Ask A Foreigner
 

What, if any, American bands do the British like?

Michigan's not included in this?

minor spelling error, its lisbon, portugal, not libson

also, i don't understand this:

vancouver is the largest city (though not capital) of BC and toronto is the capital & largest city of ontario

afaik there isn't anyone here who lives somewhere in BC that isn't vancouver

Thanks guys, will begin editing now.

Edit:

I changed Canada's stats to strictly cities since there aren't many of you guys from there so it's relatively safe to be more specific. (Thanks Captain Caveman!)
Again, I know I haven't been able to include everyone, as not everyone who's active here have posted their locations... so please list them if you want to add your location as a reference.

I just want to get an accurate picture of all our locations in order for folks to have an idea of whether their questions will be answered by valid persons.

You can just add Beirut as the location next to Lebanon Freebase, it's the closest city to home.

Great idea btw :thumb:

I will if you'll not actually list the city you're in... So....


Edit: Done anyway.
If you move, let me know. lol.

This post is to call for specific members for locations...

- Urban
- Tore (I need your city if possible. Really, I don't think it matters... you're the only one in Norway. But for the sake of posterity.)
- ANYONE WHO'S IN NORTHERN IRELAND!!!! Don't be ashamed. Tell us who you are.

Obviously, If I've already got your location listed, no need.
Anyone else I haven't mentioned, feel free.

Well I live in something called Adma (in Keserwen, Mount Lebanon), but I don't even think it's much of a town ... and I guess I'll be moving to Beirut in a year or two, so let's just keep it at that for now :p:

Will do, close enough. The whole idea is that you'll be able to be a knowledgeable representative for any questions aiming in your direction.

Lebanon is too small to actually have different provinces, so don't worry about that. :D

This thread is awesome! I used to play this game with Vanilla all the time!

NumberNineDream (Lebanon)

What's pop music where you're from? And how does it differ from the U.S.?
On the flipside of that coin, what is usually the more obscure but cult-type music there?

That's a difficult one to answer ...
Well all mainstream artists are some built-up plastics that lip-synch all their digitally fabricated voices. All of them are considered Pop, though very different from the American pop, it has the same qualities. The singers don't compose or write their own music, and they work on their image and their music videos more than they actually work on learning the song. I think only 5 of all the "pop singers" have decent voices, but even these choose to lip-synch publicly in concerts and gigs.

Anyway, the melodies are usually a kind of a hybrid that seems oriental, though lost all its characteristics to sound more like American pop music. It's mainly arranged to be played in clubs, so it's more like dancing music. The lyrics are very bad, lucky you, you won't understand them. The most popular two:


On the parallel, there's a different kind of music that has been gaining popularity in the last couple of years, as being "patriotic" has become a "cool" thing to be. So a lot of songs are being composed to sound a bit too "Lebanese", with some exaggerated folk characteristics. Now that I think about it, I think it's a reaction to the other genre of westernised music. Though I feel this one is even uglier, as it's getting more and more vulgar, with no change in melodies. The two songs that kind of emerged in that style and are still very much popular:


As for the counter culture, it goes from folk, rock, to electro and experimental. It never gets any exposure in the media or on the radio. We usually know about it, as all Art/Film students know each other. They're usually bands that perform in pubs and festivals all around Lebanon, and that become a cult group until they disband because one or more of the members have decided to immigrate to one of the bigger countries. So these bands usually only have time to release one album. I have noticed though, that these bands are booming this year, but still none of them have gotten any exposure in the media, as there's only one big Label in the Arabic World that is monopolising the market. It's called Rotana, and owned by the Saudi Arabian billionaire prince, Al-Walid Ben Talal.

I have been talking about these bands in one of my threads in the World Music section, so I'll post some of my favourite bands in here:



I guess that's about it... if you want any more details, feel free to ask :D

It was awesome!!! Sorry for not talking to you more lately, it's been crazy times! But will be way more available soon. :love:

Urban lives on Guernsey, Channel Islands.

