we all know about this but any hunger pains can be vanquished in record time without having to leave the car seat, that’s incredible. Though we have the same service from the same people in the UK, if you order without the standard set-up, ie pickle and onion, it takes a few minutes for this to be processed. Cars can be queued for the drive through or a queue inside could lead back out the door but I know I’ll get a meal (I say meal lightly) in no time. There was a saying in Victorian London (due to the lack of working sewage systems) that you were never more than 3 feet away from a rat, here I feel I’m never more than 3 feet away from a ‘restaurant’.

   A good friend, Scott, recently came over to visit and made a good point, American food has a lot of additives and preservatives, a loaf of bread can last weeks and taste okay, a British loaf will last only a few days, he pointed out that all these additions to the food is what makes Americans taller in general (presumably Lilliputians only eat organic then). I still struggle to accept that milk bought more than 3 days ago is still ‘fresh’, even then I’ll add it to a cup of tea but I don’t want cereal (mmm….Lucky Charms) with the milk or even just a glass of milk. American food is cheap and it’s made to last, in many ways that’s a good thing but I wonder what an American would make living in the UK, having to shop once a week rather than once a month (in those little tiny Tesco Extras rather than a Wal*Mart superstore which has EVERYTHING  under one roof, beef, bullets, baseball bats and a new BBQ all in one trip).

   I do like the American diner experience, small town cafes have such a personal touch (and usually floor to ceiling in trinkets, posters or some paraphernalia, there’s always something to look at), waitresses survive on tips so they friendliness and over the top helpfulness seems a nice change rather than a grunt and sigh I’d expect in the UK, here in the States, after ordering a drink, it’s continuous free refills, before I’m even halfway through a glass of Mountain Dew I’ll have another on the table, it has a less commercial feel than what I am used to because of this attitude, I like that.

   Food in the UK seems a generational thing, there’s a lady over the road that’s 70+, she drinks Dr. Pepper (so misunderstood) and eats pizza, my grandparents would think Dr. Pepper was a new GP and they can’t even pronounce the word pizza correctly. Seeing older people drinking ‘soda’ seems odd, imagine seeing a Chelsea pensioner drinking 7up! It’s just not right. It would be interesting to have my grandparents to visit here, I remember them once cautiously eating BBQ food (they were adamant it was raw in the middle, no matter how well cooked) whereas here I’ve grilled out at least every other day, I have even bought a BBQ cookbook (signed by the auther no less) and it would be easily to fill a shopping cart/trolley with different marinades and BBQ sauces, though they have the right temperatures (usually too hot, I sweat more than Michael J. Fox playing Operation) to cook outside. Brits usually BBQ cheap Tesco value burgers or Asda own sausages (where there’s most likely more meat content in a Linda McCartney pea fritter), Americans cook top value steak, full chicken breasts and juicy chops, it makes a huge difference to the experience. 

   

   I’ve enjoyed trying new foods such as funnel cake, corn dogs, biscuits and gravy and Hot Pockets but still having the comfort zone of similar tastes, so much so I’ve put on about 15-20lbs already while being here.

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catch up so far....

Hello and welcome to my first blog of this trip to the US of A. I arrived here on the last day of May and have gone from Tennessee, through Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, I have experienced Memorial Day, my first baseball game, Independence Day and had more BBQ’s these past few weeks than I have the rest of my life.

   So every few days I’ll attempt to write a new blog, looking at the similarities and the differences between the British culture I experienced for 30 years and the American way of life as I see it. I hope to cover subjects such as sports, food (I’ve put on weight, I can still fit in the clothes I bought with me….well the hats anyway), socializing, people and views (and hopefully crack a few jokes along the way).  If anyone has a subject or view they’d like me to cover then comment below or message me and I’ll try to do it and give a mention as well.

   So just a quick hello and keep your eyes peeled for the next blog either tomorrow or Friday, time to feel at home watching Manchester play ‘soccer’ on ESPN…..it’s nice the commentary is so condescending ;)