Listen to today's Global Hit

Four young men from Glasgow, Scotland, won the prestigious Mercury Music Prize last week. The award goes to the most original album by a British or Irish act. The winners accepted their prize in London and then got on a plane for New York to kick off their American tour. The band has already made a name for itself over there. It's starting to cause a stir over here. And the name of the group, Franz Ferdinand, suggests little reluctance to stake out a place in history. The World's Matthew Exell has today's Global Hit.

When Franz Ferdinand -the Arch-Duke- had his moment in history's spotlight, the consequences were tragic. The assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne triggered World War One. Announcer: "Sunday June 28th 1914. Franz Ferdinand, Arch-Duke of Austria, makes a formal entry into the city of Sarajevo, with his wife the Duchess of Hohenberg."

The formal entry of Franz Ferdinand -the band- into America this month is expected to be more benign. But that doesn't mean world domination is entirely off the agenda. In the 12 months since their first single release, the four Scottish art students who make up Franz Ferdinand have become the poster boys of the British pop scene. They were favorites to win the highly regarded Mercury Music Prize, even though singer Alex Kapranos seemed surprised.

Kapranos: "We really didn't expect to win this. We haven't written a speech or anything. We're truly gobsmacked! It's fantastic."

Franz has has the sales to match it's critical recognition. Even before it won the Mercury Prize, the band's debut album had already sold a million worldwide. Ian Parkinson, one of the Mercury judges, says Franz Ferdinand defines British pop in 2004:

Parkinson: "They're a modern young band from Glasgow who draw their influences from all kinds of areas of the past, but make it sound like 2004. You can listen to the album and you can hear, 'oh yeah, bits of that sound like the '70s, bits of that sound like the '80s,' but actually they couldn't have made that album, I don't think, in any other year but 2004."

And they couldn't have made the album without American music. Music journalist Stuart Maconie says Franz Ferdinand is heavily influenced by New York new wave bands of the 1970s:

Maconie: "Talking Heads, Blondie, The Ramones¿and particularly Television. And I think Television's influence you can very definitely hear on Franz Ferdinand, in that the songs are not frightened of being tuneful, but have a kind of clipped economy and a quirkiness that sets them apart from kind of blue collar rock, a la Bruce Springsteen. It's got more of a raised eyebrow I think is the way I might put it, and its sharper, edgier, kind of angular. And I think in that you can certainly hear the influence of say Television's 'Marquee Moon' album on Franz Ferdinand."

Franz succeeds in sounding both familiar and like nothing you've ever heard before. And Stuart Maconie says its following in a great British tradition, going all the way back to The Beatles and the Stones: take American music, tweak it slightly, and sell it back to America.

Maconie: "Certainly that's what British bands were doing in the 1960s. I mean, Pink Floyd are from the art school tradition, but the music they loved, initially, was American blues. Now I think Franz Ferdinand, they've certainly got the arty aesthetic, I don't know yet whether they're a full-on rock experience that can fill the stadiums of America¿"

And that is Franz Ferdinand's goal. It may not be out of their reach. Last month Time magazine hailed the band's home town, Glasgow, as "the new Detroit"!

Hugh Porter: It's a surprise to some people, to come out with a bold statement like that. But to anyone who's been in Glasgow over the last couple of years, this is long overdue."

Time magazine's Hugh Porter is originally from Glasgow himself. He thinks Franz Ferdinand is already on its way to breaking through in the United States.

Porter: "Well, in the last few weeks, a few milestones have been reached. They've gone gold, I think, on the Billboard charts -which is 500,000 sales. Which is pretty impressive. And the album's been in the top 50 for almost as long as its been released. So through this kind of groundswell of support they've broken out of the kind of indie box, you know, out of college radio, and have got pretty widespread appeal. They're on the David Letterman show, which is always a pretty good indicator of having arrived."

This month Franz Ferdinand began its most ambitious US tour to date. If it does succeed in capturing the hearts of the American public, Hugh Porter reckons it'll be down to the band's emphasis on good old rock and roll values:

Porter: "They just want to make music to make girls dance¿and I think they've done that!"

For The World, I'm Matthew Exell.