Culture

A couple days ago I came across a new band... well, a band that's new to me. Within Temptation is a goth-rock group with a female lead vocalist, very comparable to Evanescence. The main difference that I noticed is that they use an orchestra to powerful effect in several of their tracks. Within Temptation would be accused of being a copy cat band, except that WT has actually been around longer than Evanescence. They started in Norway in the late 90's, and were well received in their home country. It took about a decade for their popularity to spread to Holland and the rest of Europe and then finally to the states. They released a new cd in 2007 on a deal with an American record label.

What I find interesting is that it seems that the pinnacle of musical success is to sign a deal with an American record company and record in the US. In many things it seems that reaching fame in America is the "top." The only exception I can think of is soccer. The best MLS (Major League Soccer, also known as MajorLy Sucks) players migrate to European Leagues. I'm reminded of an article I read about understanding other cultures. It said that everyone knows American culture because it spreads everywhere. But most Americans know little about other cultures, when traveling they take at least a little bit of their own culture with them. Even on missions trips Americans tend to stay in nice clean American hotels and eat nice American food. In France I've heard that there's a law that requires radio stations to play at least as many songs by French artists as by American artists. Our culture is pretty invasive, so it takes more effort for us to get to know other cultures than it does for others to get to know ours.