This is pop and rock. Not traditional music. Soundtracks to our lives, spread across several decades, but whose origins are constrained to just one wee country of 5 million souls.

Until a few bands came along and rocked the boat by singing with either a strong Scottish brogue, or delivered a clear trademark Scottish-esque sound, or adorned themselves in tartan (a dead giveaway), the Scottish music scene like most music around the world, was constrained to singing in trans-atlantic voices. Everyone sounded the same. Or at least their voices did. But the songs themselves put a trademark sound on each of these bands that catapulted them into international stardom.

As a bonus we've listed 3 bands whose music and/or antics made it pretty obvious where they hailed from.


Bonus Bands