British Invasion
The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom[2] and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States with significant influence on the rising "counterculture" on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.[3] UK pop and rock groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks,[4] the Zombies, Small Faces, the Dave Clark Five,[5] The Spencer Davis Group, Herman's Hermits, the Hollies, the Animals, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Searchers, the Yardbirds, Them, and Manfred Mann,[6] as well as solo singers such as Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black, Petula Clark, Tom Jones and Donovan, were at the forefront of the "invasion".[7]
This article is about the cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s. For other uses, see British Invasion (disambiguation).Date
Background[edit]
The rebellious tone and image of US rock and roll and blues musicians became popular with British youth in the late 1950s. While early commercial attempts to replicate US rock and roll mostly failed, the trad jazz–inspired skiffle craze,[8] with its do-it-yourself attitude, produced two top-ten hits in the US by Lonnie Donegan.[9][10] Young British groups started to combine various British and American styles in different parts of the United Kingdom, such as the movement in Liverpool known as Merseybeat or the "beat boom".[1][11][12][13]
While US acts were popular in the United Kingdom, few British acts had achieved any success in the US prior to 1964. Cliff Richard, who was the best-selling British act in the United Kingdom at the time, had only one Top 40 hit in the US, with "Living Doll" in 1959. Along with Donegan, exceptions to this trend were the US number-one hits "Auf Wiederseh'n, Sweetheart" by Vera Lynn in 1952 (Lynn also had a lower-charting, but more enduring, hit in "We'll Meet Again"), "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" by Laurie London in 1958, and the instrumentals "Stranger on the Shore" by Acker Bilk and "Telstar" by the Tornados, both in 1962.[14] Also on the Hot 100, "Manhattan Spiritual" by Reg Owen and His Orchestra" reached number ten in February 1959, Hayley Mills' "Let's Get Together" from The Parent Trap peaked number eight in October 1961,[15] and in 1962, "Midnight in Moscow" by Kenny Ball reached number two in March, the Springfields' version of "Silver Threads and Golden Needles" peaked at number twenty in September, and Frank Ifield's "I Remember You" reached number five in October.[16]
Some observers have noted that US teenagers were growing tired of singles-oriented pop acts like Fabian and the "Bobby"s: Bobby Darin, Bobby Vinton, Bobby Rydell, Bobby Vee etc.[17] The Mods and Rockers, two youth "gangs" in mid-1960s Britain, also had an impact in British Invasion music. Bands with a Mod aesthetic became the most popular, but bands able to balance both (e.g., the Beatles) were also successful.[18]
Beyond the Beatles[edit]
One week after the Beatles entered the Hot 100 for the first time, Dusty Springfield, having launched a solo career after her participation in the Springfields, became the next British act to reach the Hot 100, peaking at number twelve with "I Only Want to Be with You".[35][nb 1] During the next three years, many more British acts with a chart-topping US single would appear.[nb 2] As 1965 approached, another wave of British Invasion artists emerged. These were usually composed of groups playing in a more pop style, such as the Hollies or the Zombies, as well as artists with a harder-driving, blues-based approach like the Dave Clark Five, the Kinks, and the Rolling Stones.[55][56][57] By 17 April, British acts accounted for 30 records in the Hot 100,[58] and on 8 May, they accounted for eight of the nine British Commonwealth's entries that made a nearly clean sweep of that weekly Hot 100's Top Ten, lacking only a hit at number two instead of Gary Lewis & the Playboys' "Count Me In".[59] On 1 May, the British Commonwealth also nearly swept the Cash Box singles chart's Top Ten, lacking only a hit at number six instead of "Count Me In". The British Commonwealth also held down the top six on the Hot 100 on 1 May and the top six on Cash Box singles chart's Top Ten on 24 April.[60] That same year, half of the 26 Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers (counting the Beatles' "I Feel Fine", carrying over from 1964) and the number one position on 28 of the 52 chart weeks belonged to British acts.[61] The British trend would continue into 1966 and beyond.[62] British Invasion acts also dominated the music charts at home in the United Kingdom.[55]
