-It had really nice R&B grooves which could win all the New Jack Swing & RnB fans
-It can bring in more Hip Hop fans into House music (somewhat)
-It has the ability to top the US charts
-It has the ability for approval by soccer moms (because it'd be considered safe for their kids to listen to)
-It has support by producers like Masters at Work and Armand van Helden
-It helps create stars like Craig David and Daniel bedingfield.
Ad yet, garage never took off in the States.
Why? Garage is one of those genres that should have been popular in the States, and yet the only places that you can find Garage being played are the usual Deep House/US Garage clubs in the Chicago or northeast and maybe one or two tunes played by Joe Nice.
Hell, alot of the usual Emo/Pop-punk/Nickelback bullshit would have top the charts because Garage would make an easy cash cow for greedy US record label heads. Hell, i'd take 15 bad Garage tunes played on US Top 40 radio than listening to another Nickelback song. And without Emo/Pop-Punk/Nickelback topping the charts we wouldn't have alot of Brostep/Electro-Metal-House played on nightclubs today.
Re: Why didn't Garage took off in America?
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 1:51 am
by south3rn
garage/2step was pretty popular in houston from 98-01 or so
Re: Why didn't Garage took off in America?
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 2:21 am
by Murkyone
Speaking of this, post must hear garage and 2step tunes from back then. I'm also bummed it never really hit too big over here and thus don't know all that much about garage, but i have really enjoyed what i've heard over the years
Re: Why didn't Garage took off in America?
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 2:22 am
by twothirdsmajority
Murkyone wrote:Speaking of this, post must hear garage and 2step tunes from back then. I'm also bummed it never really hit too big over here and thus don't know all that much about garage, but i have really enjoyed what i've heard over the years
I will always love Sincere by MJ Cole:
Re: Why didn't Garage took off in America?
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 2:27 am
by Murkyone
Nice I dig that
Re: Why didn't Garage took off in America?
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 2:46 am
by jack_swift
the main reason is the internet either wasn't there or wasn't that common during garages golden years (1994-2000)
Re: Why didn't Garage took off in America?
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 2:47 am
by Murkyone
Good point, a lot easier for any person to hear anything these days thanks to the net
Re: Why didn't Garage took off in America?
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 3:45 am
by Basic A
Garage was big in the states, it was just different then it was in the UK.
Check out the wikipedia articles on Garage house+ UK garage + speed garage... informative shit on the history, read em in that order.
http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lect ... e-virtuoso > Plastician breaks down the evolution from US to UK to Grime to Dubstep in the first like 20 minutes of this via a bunch of old 12"s in his bag, its pretty wicked watch.
Re: Why didn't Garage took off in America?
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 3:45 am
by twothirdsmajority
jack swift wrote:the main reason is the internet either wasn't there or wasn't that common during garages golden years (1994-2000)
Which is pretty obvious but i'm pretty sure if Goldie and Roni Size's tunes can get discovered by P.Diddy, then sure can garage right?
Re: Why didn't Garage took off in America?
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 3:48 am
by twothirdsmajority
Basic A wrote:Garage was big in the states, it was just different then it was in the UK.
Check out the wikipedia articles on Garage house + UK garage + speed garage... informative shit on the history, read em in that order.
http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lect ... e-virtuoso > Plastician breaks down the evolution from US to UK to Grime to Dubstep in the first like 20 minutes of this via a bunch of old 12"s in his bag, its pretty wicked watch.
Great read.
But to me, US Garage was only accesible to those living in New York or Chicago.
When we're talking big or mainstream, we're talking suburban America, where soccer moms would turn on the radio in the car while driving to school to pick up their kids. You know, that kind of America.
Garage would basically go well with that demographic because Suburban America love 90's New jack Swing and RnB, evidenced by the popularity of Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston and TLC.
Re: Why didn't Garage took off in America?
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 4:32 am
by seckle
2step had a minor impact here with craig david, but it never took off. there were parties in both NY, SF, TX and LA, but again, they were small and never really went anywhere. Craig david was marketed to the RNB american radio as a ladies man, and that was also a big problem, as he got spun out as soon as he came in. So Solid was also tried here in america, but it never happened big.
on the other hand New Jersey did spawn Todd Edwards, so at least thats something...
