There are two things which I find questionable with a statistic like that. First, as Gordon pointed out, what does American mean? Second, what are the basis of the numbers - Soundscan, the RIAA?
Latin music makes up around 5% of the U.S. music market according to available documentation (which means that a large portion which gets sold in non-music retail, like swap meets is probably not counted). And 50% of that is regional Mexican music. Factor in the big catalog sellers like Pink Floyd, The Beatles, U2 and others and you can easily eclipse 3%. But if American means both continents, North and South, then on any given year when the trend is away from U.K. bands, then 97% might be true. If the numbers are from Soundscan or the RIAA then that would present a different problem. Outside of big global artists like Enya, Celine Dion, U2 and newcomer Shakira (yuck.....did anyone see the travesty that was her performance on Divas Las Vegas? I wanted to rip my own skin off...anyway....) lots of music from other countries is released on independents. World music sellers (like Green Linnet, Triloka, Putamayo) are independents (few are RIAA members, most are not) and they do a significant portion of their business in mail order. In any case, the U.S. is not that different from the rest of the world in this regard. Domestic music makes up the bulk of the market in most countries (particularly in Asia where the percentages are the highest). Globally local music makes up 70% of the market. On this issue of bringing in music from other countries, my experience has been that it is by far easier to get a release for a record from another country in the U.S. than to export U.S. acts that are not big sellers. (One caveat is that the singing has to be English or Spanish. I had success with two French projects but they were definitely exceptions.) Because the U.S. market is the largest in the world, you can often find an audience for something and sell records even though it won't make it on any chart. It was specifically my job for three years and "imports" outweighed "exports" by about 4 to 1. I'll end this tome by saying that I think there has never been a better time for finding new music. Turn off the radio (or turn it to the lower end of the dial) and get on the internet. At any given point in the day, I can find shows from London, Tokyo, Prague, Amsterdam, Bombay, you name it. A cheap kit from Radio Shack and your computer stream will play from any FM radio in your house. The Brits and the World Music awards are broadcast in the U.S. every year. If you want to see Top of the Pops or Later with Jools Holland, bug your cable company to get BBC America. Options are out there if you want them. The truth is that few people do. Brenda ------------------------------ Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.
