This is kinda tough, in terms of preference it's pretty close, prog should be enough to sway me though, the brits owned us in the 70s and thats my favorite decade, but from the 90s and present I find myself enjoying a lot more American music, not a big britpop fan. If we went by the decade.
50s = Easly the US, I don't know if the brits even had anything other than Skiffle.
60s = Goddamn close, the british invasion should be enough, but we had an explosion of talented American bands as well, primarly through the garage and psychedelic scenes, and lets not forget Motown. I'd call it a tie.
70s = Easly the brits, they had Zep, Floyd, Who, Bowie, Queen, Sabbath, and of course the prog. We didn't have much to compete with that.
80s = IMO the punk rock scene was better on the American side, I find a lot more out of early hardcore bands than the mopey post punk the brits were dishing out. Overall I would call it a tie.
90s = I know Urban is not gonna agree with this, but I greatly prefer American music from this decade. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Janes Addiction, Flaming Lips, Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, RATM, Sonic Youth, and hip hop was just reaching it's peak. I never cared for britpop, save Blur. At this point the best thing to come out of the UK was the electronic music.
00s = Well, the UK have the best band right now, Radiohead of course, but
they hardly have anything else. Theres Muse and Porcupine Tree and thats essentially all the British music from this decade that I'm interested in. We have The Flaming Lips, The White Stripes, The Mars Volta, Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Beck. Thats enough to sway me for the states.
So the way I see it, I would give America the edge in variety and quantity (as in music in general, not just rock music), though if I wayed down my favorite artists there would be more brits.
I still can't choose.
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