Oh, and while chas and Russ recover from their heart attacks let me be the first to be astounded at the suggestion that jazz can be played by buffoons, and 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon' is really the zenith of popular music

There is a reason that American music is listened to around the world. And it has little to do with marketing. This country is the birthplace, nursery and university of musics that go beyond the simple diatonic melodies of the rest of the world. This country is the birthplace of worldwide musical sensations like the blues, jazz, rock and roll, disco, hiphop, rap, bluegrass, jump jive, doo-wop... the list is endless.

And, lest we forget, 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon' was American, too! As were many, many hits from that era that are STILL being performed on a daily basis in Europe. But perhaps they are STILL playing them over there, while the US has moved on, is perhaps also the reason why many of us on arranger forums still play these tunes, too...

BECAUSE THEY ARE EASY TO PLAY...!

There's an awful lot of popular American music that is next to impossible to pull off well on arrangers, with melodies and chord progressions FAR more complex than we can usually manage. And emotion and intensity in the singing that is hard to copy. Without these elements, they sound appalling on the arranger...

But, as far as I am concerned, the harder something is to do well on an arranger, the better the music intrinsically is. Anything that lends itself to sterile, repeated four bar chunks of simple styles with less than cutting edge sounds and drums can hardly be called inventive.

The rest of the world is still happy with mindless repetition of hoary chestnuts from the seventies and MUCH earlier, with nary a change out of the ordinary, which definitely works with their 'happy to be drinking and singing' mindsets (nothing wrong with that, mind you!), relentlessly diatonic melodies for the inebriated singer to slosh through, cameradie flowing like pilsner. Whereas the US is trying to come up with the NEXT worldwide sensation, by trying to be different, NOT the same.

This IS a two way street, BTW. Reggae music and ska has been adopted by Americans with enthusiasm, Bossa and Latin music is loved and admired here. Dancehall makes the charts (Sean Paul, Shabba Ranks). It's not JUST us exporting the stuff, you know. But it has to come with inventiveness, with freshness, with a rhythmical and lyrical complexity not found in most European bierkellars...

Yes, that's certainly HAPPY music over there, Lucky, played to happy people having happy times. Sadly, that doesn't always equate to music that is anything more than adult nursery rhymes! Music at it's most complex, especially jazz (I'd like to meet the buffoon that can race through Giant Steps ) is America's speciality, and deservedly influentioal around the world. BTW, I'm English, so please don't accuse me of partisanship!