is British indie is better than American indie?

interesting article from NME tonight. British indie bands have difficulty making it big in America and have had this issue for years. for a while I thought it was b/c of sheer size - I mean, even if you've had a great show in New York City, people in Tulsa have never heard of you.

but now I think it actually has more to do with the commercialisation of radio in America and the lack of real proponents of the American independent music scene. or independent music in general for that matter.

the best recent example I have of the music appreciation divide - not just indie, b/c I don't consider Biffy Clyro indie in the UK, surely! - was their inability to sell out the 200-capacity DC9 venue last Wednesday. they sell out Wembley regularly, for god sakes.

gig reviews from the night:
my Click review
my TGTF review

oh, here's the link to the NME article, before I forget...

Why British Indie Bands Still Can't Break America

and here was my response, let's see if it actually posts.

"American indie types who display a similarly encyclopaedic knowledge of UK indie tend to get dismissed as weirdo anglophiles."

yep, that's me - I couldn't have said it better myself. a lot of this ignorance has to do with the radio stations in America, 99% of which are commercial.

thanks to the internet, the world is a lot smaller and should Americans want to know about British indie or any country's indie, they can read all about it online. but they're not going to get any on local radio stations and certainly not on MTV. we don't have a Lammo, a Huw Stephens, or even a Zane Lowe to champion the little guys of the independent music scene. unless you're actively looking for something non-mainstream and willing to go that extra mile to do the research, you're not going to find it.

Editor, http://www.theregoesthefear.com