The musical style of British Invasion artists, such as the Beatles, had been influenced by earlier US rock 'n' roll, a genre that had lost some popularity and appeal by the time of the Invasion. However, a subsequent handful of British performers, particularly the Rolling Stones and the Animals, would appeal to a more 'outsider' demographic, essentially reviving and popularising, for young people at least, a musical genre rooted in the blues, rhythm, and black culture,[63] which had been largely ignored or rejected when performed by black US artists in the 1950s.[64] Such bands were sometimes perceived by US parents and elders as rebellious and unwholesome, unlike parent-friendly pop groups such as the Beatles. The Rolling Stones would become the biggest band other than the Beatles to come out of the British Invasion,[65] topping the Hot 100 eight times.[66] Sometimes, there would be a clash between the two styles of the British Invasion, the polished pop acts and the grittier blues-based acts, due to the expectations set by the Beatles. Eric Burdon of the Animals said, "They dressed us up in the most strange costumes. They were even gonna bring a choreographer to show us how to move on stage. I mean, it was ridiculous. It was something that was so far away from our nature and, um, yeah we were just pushed around and told, 'When you arrive in America, don't mention the [Vietnam] war! You can't talk about the war.' We felt like we were being gagged."[67]
"Freakbeat" is a term sometimes given to certain British Invasion acts closely associated with the Mod scene during the Swinging London period, particularly harder-driving British blues bands of the era that often remained obscure to US listeners, and who are sometimes seen as counterparts to the garage rock bands in America.[68][69] Certain acts, such as the Pretty Things and the Creation, had a certain degree of chart success in the UK and are often considered exemplars of the form.[70][71][72] The emergence of a relatively homogeneous worldwide "rock" music style marking the end of the "invasion" occurred in 1967.[1]
End of the first British Invasion and its aftermath[edit]
The historical conclusion of the British Invasion is ambiguous. The wave of Anglophilia largely faded as US culture shifted in response to the Vietnam War and the resulting civil unrest in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As the cultural aspects of the British Invasion waned, British musical acts retained their popularity throughout the decade and into the 1970s, competing with their US counterparts as they returned to prominence. British progressive rock acts of the 1970s were often more popular in the US than their native Britain, as the US working class was generally favourable to the virtuosity of progressive rock acts, while the bands' British audience was confined to the more genteel upper classes.[114]
British bands such as Badfinger and The Sweet, and US band the Raspberries, are considered to have evolved the genre into power pop. In 1978, two rock magazines wrote cover stories analyzing power pop as a saviour to both the new wave and the direct simplicity of rock. Along with the music, new wave power impacted fashion, such as the mod style of the Jam or the skinny ties of the burgeoning Los Angeles scene. Several power pop artists were commercially successful; most notably the Knack, whose "My Sharona" was the highest-ranked US single of 1979. Although the Knack and power pop fell out of mainstream popularity, the genre continues to have a cult following with occasional periods of modest success.[115]
A subsequent wave of British artists rose to popularity in the early 1980s as British music videos appeared in US media, leading to what is now known as the "Second British Invasion". Another wave of British mainstream prominence in US music charts came in the mid-1990s with the brief success of Spice Girls, Oasis, Blur, Radiohead and Robbie Williams. At least one British act would appear somewhere on the Hot 100 every week from 2 November 1963 until 20 April 2002, originating with the debut of the Caravelles' "You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry". British acts declined in popularity throughout the 1990s, and in the 27 April 2002 issue of Billboard, none of the songs on the Hot 100 were from British artists; that week, only two of the top 100 albums, those of Craig David and Ozzy Osbourne, were from British artists.[116]
The latest movement came in the mid- to late 2000s, when British R&B and soul artists such as Amy Winehouse, Estelle, Joss Stone, Duffy, Natasha Bedingfield, Florence Welch, Adele, Floetry, Jessie J, Leona Lewis, Jay Sean and Taio Cruz enjoyed huge success in the US charts, which led to talk of a "Third British Invasion" or a "British Soul Invasion". Boyband One Direction have also been described as being a major part of a new "British Invasion" due to them being the first British band to have their debut album at number one on the US charts along with their overall dominance in America.[117][118]
