Rock and Roll in the 1960s

Introduction

The British Invasion was a surge of rock and roll artists who originated from the Britain became famous in other parts of the world; US, Australia, Canada among others. This invasion took place in 1964-1966 and influx that took place much later influencing the entertainment market in Britain. The invasion took place with the export of several British acts to the US in the 50s. Several artists copied what their American counterparts did; styles, and image (Garofalo, 2005). An excellent example is Cliff Richard and The Shadows. However, their influence was not huge, it had a limited number of recordings like The Tornados and the Stranger on the Shore which were instrumentals. This paper will look at the two schools arising from the British Invasion with American style and the reason as to why they originated from Great Britain.

Essentially, two distinct schools characterized the British Invasion namely “skiffle” and rhythm and blues. Skiffle is a popular music that has a mix of jazz, blues, folks and roots and uses improvised instruments. This music originated in the United States in the early twentieth century but was reborn again in the United Kingdom in the 1960s (Altschuler, 2004). The earlier distinct schools groups termed as “skiffle” bands in the UK were influenced by the American genre of music drawing its influence from country western flavor such as Elvis Presley, Holly and Everly Brothers. Whereas, rhythm and blues often abbreviated as R&B or RnB is a popular genre of African –American music whose origins are in the 1940s. This was an urban, rocking, jazz based music with insistent beats. The second school were mainly influenced by this genre based on American classical blues artists such as Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. These two groups honed their skills over between 1960 -1962 playing across Europe (Horn, 2009). There meteoric rise into the international scene came in 1963 when the Beatles became a hit America and worldwide. Their unprecedented success encouraged their peers in the UK music industry to aggressive market their music internationally. This resulted into an imminent rise of UK bands into the United States and Internationally.

At this period of the British Invasion, the US was a rich ground for musical and cultural aspects. By 1964, the youth in the US did not have the ability to and creativity to control the rock and roll explosion in the late 50s. The market comprised of regressive sounds. Moreover, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy created a national trauma in the US that precipitated a cultural emptiness. This vacuum precipitated an external influence. This period saw ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ by The Beatles which topped the charts in the US for the first time (Horn, 2009). The reception was a great social and cultural breakthrough that sparked off the British Invasion.

The Beatles two year dominance in England saw them rise fast in the US charts. The two different schools from Britain rose to be among the top five songs on the Billboards. This success saw an influx of British acts in the US markets starting with The Dave Clark Five this followed Gerry and the Pacemakers, Peter and Gordon. And Petula Clark in 1964 among others.

The bands located in the US took up the image and style from their British counterparts. Groups like Byrds used the British styles in hair and dressing. Bob Dylan in 1965 transformed from Folk Music to Rock and Roll by musicians from the British Invasion (Garofalo, 2005). The Invasion brought about extensive emergence of new rock and roll bands in the US similar to the UK a decade earlier due to the American artists.

The British Invasion was most notable in the early 60s when the styles used in recording by the British and US artists became similar. The styles and impact of the British bands reintroduced the American rock and roll platform and music became more creative and influential in the 70s (Kirby, 2009). This led to several sub-genres like Folk Rock and Acid Rock.

Conclusively, the impact brought about by the British Invasion was great. It created a standard model of an independent rock group. Additionally it played a significant role in setting the pace for conventional rock that played their own tunes. The British acts like the Beatles set the stage for high quality recording and style. The invasion led to the development of acid rock, heavy metal and progressive rock that is prevalent today.

References

Altschuler, G. (2004). All Shook Up: How Rock ‘N’ Roll Changed America. Oxford: Oxford   University Press.

Garofalo, R. (2005). Rockin’ Out: Popular Music in the U.S.A. (4th edition). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Horn, A. (2009). Juke box Britain: Americanisation and youth culture, 1945 – 60. Manchester:      Manchester University Press.

Kirby, D. (2009). Little Richard: The Birth of Rock ‘n’ roll. London: Continuum.