I currently live in Oslo which is not too exotic. What's perhaps more interesting is I've lived a small part of my life up in the norwegian arctic at 78 degrees latitude, so I can also answer questions about the arctic. :)

If there are no woods in the arctic circle, where do Polar Bears shit?

On the ground or on the ice .. When a bear who's on a diet of seal blubber takes a dump on the ice, it becomes just a black stinking puddle with the consistency of custard. It's the vilest animal shit I've ever come across. :(

I have a question for the English members. We're your faces as smug as I'm picturing them looking after the match yesterday?

Arctic pavement pizza? :(

Not quite as smug as we look today knowing that we've drawn you in our group for the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign. :D

So I read, crazy times are great. Get it. I haven't seen you around much at all, except now when its crazy time to be up. We'll get together soon enough.

My question follows Dali's. I know dubstep originated in England, is it pretty popular over there? Most people I talk to over here don't really know what I'm talking about at all. I find it pretty difficult to find more than a few songs that just melt my brain. Is it part of the club scene? I'm visiting San Fransisco, CA right now, and its actually a somewhat popular club gig.

¬¬ git.

Is it true that people think Americans carry around guns with them all the time and will draw on a moment's notice?

You might just want to post a disclaimer that one persons opinion in one place isn't the opinion of the majority or maybe not even a minority but just of an individual that happens to be from that location.

I am sure I have a lot of opinions that would offend my neighbors or even my own mother who are from the same location as myself.

I notice you have me listed as Sunderland, which is correct. However im just as close to Newcastle give or take a couple of miles.

There has to be more Canadians on here than just CC, mr. dave, and myself! Anyways, spit out all your questions about Toronto, I can answer them.

Why does everyone hate Toronto? :laughing:

Everyone thinks that we think we're the centre of the universe, especially other Canadians... we're just another city! :D

I really liked Toronto the 2 times I visited... I never found people so incredibly nice.

I got a question for you (we small insignificant nations gotta stick together ;) ), how much (and in what respect) does Lebanon differ from other Arab countries, and how much does Arabic differ from country to country. What do you most like about your country and what do you hate the most?

What's the deal with Brits and baked beans? Are you just the victim of vicious stereotypes or do you really have the worst palates in the world?

North Carolina isn't up there bro. It's way different from our southern bretheren.

don't be down on baked beans. i lived in the UK for a few years and really developed a taste for them. now, when i come across a store that actually stocks them, i am sure to buy several tins.

no fry-up is complete without them!

Yes we should stick together :p:

Arabic countries in General:

There's a huge difference in dialect, as actual "Arabic" is a dead language, so I can't really understand Moroccan or Kuwaiti, unless they talk Official Arabic (as in the Arabic used in the Quran). Lebanon and its surrounding countries (Syria - Jordan - Palestine) have a lot of similarities, in dialect, habits, History, food, music etc ... Arabic countries can be separated into groups, that are very different from each other. I think we can have the middle-eastern countries, the coutries of the Arabic Gulf, North East African countries, West African Countries and finally the ones in Center Africa.

Concerning Lebanon:

I guess the weather differs a lot from the other countries, I think we're the only country where it snows in the winter. We can ski in the winter and go to the beach in the summer.
Our educational system is a bit different also. Most educated people speak 3 languages, or at least understand French, English and Arabic. There's a lot of different sects, which makes it a bit hard to live, but it's always better than having one religion forced upon us. We're the only country that hasn't signed a peace contract with Israel (other than Syria, but that's another story), and also the only one without a dictator ruling us.
We don't really have a good democratic political system, but we have a bit more freedom than in all other countries.

What I like about my country:

_I think it is the easier Arabic country to live in, there's a bit more freedom to women. We don't have to wrap a towel on our head, or be banned from driving.
_There's some artists we can be proud of, and that I don't think I would be able to know if I wasn't born here.
_The people in Music and Film are part of a very small society. Which makes it much easier to know everyone in the business, and to be known in the whole country. And if you're known in Lebanon, you're known in all the Arabic countries.

