I've always been a fiend for English rock music---maybe because my dad was from Wolverhampton. I was always envious of the British charts as a teenager; in the early 70's when I was 11-16, I loved glam and glam-adjacent rock bands--- Slade, T.Rex, Suzi Quatro, Sweet, Mud, Sparks, Wizzard, Cockney Rebel, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Roxy Music, Mott The Hoople, Be-bop Deluxe. None of these acts were very successful in the US.
And of course I was into Led Zeppelin, King Crimson, Yes, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, all of whom were pretty big over here.
Then I dove head-first into punk and new wave bands---The Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, The Damned, Wire, The Clash, The Jam, XTC, The The, Siouxsie & The Banshees, X-Ray Spex, The Undertones, early Ultravox, Joy Division, New Order, The Psychedelic Furs, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Echo & The Bunnymen, etc. Again, none of these bands found much US chart action.
Later, it was The Smiths, Japan, The Auteurs, Teenage Fanclub, Pulp, The Wedding Present, Belle & Sebastian, Cocteau Twins, The Church, Prefab Sprout, Portishead and many others.
Now I look at the British charts and they're just as crappy if not worse than our own.
And I don't mean to downplay the US because we've had many excellent home-grown bands--- Pavement, Guided By Voices, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, The Ramones, The New York Dolls, Throwing Muses, Love, Nirvana, Wilco, The White Stripes...to name a few off the top of my head.
