British Invasion

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The appearance of The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, February 9, 1964, marked the dramatic start of the British Invasion.

The British Invasion was the term applied by the news media - and subsequently by consumers - to the influx of rock and roll, beat and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States, Australia & Canada. The classic British Invasion period was 1964 to 1967, but the term has also been applied to later "waves" of UK artists that had significant effect on the North American entertainment market.

1 History
- 1.1 Background and pre-invasion
  - 1.1.1 Beatles and the British Invasion
- 1.2 Other British invasion personalities
2 Second British Invasion
3 Subsequent years
4 Early British Invasion artists
5 Second British Invasion artists
6 Subsequent British artists who had success in the USA
7 References

[edit] History

[edit] Background and pre-invasion

Prior to the success of The Beatles, British musical acts had only achieved fleeting success in what was then a relatively insular market. The first major breakthrough was the success of Dame Vera Lynn when she became the first British act to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1952^[1]. Other acts in the intervening years had some success, most notably George Shearing, Lonnie Donegan, Petula Clark and The Tornadoes.

Like their transatlantic counterparts in the 1950s, British youth heard their future in the frantic beats and suggestive lyrics of American rock and roll, but initial attempts to replicate it failed, as enthusiasts lacked the indigenous basic ingredients of rock and roll, rhythm and blues and country music. Of perhaps more significance was the skiffle craze of the 1950s, acoustic guitar, tea-chest bass and banjo ensembles, similar to jug bands, spearheaded by Scottish-born Lonnie Donegan. Artists who went on to become notable in the following decade (like The Quarrymen, first forerunner of the Beatles) first cut their musical teeth in skiffle bands. They most often sang traditional American folk songs, frequently with more spirit than instrumental polish, although early British skiffle was often played by highly skilled Trad jazz musicians.

Liverpool became the first hotbed of the so-called "beat boom." As Britain's major Atlantic seaport, Liverpudlian merchant seamen often sailed to the U.S. and returned with the latest American rock-and-roll hits, often before they were made widely available in Britain. With The Beatles, other exuberant male quartets such as The Searchers, The Fourmost, and Gerry and the Pacemakers, plus the quintet Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas launched Merseybeat, so named for the estuary of the River Mersey that runs alongside Liverpool. The Beatles first reached the British record charts in late 1962 (shortly after The Tornados' "Telstar", an instrumental smash that sent word of what was in store by becoming the first British record by a group to top the American singles chart); the rest joined the hit parade in 1963. Not all acts prominent in Britain by the early 1960s necessarily managed to develop a profile in the U.S. Cliff Richard, who remains popular in Britain and active today, has only rarely had chart successes in America.

By 1962, encouraged by the anyone-can-play populism of skiffle and self-schooled in the music of Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, James Brown, and Muddy Waters, some British teens developed a real feel for the rock-and-roll and American blues idioms. Blending that with such local traditions as music hall, pop, and Celtic folk, they formulated original music they could claim, play, and sing with conviction. Young groups with electric guitars began performing and writing up-tempo melodic pop, fiery rock and roll, and Chicago-style electric blues. The rebellious tone and image of American rock and roll and blues musicians also deeply resonated with British youth in the late 1950s, influencing all the British Invasion artists.

Though generally not credited with starting the "Invasion", Dusty Springfield was one of the first British artists to have significant success in the U.S., with her hit single "I Only Want To Be With You", released in November 1963. She appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in early 1964 singing the popular hit, and continued to have several U.S. hits through the rest of the decade. A number of songs by British artists reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

[edit] Beatles and the British Invasion

The Beatles' triumphant arrival in New York on February 7, 1964 (three weeks after they had ascended to the top of the Billboard and Cashbox US singles charts) and their appearance on the The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964 is widely credited with truly throwing open America's doors to a wealth of British musical talent, and officially beginning what would come to be called the second British Invasion.^[2]

The term "British Invasion" was coined in 1964 to describe the wave of British rock-and-roll and beat artists (primarily groups) whose popularity spread rapidly to the rest of the English-speaking world, especially the United States and Canada. Rock 'n' roll had evolved as an American musical form in the early 1950s and prior to 1963 very few British artists had had success in that musical genre in the USA. The Beatles' breakthrough in America (starting with the success of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in early January 1964) triggered a large wave of British artists who succeeded in the USA in their wake.

