New Wave Outpost Forum

I may be way off base here, but the recent discussion about LLOYD COLE reminded me of a subject that I often discuss with friends:

I've noticed that when a British (or European/Australian/whatever) artist moves to America, their recorded output seems to become less interesting and less involving.

What makes an artist great is that they cannot help but be inspired by their environment (ie: where they grew up, what inspired and continues to inspire them, their personal influences as well as their musical influences, etc). Even when the money rolls in, it seems that they might move to a better house or town, but their music still remains fresh and exciting. Once they uproot and move here to the good old USA, though, their invironment changes and their music becomes....well.....boring.

Of course, yesterday I could have named 20 artists or so as examples, but today I can only think of 2 off the top of my head:

LLOYD COLE
THOMAS DOLBY ("Aliens Ate My Buick" should have been called "Americans Ate My Talent".)

There are more, but I cannot think of them.

Does ANYONE agree?

I was just reading an article about Tuxedomoon and why they moved to Europe.


http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/musi ... ory=545292

Tuxedomoon: American Tux exiles
The US avant-rock band Tuxedomoon have sustained a 20-year ca

Morrissey immediately comes to mind. He still lives in L.A., no?

I think after a certain point many "artists" simply run out of good ideas after the first few albums and their own success makes them much less "hungry" to try as hard as they once did. But by that time they already have made a bunch of money and they can

Mike Score from A Flock of Seagulls lives about 20 minutes away from me.

Mike Score from A Flock of Seagulls lives about 20 minutes away from me.

"Americans Ate My Talent..." good one!

I disagree.
Here's my formula;
Let's say for every 10 artists who move to America 100 stay put.
For the 10 that move the quality of their music diminishes in 9 out of 10.
For the 100 artists that stay put the quality of their music diminishes in 90 ou

Oh God, don't say that about UK artists moving to America - Martin Gore's out in Cali and Dave Gahan's right here in New York!

I have 2 words that prove the point: Billy Idol!