You may think that the challenge to determine countries that make the best music in the world is too much to handle, but we are here to be one step ahead of others.
Ever since a prehistoric time music was used (and still is) as a way of communication; in religious rituals, for expressing feelings and passing the messages. It is estimated that humans started adopting various forms of art between 60,000 and 30,000 years ago and that the music “as we know it must also have emerged during that period.” According to BBC, a team led by Prof Tom Higham at Oxford University recovered the oldest musical instruments found in the history, flutes made from bird bone and mammoth ivory. Flutes are between 42,000 and 43,000 years old. This fact sounds amazing, and it is one more proof that music was always an important part of human’s lives and always will be.
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Music, as all man creations, developed and changed through history; from prehistoric times, through Renaissance and Classical period all the way to Rock and Roll with Elvis Presley. With changes in music comes the change in music tastes as well. Music artists are providing the audience with music they want to hear, and we can’t blame them. We can only hope that the next big turnaround in music will be better than the current one.
For our list of countries that make the best music in the world, we’ve decided to take only “popular modern music” in consideration. Why? Well, because, unlike hundreds of years ago when there was actually a clear distinction between what is good and what not, nowadays the borderline is unclear. Nevertheless, there are a lot more criteria that can help us determine how “good” music from a certain country is. We’ve decided to use chart records from Billboard, where they reveal the most successful music (songs, artists and albums) in the last 50 years. For every act, song and album (on all 4 lists) in top 10, countries received 2 points for the places from 1 to 5 and 1 point for places 6 – 10. The second criterion we’ve used were top selling music artists of all time (certified sales), where every country received from 1 to 20 points based on the ranking of its act. After we had summed it up in our Music Count, we got our list.
Go ahead, grab a beer from one of these 7 countries that make the best beer in the world and enjoy reading about the countries that make the music you love to hear!
7. Barbados
Barbados should thank Rihanna for its entrance on the list. Although Rihanna had her first Billboard entrance in 2005, she already made it in the big league. With 114 million certified record sales, she is the youngest entrée among the artists with biggest record sales. Rihanna isn’t the only example that Barbados makes great music. One of the most famous and successful DJs in the world, Carl Cox, is from Barbados as well as Colin Young from the band The Foundations; and, there are other musicians like Shontelle, Arturo Tappin, Rayvon that we shouldn’t forget to mention when we talk about the music from Barbados.
Music Count: 3
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6. Ireland
One word, one letter and one number. Sounds familiar? Of course, we are talking about one of the biggest (at least according to the profits they make) rock’n’roll bands in the history, U2. Being one of the most exemplary products Emerald Island ever gave to the world (except the leprechauns), U2 is one of the biggest names in music at the moment, and because of that Ireland deserves to be on this list. U2 are the most popular music product of Ireland, but they are not the only one. Other popular artists from Ireland are Enya, Sinéad O’Connor, The Cranberries, Westlife and Van Morrison.
Music Count: 4
5. Sweden
Ok, no jokes here, although I had a few about the blondes. We all know that some of the hottest rock, metal and power metal bands right now are coming from Scandinavia including Sweden. This is oddly surprising, given the fact that pop music is ruling Sweden since ABBA first stepped on the Eurovision Song Contest. Since then ABBA became a worldwide phenomenon and marked Sweden as one of the countries with the best music. Other notable musicians and bands from Sweden include Avicii, The Cardigans, Ace of Base, Europe, Roxette, Loreen, The Hives, Miike Snow, and many more.
Music Count: 7
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4. Australia
The land of kangaroos was catapulted this high on 7 countries that make the best music in the world thanks to one music act.
The readers: Kylie Minogue!!!
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Of course, we are talking about AC/DC, who is one of the most successful rock bands in the history of music. Australia always had much to offer to music consumer all over the world. Besides AC/DC and Kylie Minogue, there are plenty of successful and popular music acts from Australia like: Rick Springfield, INXS, Sia, and the man himself, Nick Cave.
Music Count: 10
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3. Canada
Our heart may go on, but Celine Dion never did actually, right? We can laugh as much as we want, but the fact is that Celine Dion sold incredible 120.8 million records. She wasn’t the only one pulling the weight for Canada in this contest since Nickelback did its share as well. You may think they are the worst band in the world, but you will also start singing when How You Remind Me starts on the radio. Some might say that Canada’s music is good because it is heavy influenced by the US’ music, but we know better just by looking at the names (Justin Beiber who?) like Alanis Morissette, Neil Young, Brian Adams, Shania Twain, Avril Lavigne, Drake, and biggest poet in the world of music, Leonard Cohen.
Music Count: 14
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2. United Kingdom
Even with their joined efforts, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones couldn’t help the United Kingdom to reach the top. Brits are very sensitive when it comes to their music culture, and they claim their music is the best thing on this ball called Earth. Due to this second place, there is a probability that we will lose some readers from the UK, but it is the chance we will have to take if it means staying objective with the parameters we’ve decided to use in the beginning. On the other hand, if we compare the size of the UK and the size of the US, taking into consideration the number of people, we have to acknowledge that with almost 5 times more people than the UK, the US had an advantage for winning this competition. The logic is simple – more people, more talents. The one thing that the UK does the best, without any competition, is bands. We will just say that The Beatles are top selling music act in the history with over 250 million records sold. And we shouldn’t forget other amazing British musicians, and bands, like: Adele, Elton John, The Who, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Amy Winehouse, Freddie Mercury, Depeche Mode, Deep Purple, Jessie J, Oasis, John Lennon, Dire Straits, The Coldplay, George Micheal, Blur, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, The Police, Sex Pistols…
Music Count: 98
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1. United States of America
“Go big or go home” was the US’ motto when the country stormed ahead of every other on our list of countries that make the best music in the world. When it comes to top 10 selling artists in the history, 5 acts are from the US and, of course, the artists from this country are dominating Billboard Charts. The fact is that they dominate the charts all over the world and music from the US have been dominating the world from the very first beginnings of the “modern popular music”. They have the “King of Pop”, “King of Rock” and “Gangstas of Rap”. You can’t compete with that. If we start with naming all the famous musicians and band from the US, this article won’t end soon, so, let’s just face it, you probably know them all!
Music Count: 129
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