Rock swept Britain. By 1964, London could claim The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Who, The Pretty Things, Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, The Dave Clark Five, Peter and Gordon, Chad and Jeremy, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, and Manfred Mann. Manchester had The Hollies, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, Freddie and the Dreamers, Davy Jones of The Monkees, and Herman's Hermits; Newcastle was home to The Animals; and Birmingham had The Spencer Davis Group (featuring Steve Winwood) and The Moody Blues. Bands sprang up from Belfast (Them, with frontman Van Morrison), to St Albans (The Zombies), to Essex (The Tremeloes).

From 1964 to 1966 the United Kingdom sent a stream of hits across the Atlantic. Behind the conquering Beatles, Peter and Gordon ("A World Without Love"), the Animals ("House of the Rising Sun"), Manfred Mann ("Do Wah Diddy Diddy"), Petula Clark ("Downtown"), Freddie and the Dreamers ("I'm Telling You Now"), Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders ("Game of Love"), Herman's Hermits ("Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter"), the Rolling Stones ("I Can't Get No Satisfaction" and others, the Troggs ("Wild Thing"), and Donovan's ("Sunshine Superman") all topped Billboard's singles chart.

The success of British acts of the time led to a major cultural realignment with acts such as The Byrds and numerous Anglophone garage bands subsequently changing their sound and style. The influence continued on subsequent Anglophile groups such as Big Star, Sparks and Todd Rundgren amongst others^[3].

[edit] Other British invasion personalities

Such was the Anglomania at the time that it provided a boost for other cultural exports such as films, art and television. Noted Disc Jockey John Peel recalls in his memoirs how he was able to break into American radio purely on the basis of his Merseyside accent.

In 1964 films featuring James Bond portrayed by Sean Connery became popular in America as did Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins. That year the Beatles first film A Hard Day's Night further painted England as the center of the (rock) universe. American media took the bait and made Carnaby Street, London's trendy fashion center in the mid-1960s, a household name. British television shows such as The Avengers that deliberately emphasised being British were also popular.

[edit] Second British Invasion

More than a decade following the first invasion, the largely English based punk movement of the late 1970s, resulted in a fresh influx of raw, iconoclastic British bands and artists, such as Sex Pistols, The Clash, Squeeze and Elvis Costello and the Attractions. While punk had a lasting influence on the US popular music scene, it never broke through in the US at the time to the same extent as in the UK. However the various cultural sources that punk and new wave took their inspirations from, especially cinema and television, would stand them and subsequent acts in good stead in the next decade.

For a time in 1980 and 1981 it seemed that apart from a few exceptions such as The Police, Queen, and The Psychedelic Furs, British acts and musical movements such as New Wave, New Romantics and Synthpop were being bypassed in favour of homegrown soft rock and heavy metal.

This changed in 1981 with the formation and influence of MTV. Needing videos to broadcast, the channel used a disproportionately large number by British acts, whose videos were generally more image conscious and entertaining than their American counterparts at the time. This brought various distinctly British acts to the attention of American audiences such as Def Leppard, Duran Duran, A Flock of Seagulls, The Fixx, Naked Eyes, Thompson Twins, Eurythmics, Culture Club, Spandau Ballet, Wham and later Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, OMD, Pet Shop Boys, The Cure, New Order, Dead Or Alive and others. Once again, British acts came to dominate American charts, this time to an even greater degree than in the first British Invasion. The high point of this second invasion was in July 1983 when 18 of the singles in the top 40 were by British artists and over 50% of the Billboard Hot 100 was accounted for by overseas artists.^[4]

[edit] Subsequent years

This second invasion of the 1980s remains (to date) the most recent major upsurge of British talent on the American charts. The continued splintering of the music market into different genres makes a follow up, mass-appeal movement such as the British Invasion currently unlikely.

