Well, if you look at it from a national perspective, it’s pretty much the US and the UK. Sure, there are some great bands from other English-speaking countries – Canada (The Band), Australia (AC/DC), Ireland (U2) … Heck, there are some from non-English-speaking countries as well – Sweden (ABBA), Germany (Kraftwerk), the Netherlands (Golden Earring), Iceland (the Sugar Cubes) … When it comes down to it, though, it’s pretty much England and America.
But how about within those two countries?
Methodology
I really didn’t trust myself to name the top bands in both of these countries, so the first thing I did was go to Mr. Google. Simply typing in “greatest bands of all time” gave me plenty. How convenient.
The next thing to do was to figure out where these bands were from. Once again, that was pretty simple. All I did was consult Mr. Wikipedia as to where the band was formed. Easy!
Finally, all I had to was simply map these onto maps of England and the US. Et voila!
England
Yeah, there are some Scottish bands, I guess (Red Hot Chili Pipers, anyone?) – maybe even some from Wales and Northern Ireland. That said, none of the bands in that Google list were outside Merrie Old England. So, where in particular? Let’s look:
Couple of thoughts:
- Going in, I knew London would come out first, but I had no idea how much
- Plenty of bands from the Home Counties as well
- I’m really surprised Liverpool had only two – though one of those surely should count for more ;^)
- Let’s hear it for Manchester – only 4 bands but some pretty darn good ones
- Duran and Duran and ELO were both from Birmingham
- The real one-offs go to Hull (the Animals) and Blackpool (Jethro Tull)
America
So, Elvis was from Mississippi, Springsteen from New Jersey, Prince from Minnesota, Michael Jackson from Indiana … In other words, the greatest American singers were from all over the place. Was that reflected in bands as well? Let's see ...
NOTE: I just limited this to rock ’n roll. Sorry, country music fans. Heck, all those would have been out of Nashville or Austin anyway. ;^)
Some more thoughts:
- I know LA is the capital of the recording industry, but that’s a lot more than I was thinking
- Not too surprised by New York, but I was impressed with all the bands that came out of Seattle (though I'm not too sure about Alice in Chains)
- A little surprised the Bay Area had only 3 (surely, the Jefferson Airplane should be in there, no?) and Boston had only Aerosmith
- Here’s a tip of the hat to Jacksonville, with 2
- One-offs include Houston (ZZ Top), Athens GA (R.E.M.), and Ann Arbor MI (The Stooges)