My many dislikes:

_We have no decent internet connection, DVD, music or book store, and the good artists are always shadowed by fake commercial ones.
_Lebanese people tend to feel they're the higher population on Earth, which is ridiculous considering how retarded they are.
_We have no civil law, the law treats everyone considering his religion. So we're not all equal in the face of the law.
_A mother can't give her nationality to her son or husband (mostly to ban Palestinians from getting the Lebanese nationality this way).
_Gay people are considered perverts and criminals, and can be put in jail for being so.
_Everyone is born with his parents' religion, and there's nothing called "Atheist" or "Agnostic" in law. So now, I'm considered to be a Christian Maronite, though in reality I'm not. Plus, we don't have civil marriage, which makes inter-sectarian marriages even more difficult.

I guess that's about it for now.

Can I ask the same questions about your country :D ? As I don't really know much about it either... and we do need to stick together.

Obviously I know they're not bands, but Scott Walker, Zappa and Beefheart are, of course, American. Therefore, your place is alright in my books :thumb:

:D

^ = the smuggest smiley I could find. I didn't watch last year's 6 nations, but I remember your lot coming to Twickenham in '08 and basically tearing us apart (I was watching it in a Scottish pub too, which wasn't exactly fun). Revenge is sweet!

@numbernine: Sure, Lord knows nobody else is gonna give a shit...:laughing:

Ok so you may or may not know this but we have a similar language situation in the Balkans, there are 4 nations/countries where people understand each other perfectly well (with slight variations in accent): Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia. That's why in the olden days when we were all a part of the same country (Yugoslavia, you young'ns may not have heard of it) it was called serbo-croatian. Then all the bad shit happened in the 90s and we became very touchy about distinguishing them and proving they're VERY VERY DIFFERENT AND SEPARATE! Edit: Oh yeah, and we write phonetically so as soon as you know the alphabet you know how to spell. (:

Anyhow, my likes: Absolute freedom of press (excluding promoting violence or hatred etc), which I think a lot of people take for granted.
I like the coastline, it's very diverse and well, without sounding too patriotic, beautiful. Especially in the south.
Oh and I like it's location, it's very close to all the European cultural centers, for example, Venice is like an hour and a half away from the city I live in. Vienna, Bologna, Budapest and Munchen are like 5 hours, which is still manageable.
Also, this may sound weird, but compared to some other nations, we're not an "ugly" nation. Plenty of beautiful men and women walking around.

Dislikes: The people. General mentality is still fairly conservative, but the proximity of the European union is slowly changing that, at least in terms of legal rights and stuff (for example, homosexuality has been decriminalized in the 70s, similarly to other western nations and we even have some limited domestic partnership rights. Still a long way away from marriage and adoption rights).
Artistically, we're probably the least talented of the ex-Yugoslav nations. Seriously, there hasn't been a good film produced in this country for....well I don't think we ever made any good films! In comparison, Serbia and/or Bosnia have Kusturica, Makavejev and Denis Tanović (who won the Oscar for No man's land). It's similar with music, especially contemporary and alternative music. I feel sick when I think a nation like Iceland, which has like 300 thousand people has produced a fair number of internationally recognized artists. I don't think that's ever gonna happen here.

We make up for it by being good at sports I suppose, like football, tennis, handball and waterpolo (yes, that's a sport). We used to be good at basketball too (silver at the Barcelona Olympics) but that's gone down the shithole ever since.

So there. (:

^ Well I remember Croatia almost beat Brazil in the 2006 World Cup... Very good team you got!

Well in sports we used to be very good in Basketball. We were the silver medallists in the Asian cup for more than 10 years (we were never able to beat China with all their NBA players). We even got to the World Cup in 2006, and beat France.
But everything got ruined last year, when even Basket got politicised.

Ah yes I remember that well. Always the next one though :p

What match?