RYM's Top 25 Indie Rock Albums

My theory actually comes from two studies - one on linguistics (which looks at the morphology of spoken English in the US vs. England) and one on geography and political ideology. Linguistics studies show that there's greater variations and ranges of dialects in England in just a few square miles than there are in hundreds of miles in the US; and also, English has evolved much quicker in England, while it's very slow to change in the US. So at the linguistic level, the US is much more conservative. A research question would be: Might a greater phonological range and a faster rate of change & development correlate to a greater range of innovation, stylistic trends and faster developments within popular music?

Some political geography studies on the other hand show how place determines politics - basically, if you live in the suburbs you're more likely to be conservative - even if you were formerly a liberal living in the city, that's likely to change when you move. The implication is that the de-urbanization of America has helped contribute to the country's swing to the right. Therefore it stands to reason that urban music is quicker to change and be innovative, while rural music will be more conservative, more resistant to change. (I'm an old-style Marxist: revolution comes from the urban industrial working class, not the suburban shopkeepers or farmers )

My theory is that the implications of these studies might have some implications for music as well. If I had done that PhD I might have developed this theory more...   Why didn't I do that PhD? sniff sniff...