The development and popularity of electronic music in the United States
There have been periodic threads on electronic music more recently and I will see comments turning into "Americans are ignorant of electronic music/didn't evolve electronic music/are behind their European counterparts." Something about the statement feels reductive to me. I think there's different levels of observation between genre development and wider popularity, and other criteria.
To be clear, the development of electronic music in the UK and Europe is amazing and influential. No one can take that away. But it can often feel like this dichotomy of "rockist America" and forward-thinking Europe (a thread could be dedicated to this perception and how much weight does it hold). And I wanted to dig a little bit deeper on what is actually the case.
I think there is a grain of truth in electronic music not necessarily being appreciated in the same way in the US as in the UK and Europe. Some of it relating to what is valued in music, some of it relating to niche: a few different British electronic genres have been described as "British answers to Hip-Hop". So one might wonder if Hip-Hop occupies the niche that could've been taken by an electronic genre. I think there is an issue with some genres being mainstream in the UK and Europe while being niche in the US.
In the first place, I understand that electronic music is a huge umbrella category; someone once compared it to calling music with acoustic instruments "acoustica". There's a variety of approaches and people who are fans of one type of electronic music wouldn't necessarily be a fan of another.