Sasha FRERE-JONES(29.5.2006)
www.newyorker.com/critics/music/articles/060605crmu_music


If you have a song in your heart and can

This week in the magazine and online, Sasha Frere-Jones writes about the difficulty that British acts sometimes have making it big in America. Here, with Ben Greenman, he talks about the article.

BEN GREENMAN: For starters, are there real differences between American pop and British pop? If so, what are they?

SASHA FRERE-JONES: America and Britain have similar striations and varieties of pop but different players. Big, pretty voices rule the charts in both places and battle it out with whichever strains of youth dance music are dominant: hip-hop and reggaet

To simplify the debate, there are two ways to look at this issue: either you change the acts you are trying to sell into the US, or you spend your money selling them somewhere more accessible.