Interesting how opinions differ because I think the exact opposite is true.
Anything that came out of the States in the early 90s was pretty much just a big budget pale version of what had already came out in the mid to late 80s from there,Grunge, hip hop & stadium rock.. and that was about it.
Whereas in Britain you had tons of new stuff cropping up everywhere. Tip hop, Shoegaze, dance music, Electronica, Baggy & Britpop. You had small labels popping up all over the place & they actually got press & public attention.
On the other hand by 1996 british music ground to a halt and really good stuff like post hardcore & math rock & garage rock started coming out of the States.
In fact excluding the occasional post rock band I can't think of a single decent British band who recorded a debut album between 1997 & 2000 that really sold in large amounts AND who got critical acclaim too.