Re: Why didn't Garage took off in America?
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 2:17 pm
by hxrtk
Well Garage didnt took anywhere except the UK, did it? Before dubstep i havent heard the term garage and the only tune i have heard is this
Re: Why didn't Garage took off in America?
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 2:51 pm
by kaiten
There were only a few local guys around my area (Midwest US) that played it in any form during its golden era. Drum & Bass and House were the dominant genres and nothing much else came through headliner wise. Its not that much different currently, as it seems the new wave of garage is basically unknown to a large percentage of Americans who consider themselves fans of electronic music.
Re: Why didn't Garage took off in America?
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 3:26 pm
by jack_swift
twothirdsmajority wrote:
jack swift wrote:the main reason is the internet either wasn't there or wasn't that common during garages golden years (1994-2000)
Which is pretty obvious but i'm pretty sure if Goldie and Roni Size's tunes can get discovered by P.Diddy, then sure can garage right?
It is obvious but its the main reason!
I have actually had this convo with a few of the big name garage mcs (Creed and Sharky P being the main one) an the lack of internet was the point they kept coming back to!
Goldie made it in the states due to the fact he financed his first us tour himself.
Re: Why didn't Garage took off in America?
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 3:32 pm
by bright maroon
twothirdsmajority wrote:Which is pretty obvious but i'm pretty sure if Goldie and Roni Size's tunes can get discovered by P.Diddy, then sure can garage right?
In the late 90s you couldn't turn on a station without hearing a garage type R&B track. Even some pop and hip-hop were the same, garage vibes and built around that flavor. It was just a different style. It was more smooth than the UKs bumpy take on it. Timbaland was one of the ones pushing that sound and he excelled at it. That track he did with Aaliyah for the movie 'Romeo Must Die', 'Try Again' I think it was called. Champion mainstream US R&B Garage.
Re: Why didn't Garage took off in America?
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 5:56 pm
by llennnn16
Found the vid.
Re: Why didn't Garage took off in America?
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 6:04 pm
by Basic A
twothirdsmajority wrote:
Basic A wrote:Garage was big in the states, it was just different then it was in the UK.
Check out the wikipedia articles on Garage house + UK garage + speed garage... informative shit on the history, read em in that order.
http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lect ... e-virtuoso > Plastician breaks down the evolution from US to UK to Grime to Dubstep in the first like 20 minutes of this via a bunch of old 12"s in his bag, its pretty wicked watch.
Great read.
But to me, US Garage was only accesible to those living in New York or Chicago.
When we're talking big or mainstream, we're talking suburban America, where soccer moms would turn on the radio in the car while driving to school to pick up their kids. You know, that kind of America.
Garage would basically go well with that demographic because Suburban America love 90's New jack Swing and RnB, evidenced by the popularity of Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston and TLC.
Well it did just in more niche areas... my city, Pittsburgh, has a really long standing garage n house scene stretches back to the hayday of mr fingers records... Some of our 4x4 djs are getting so old their hairs turning grey, n bless em for it... It spread, but over here its alot harder to get a grasp of whats going on in the streets because things like the radio are sooo controlled... In NY and Chi, things originated, and you had more dedicated people setting up pirate transmissions n stuff... so those are the scenes that most stand out, they got the most coverage... Ive always been envious of UK radio because granted some of it can be shit, its always shown an interest in what was happening in the streets as well, i.e. why dubstep made it over here, whereas the UK had a harder time getting hold of the US parralels because we werent exposing them...
I think it took the rise of new-hiphop to make Americans put as much faith behind electronics as well though, which didnt happen until the early 90's...
Its an interesting progression really... America started spinning garage and house, but it took the UK getting hold of it to bring it to maturity, and only now are we getting word of what you've done with it, grime, dubstep, ect...
Still though, to this day, house/garage/goodelectro are FAR more popular here then dubstep/grime/dnb/ect... Its something that has to be remembered, people get very worried about dubstep getting big in the US, but compared to some other genres its miniscule.