Knowing Where They're From, Identifying where bands are from Options

[Kristofer Dahl]

Its not always easy to tell where a band is from. First check out Mate's new lesson, "Angus' Attitude Blues", and then post a reply to today's topic.

Are you good at identifying where bands are from just from their music? Did you know where AC/DC was from? Cirse?

[Fran]

It can be hard to know it since most bands sing in English, so I always thing they are either Brit or American, when they can actually be from Sweden as was the case with Milencollin

[thefireball]

I'm not. Thousand Foot Krutch is a Canadian band, and they don't really sound like it. It sounds more American for the most part. But most bands I listen to are American anyway, so it's a given for me.

[Ben Higgins]

If it's a metal band and they're good then they're probably from Germany, haha !

[superize]

For me its impossible to hear

[Gitarrero]

Ben is right! Haha! I'm pretty good at identifying bands and where they come from...don't know why that is, must be some magic intuition

[Sollesnes]

Old bands are easier to distinguish, as they fall into patterns of music and sound. Old bands known for the Gothenburg sound as well, as they all went to the same studio (which produced the Gothenburg sound).
I think new modern bands are pretty much impossible to distinguish, because Internet allows music to travel and inspire everyone all over the world. Also recording techniques and possibilities are much wider, and in many cases done by themselves.
When the major record companies had a harder grip on the music that you ended up listening to, artists didn't go to that many different studios, and so you ended up getting these distinguishable styles. I think.

Of course you can be extremely general and say that melodic death metal comes from Finland, more epic melodic metal comes from Sweden, Black Metal from Norway, overly-produced metal and speed metal from America, rock from England, power metal from Germany, "danseband" from Denmark, etc etc etc. But thats just intuitions based on whats popular in the various places, not a certain sound coming from the country itself. A Mongolian black metal band doesn't have to sound any different from Norwegian.

This post has been edited by Sollesnes: Feb 15 2011, 12:09 AM

[Rated Htr]

If it's a metal band and they're good then they're probably from Germany, haha !

THAT'S A LIE!

Probably from Finland or Sweden

[The Farmer]

Good topic. depends though if its the music or the vocalist we`re discussing here. Music can be generalised to black metal=Norway Death metal= Sweden, Syntheziser metal=Finland thrash metal=USA power metal= Germany etc.(jajaja I know there are other genres than metal) when it comes to the vocalist I personally think in many cases it gives away the origin of the bands. meaning that every language has somekind of difficulties pronouncing some english words, although I dont consider it a problem, and definately not when listening to death and black metal because you only hear every other word anyways although one thing bothers me, and thats when listening to rhapsody of fire(and a few other bands) theyr english is so far off that its not even english, I think they`d actually be better if they were to sing in italian....well just my 2 cents, no hard feelings!

[Mudbone]

I would've never thought Poets Of The Fall were from Finland, they have a very American sound on most of their songs. Also, wouldn't have guessed that Symphony X are from the US, because they have a very European sound. Recently it has become increasingly difficult to determine where a band originates from. I think because of the internet geographic barriers have been removed and music no longer develops in isolation.

[Ben Higgins]

I would've never thought Poets Of The Fall were from Finland, they have a very American sound on most of their songs.

One thing I've noticed about Sweden and it may be similar for Finland and other areas of Scandinavia is that Swedes have an almost American accent when they speak English.. very American 'R' sounds if that makes sense ? I think a good example is when you hear Mattias Eklundh sing..

Btw, it's not a criticism, just an observation !! Don't take my donuts away............!!!!!

[Mudbone]

One thing I've noticed about Sweden and it may be similar for Finland and other areas of Scandinavia is that Swedes have an almost American accent when they speak English.. very American 'R' sounds if that makes sense ? I think a good example is when you hear Mattias Eklundh sing..

Btw, it's not a criticism, just an observation !! Don't take my donuts away............!!!!!

I've noticed the same thing as well, I've also noticed that Dutch people also speak English with an American accent, or at least the ones I've spoken to. Once I actually asked a Dutchman why they have an American accent, and he said its because movies are never dubbed or subtitled into Dutch, and therefore they have no choice but to learn the American dialect

Whats funny though, is that where I'm from in the US, New England, the letter "r" is almost non existent if its preceded by a vowel A good example of what it sounds like would be the way Peter Griffin from Family Guy talks

This dude below actually does a pretty good job demonstrating the way a typical Bostonian speaks. Oh yeah mind the language... its kinda hard to find someone with a Boston accent who doesn't curse loool

[Ben Higgins]

. Once I actually asked a Dutchman why they have an American accent, and he said its because movies are never dubbed or subtitled into Dutch, and therefore they have no choice but to learn the American dialect



This dude below actually does a pretty good job demonstrating the way a typical Bostonian speaks. Oh yeah mind the language... its kinda hard to find someone with a Boston accent who doesn't curse loool

Yeah my understanding of it was the same... even in Germany they say that it's easier for them to learn English from American speakers. Although imagining Europeans learning English with a Noo Yoik accent is funny !!

That video's classic... although when he says 'Market Street' it sounds Australian to me

[Ivan Milenkovic]

Hehe, funny that, I can't get used to ACDC being Australian band even today when I hear them talk