Originally Posted by: ZASmusic Perhaps Bernard "Americanizing" his R's is just his way of saying thanks to the nation that gave the world Rock and Roll, Jazz, the Blues, Punk Rock, Soul, R & B, Modern Pop music, House music, and Detroit Techno.
I actually think it's unusual that he has started using a harder "R" pronunciation myself. But people's voices change over time. And really, there are better things to complain about.
That's strange, Yanks are usually so reticent about blowing their own proverbial trumpet.
Whilst it's almost impossible to deny your country's undoubted influence on modern music, it's important to understand that nothing is created in isolation and the likes of the 'Belleville Three' who were influential in creating Detroit Techno were in turn influenced by the likes of NO, Kraftwerk etc. Exactly the same scenario with the Beatles, influenced by US music that most white Americans didn't know existed.
We may have all been dancing to records in 1988 at Fac 51 that were crafted across the pond in NYC, Detroit and Chicago, but most of your fellow countrymen were going wild for the likes of G&R and Bon Jovi at the time and wearing cowboy boots, I know this for a fact from stories about the Technique tour in your country. We perfected the formula and it only took you the best part of 30 years to catch on to something that practically the rest of the world 'got' by the mid 90's at the latest. Yes, you're a very influential country in terms of music, but by god lots of you are very isolationist in many ways and far too insular and unadventurous in giving music you don't normally listen to a chance. Then you like to claim it as your own when you ultimately catch on, like EDM at the moment, most Yanks wouldn't know anything at all about the likes of Juan Atkins et al and think dance music was invented about a decade ago at the latest.
Tony Wilson used to say: 'Manchester kids have the best record collections', I think that's true and has played a big part in why the city has created so many successful artists over the years. They were influenced by such a wide range of tastes that when they produced their own music it sounded like nobody else. New Order could never have come from America, because they wouldn't have soaked up new influences whilst sat in the Danceteria, it would have been regarded as 'fag' music and wouldn't have been tolerated by an hypothetical US rock fan base at the time.