Following the highwater years of 1983 to 1985, success by British acts gradually dwindled to such a degree that at one point in May 2002 there were no British artists on the US singles chart, the first time this had occurred since 1963.

The reasons for this are many and varied. One can argue that the success of the acts in the second British invasion was partly down to the needs of MTV who needed a pool of videos to fill their programming, at that time the most distinctive and most available were by British acts.

Since then tastes in the US and UK had diverged, the schism occurring most markedly in the late '80s and early '90s. In the UK Dance music became hugely popular, a movement which was by and large ignored in the US, partly as a hangover from the Disco sucks campaign of the early '80s but also due to other social and cultural factors. There was a brief mini-invasion in 1991 with the success of Soul II Soul, Jesus Jones and EMF, but this was a blip in a downward trend only mitigated by the unexpected success of Morrissey's Your Arsenal (1992) which yielded him a moderated cult success in the States.

In addition the rise of glam metal in the late '80s, grunge and most notably hip-hop in the '90s meant that British acts would struggle in the U.S. The Britpop movement of the mid-1990s, which could be seen as a stylistic continuation of the original British Invasion of the 1960s, mixed with music of the 70s and 80s, failed to catch America's imagination, coming across as too parochial and backward-looking though some acts, notably Oasis, Elastica, Radiohead, and Blur, achieved niche success in the American market.

By the late '90s British acts were struggling to break through in America with the most successful acts being long established artists such as Sting, Elton John and Eric Clapton. The most notable breakthroughs at that time were the Spice Girls, Seal and Charlotte Church.

Since the start of the millennium, new artists from Britain have started to establish themselves in America, while not yet a third invasion, it is the most successful period for British acts since the early 1990s. The most successful of these are probably Coldplay, who broke through in 2000 with their debut album Parachutes. Subsequently other acts have followed in their footsteps.

In early 2006, James Blunt reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with his single "You're Beautiful", the first British artist to do so since Elton John with Candle In The Wind in 1997.

In 2006, acts such as KT Tunstall, Muse and Keane have achieved success in the US. Newcomer Corinne Bailey Rae achieved acclaim for her self titled album which debuted at #17 in the U.S. Snow Patrol also broke through, reaching the US Top 10 with the single "Chasing Cars", and more recently Amy Winehouse reached the US top 10 with her single Rehab.

Natasha Bedingfield enjoyed success in the United States in 2005 & 2006 with singles like "These Words", which reached #17 in the U.S. charts and "Unwritten" which peaked inside the U.S. top 10 at #5 and became the second most played song on U.S. radio in 2006, her Album also reached #26.

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[edit] Early British Invasion artists

British artists which reached number-one on the Hot 100, 1964-1966

British artists which "only" reached the Top 10 of the Hot 100, 1964-1966

Other British artists who were successful in the USA

[edit] Second British Invasion artists

[edit] Subsequent British artists who had success in the USA

[edit] References

^ [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/bio/index.jsp?pid=23036 Vera Lynn Bio, Billboard.com, retrieved 2007-11-05
^ The British Invasion, Survey of American Popular Music, retrieved 2007-11-05
^ [http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608001697/Todd-Rundgren.html Todd Rundgren Bio, Musicianguide.com, retreieved 2007-11-05
^ OUP, retrieved 2007-11-05

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British Invasion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Background and pre-invasion

[edit] Beatles and the British Invasion

[edit] Other British invasion personalities

[edit] Second British Invasion

[edit] Subsequent years

[edit] Early British Invasion artists

[edit] Second British Invasion artists

[edit] Subsequent British artists who had success in the USA

[edit] References

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