Does British Music Still Matter?

Abstract

This article examines the present status of British popular music. It illustrates the declining global significance of British rock and pop recordings by considering the Mercury music prize (for the ‘best’ British releases each year) and the US sales charts (in which British records rarely now appear). The continuing political assertion that British musical talent is an important source of export earnings is shown to refer to acts (and often recordings) produced in the late 1960s and early 1970s. We can conclude that in this, as in other cultural spheres, ‘globalization’ has also meant a new account of ‘local’ production such that, in commercial terms, Britain is no more important than other European countries as a source of internationally successful recordings. ‘Anglo-American rock’ is no longer a useful label.