80's music for a 90's baby

Let me start out by saying I don't have a thing for naughty Snow Whites but the "Sonne" music video is a great one. It's not that I get some perverse kick off it, but the video takes such a dark view of Snow White, in the twisted way only Rammstein could. That's why it's a great video, not because Snow White punishes the dwarfs. So I don't know how many of you know who Thomas Dolby is or what he looks like. But for those who do, go into the philosophy department at UB and look at Prof. Hershenov. They look a lot alike. I'm not bad mouthing either of them, but they could be long lost twins. Anytime I see Prof. Hershanov, "She Blinded me With Science" pops into my head and refuses to leave for at least 20 minutes. But that's neither here nor there. I honestly must say though, that I at least, feel we wouldn't have had nearly as awesome an 80's without the good ol' UK. Some (90% at least) of my favourite bands from the 80's hail from across the pond. Also some of the most influential bands of the 80's hailed from the UK. The Cure and The Smiths helped to create a whole new sub-genre called Shoegazing and Gary Numan rocked out on his synth. Bands like Big Country and The Proclaimers introduced the Scottish side of the 80's (and some 90's). What intrigues me however, is the fact that a lot of these bands are one hit wonders over here, while they went back to the UK to have still successful career. The poster child for this is Madness (one of my top five favourite bands if you haven't noticed). They had one hit over here, "Our House". But they returned to the UK to have at least 5 more popular songs. Why would one sound make it over here and another over there? That I never got. I think crossing over in the charts is one obstacle, but another is crossing over the pond in a sense. Not just literally, but metaphorically. So many bands are successful over in the UK but come over here, and only find limited success, while bands from over here go over there, and make it big! It's safe to say the Ramones were much more successful in the UK then in the US. What I also love are bands from the States, that are relatively unknown over here, but HUGE in the UK. For example, while KOL was making ripples in the US, they were playing huge, sold out shows in the UK. Same goes for the band Gossip. A lot of my American friends had never heard of KOL until they finally broke out with that song of theirs this summer, while my friends from the UK, had been singing (no pun intended) their praises for at least 2 years before. I have many a stateside friend who still do not know who Gossip is, but my buddy from Stoke has this thing for Beth Ditto. It's always interesting to compare the hits from here to the hits from the UK. Look at the songs in, "Now that's what I call music". They release two different albums. I understand it's a different country, even a different continent, but it's similar enough culture that you think bands would have equal popularity. In the end however, I think it's because the UK prefers a different sound (how's that for obvious?). Honestly, I'd have to agree with them.