The Influence of the British Invasion on the Development of Rock Music - Essay Example

The British Invasion The British Invasion is a term that is used to describe the flow of rock-n-roll performers from Great Britain to the USA, who became very popular there and started a great wave of popularization of the rock music. The peak of the British Invasion was in 1964-1966. It is interesting that the roots of this phenomenon are grounded in the USA with the explosion of the rock and roll music in America in 1955. Inspired and amazed by the new style of music and the success of the rock singers and bands, such as Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, the Comets and others, British teenagers started forming their own bands trying to copy their American idols. They did not only copy their music style, but their rebellious images that were close to British youth. Thanks to that a few successful British artists appeared, namely The Shadows and Cliff Richard, but their popularity was nothing close to that of the American musicians, and therefore their influence on the American music charts was limited. In 1962 the single Telstar by the British band The Tornadoes became number one in the USA. This event marked the initial stage of the British Invasion. But the real start of this great wave of music was in December 1963, when the song I Want to Hold Your Hand by The Beatles appeared on American radio stations and became extremely popular. On February 9th 1964, the Beatles performed live on The Ed Sullivan Show and from that day on Beatlemania swept the United States. “This appearance was a remarkable social and cultural milestone of the 1960's, and marked the dramatic start of the British Invasion” (The British Invasion) The special flavor that the British musicians added to the initially American sound, made this music very popular. At it is known, there were two schools in the British invasion. The groups representing the first school were called “skiffle” bands. Skiffle is a modern folk-country-blues. “The genesis of skiffle lay in the "trad-jazz" tradition of music that had itself sprung from New Orleans "Dixieland" jazz” (Fontenot) The instruments that these bands used were simple and inexpensive, mostly homemade – “tea chests fashioned into standup basses, guitars made from cigar boxes, washboards for percussion, and an occasional acoustic guitar or piano” (Fontenot) The typical representatives of the style were the Ken Colyer Skiffle Band and Lonnie Donegan, who established skiffle as the musical phenomenon. Even though skiffle music is considered the one to be played by simple folks, who could not afford expensive instruments, such great rock groups as The Beatles and The Kinks started out their careers and road to popularity as the skiffle bands. The second school of bands developed later, by the beginning of the 60s, mainly around London. It “comprised of groups playing rhythm and blues based on the more sound of classic American Blues artists such as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf” (The British Invasion) The groups successfully performed in the UK and around Europe (mostly in Germany) and in the 1961-1962 they started developing variations of the American styles of music. Among the most popular groups that played in rhythm and blues style there were The Animals, The Rolling Stones, Manfred Mann, etc. With the skyrocketing takeoff of the Beatles in the United States’ music market the whole explosion of the British bands in the America began, which later led to the spread of the popularity of the British bands throughout the world. The Beatles’ songs began to dominate the American music charts. The success of The Beatles was followed by the other British bands, such as The Animals, The Kinks, Gerry and the Peacemakers, Peter and Gordon, Manfred Mann, The Rolling Stones, The Zombies, Herman’s Hermits, Petula Clark, etc. The British Invasion was basically over by 1967, when American music became very similar in style to the British one. American groups, namely the Byrds, began emulating the British sound, and even the appearance of the British musicians. The phenomenon is that under the influence of the British Invasion new rock bands started forming in the United States, just as it happened in the United Kingdome some ten years earlier under the influence of the American groups. Let us now have a closer look at the musicians representing the two schools of the British Invasion – the skiffle and the rhythm and blues. As it was mentioned, the Beatles is one of those groups that originated from skiffle music. There is hardly a person in the world who does not know about The Beatles. Its influence on the music of its generation, and the next generations as well, is immense and it cannot be overestimated. The group from Liverpool influenced not only the music of its generation, but Beatlemania was the whole way of life that millions of young people followed. In the United States “They are the first band to play a baseball stadium, Shea in New York, breaking records for crowd fever, numbers and good cheer… Wherever they went, they brought Beatlemania with them. They couldn’t help it; it was a form of real love.” (The Beatles) Their albums Let It Be, Help, Revolver, Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, etc. are milestones in the history of the modern rock music. The Kinks is another band that originated from skiffle and went on to be one of the most popular British rock groups both at home, in the United Kingdom, and in the USA. They have millions of recordings, numerous rewards from different music authorities. They have been collecting thousands of people at their stadium concerts and even nowadays their music influences the popular music of our times. The band was formed by the two brothers – Dave and Ray Davies, who first called themselves The Ravens and later renamed the group into The Kinks. During the period of the British Invasion seven of their songs hit the American charts. Another British band having its roots in the skiffle is Gerry and the Pacemakers. As The Beatles, it comes from Liverpool. “They burst on the scene with three consecutive No.1 hits –“How Do You Do It”, “I Like It” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone” – proving themselves serious competitors to the Beatles.” (Gerry and the Pacemakers) The song You’ll Never Walk Alone is the hymn of the football club Liverpool until nowadays. Even though the skiffle was the first direction of the British Invasion, the influence of the rhythm and blues groups spreads further and wider, basically being the origin of most of the rock directions and groups of the modern times. The most prominent one is, probably, The Rolling Stones. The first gig of the group took place at Marquee Club in London on July 12, 1962. Amazingly enough, 50 years later the group is as popular as it was, and it is still playing its music! The popularity of The Rolling Stones can be explained by the fact that the music that they have played “is essential not simply to an understanding of the music of that era, but to an understanding of the era itself” (The Rolling Stones) The group is associated with the rebellious attitudes of the America of that time (the most prominent song being I Can’t Get No Satisfaction). They were the ones who reflected in their music not the peace, but the violence and the frustration of the era they lived in. The Animals were formed in 1963 in Newcastle. Their first single The House of the Rising Sun hit the top of the British charts in 1964, and in three months it did the same in the USA. The guitar solo introduction to the song was discussed world over by the guitar students. Even nowadays this solo arpeggio is studied in the guitar schools – this shows how revolutionary the music of The Animals was at that time and how crucial it became for the development of rock music in general. Another representative of the rhythm and blues direction in the British Invasion is The Yardbirds. They began in the suburbs of London in the 60th and turned into one of the most popular groups both in the UK and the USA competing in popularity even with The Rolling Stones. They made rhythm and blues their own using the electric base. The influence of the British Invasion on the development of the rock music cannot be overestimated. “The British Invasion made standard the model of the self-contained rock group” (The British Invasion), as before there were mostly solo singers accompanied by unknown musicians. Another great milestone led by the groups of the British Invasion was the establishing of “the standard of the high quality long-playing record album as the prime venue for the release of recordings” (The British Invasion) Works Cited The Animals. 16 October 2012. Web. 18 March 2013 The Beatles. 2013. Web. 18 March 2013 Fontenot, Robert. “Skiffle”. Oldies Music Encyclopedia. N.d. Web. 17 March 2013 Gerry and the Pacemakers. 2013. Web. 17 March 2013 The Kinks. Celebrating 32 Years of Greatness. 2011. Web. 17 March 2013 Morrison. “The British Invasion” Metalhead. 2 June 2008. Web. 17 March 2013 The Rolling Stones. 2013. Web. 18 March 2013 Unterberger, Richie. “The Yardbirds”. Allmusic. 2013. 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