Otero !1
Luis Otero
Professor Caitlin Carlos
MUS 201A-01 American Pop: History of Rock
May 19, 2017
The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming!
Gordon Thompson once said, “The generation that created the British beat boom had
neither fought in the war nor played any role in establishing the postwar economic policies that
seemed ready to entomb it in the late forties & early fifties.” Postwar Great Britain had to deal
with a massive war debt, and during rebuilding, Winston Churchill and the Labor Party rebuilt
housing developments and created as many homes as possible. This industrial vacuum created
some “American invasion,” in which US rock and roll and rhythm and blues became popular
with English teenagers in the late 50s because Britain was considered a secondary force in pop
music. The US was becoming more of influence as British labels licensed music from American
majors and independents. It was not till the early 60s that Britain made their fusions of rock, and
like the US, the British crossed over to America. This event that occurred in the mid-60s when
British rock and pop music was dubbed the “British Invasion.” The first band that comes to mind
when one thinks of the British Invasion is, of course, the Beatles, who prepped the stage for
British acts to take over in America. The British Invasion was a musical phenomenon in the
United States that occurred due to the “American Invasion” that happened in the 50s and the
Beatles leading the musical revolution and spreading the counterculture movement of the 60s.
First, just as the music from the UK influenced American culture, in the 1950s, like their
transatlantic peers, British youth discovered their future in the frantic beats and suggestive lyrics
Otero !2
of American rock and roll. According to Dr. Roger Fagge and Collin Lieberg of the University of
Warwick, there were two main components of the 1950s; “…one had an element of conformity,
…the other strand contained the rise of the teenager, the birth of rock and roll, the impact of
existentialism, bebop and modern jazz.” This element of conformity builds around suburbia,
where there was a rise of a more wealthy middle-class. However; at the same time, political
opposition was subjugated, and this created both problems and opportunities for those working in
the cultural sphere. Rock and Roll met the needs of a more energetic group of teens; however,
American rock began to unravel towards the end of the 50s. With bad news came even more bad
news in the rock and roll era, such as, “…Elvis had conformed by joining the army. Buddy Holly
was dead, Chuck Berry was in prison for violating the Mann Act, and Little Richard had given
up life as a musician to become a minister” (Fagge et al.). Although rock and roll had a downturn
at the end of the 50s in America, British teenagers still viewed it as fresh and new.
American rock and roll became so popular that several individuals made early
commercial attempts to replicate American rock and roll, but this failed miserably. As stated by
editorial director Ira A. Robbins, what was wrong is that they were, “Lacking the indigenous
basic ingredients–rhythm and blues and country music–of rock and roll,” and that “…enthusiasts
could bring only crippling British decorum and diffidence.” While there have been unsuccessful
attempts at imitating rock and roll, the influence of American rock became so popular with
British youth in the 1950s that “…the pop underground in Great Britain was quietly brewing
something far more potent starting in the mid-1950s” (Hoffman). Before American rock and roll
began to take over the music charts in the UK, “…Skiffle, itself based on American blues, had
been the prominent genre int the UK” (Fagge et al.). The only sign of life was in the late 1950s
Otero !3
skiffle craze, which is a kind of folk music with a blues or jazz flavor, played by a small group
often incorporating improvised instruments such as washboards. Skiffle small groups, were for
the most part, “…drummerless acoustic guitar-and-banjo ensembles, jug bands really, who most
often traditional American folk songs, frequently with more spirit than instrumental
polish” (Robbins). Led by Scottish musician Lonnie Donegan, with his well-known song “Rock
Island Line,” the Skiffle craze inspired the baby boomer generation to form their bands.
According to author Harry Bill of “The British Invasion: How The Beatles and Other UK Bands
Conquered America,” Great Britain became the world’s biggest skiffle movement, “…where
youngsters also found that they could produce music with affordable basic instruments…”
English skiffle artists played songs that were early American folk ballads and held parties
playing music in which they charged a nominal fee to pay rent (Harry 12). By 1962, young
groups with electric guitars began performing and writing up-tempo melodic pop, fiery rock and
roll, and Chicago-style electric blues. Liverpool became a hot spot for Beat Music or
“Merseybeat,” which provided many of the bands responsible for the British Invasion of the
American pop charts starting in 1964, most notably the Liverpool based band The Beatles.
When it comes to deliberating the bands that partook in the British Invasion, the Beatles
were regarded as the undisputed leaders to the British invasion and opened America’s doors to a
wealth of British talent. According to Kenneth R. Olwig, the Beatles and other British invaders,
“…played primarily to a British society that was perceived then to be characterized more by
class relations, than by ethnic/racial communities” (Olwig”). Playing for their common social
origins in the hardscrabble waterfront city of Liverpool was more important to the Beatles’
Merseybeat identity than Paul McCartney’s Irish background. By late 1963, the Beatles were
Otero !4
already a household name in the United Kingdom and much of Europe, and the band was
regularly playing sold out shows to hordes of screaming teenagers. The enormous popularity of
members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison first emerged as
“Beatlemania,” the intense fan frenzy that the band endured in the early 1960s.
However; the band had trouble achieving popularity across the Atlantic. Supported by
historian Evan Andrews, even though the group had made success on the top of the singles charts
in England, “Their first two U.S. singles– the jaunty “Please Please Me” and the catchy “From
Me to You”– had flopped.” Their first singles had gone nowhere when released by various labels
in the states. Capitol Records, the American counterpart of EMI, appeared uninterested in
promoting and producing a foreign band (Andrews). The part of the problem was that the
beginning of 1964 was still gloomy. The United States was still in shock and grief over the
assassination of President John F. Kennedy in late 1963. It seemed like the death of JFK changed
the American cultural and political landscapes because since Kennedy had a strong appeal for
young people, there was a sense of abandoning some of the political dormancy of the 1950s and
offering a more idealistic vision for young Americans (Fagge et al.). The Beatles, with their
cheekiness and catchy, upbeat pop songs, proved to be the perfect antidote to America’s
collective depression. It was not until January 25th, 1964 that the band topped the U.S. charts
with their single “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” which sold one and a half million copies in just
under three weeks (Harry 13). A month later, the British Invasion commenced in New York City
on February 7, 1964, when, “four young men from Liverpool are disembarking from a Boeing
707 at the recently named John F. Kennedy airport. The Beatles have landed in the United States
Otero !5
of America” to thousands of adoring fans (Fagge et al.). An airplane landing started the first
wave of a new musical revolution.
Overnight, Beatlemania swept the nation. Supported by journalist Parke Puterbaugh, “…
Reporters found themselves trading quips with the surprisingly quick-witted Liverpudlians.
Young girls abandoned themselves to hysteria. And schoolboys started dreaming of long hair and
electric guitars.” The Beatles’ popularity continued to soar as they performed on Ed Sullivan’s
television show two days after they landed, had thirty top ten pop hits between 1964 and 1966,
and had all their studio albums skyrocketed to number one in both the U.S. and the UK. A
record-breaking seventy-three million viewers tuned in to watch the Beatles on “Ed Sullivan”
perform the songs “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Twist and Shout,” and “Please, Please Me” –
which is about forty percent of the United States population (Andrews). The merchandising of
the Beatles, whose name was put on every item from toys to lunch boxes, accounted for
approximately fifty million dollars of revenue in retail business alone in 1964. The Beatles were
Great Britain’s leading cultural export that year (Puterbaugh). Beatlemania has now spread
throughout the United States, and it was clearly evident the Beatles were the main reason for
starting the British Invasion. These developments made a considerable impact on the British
music scene, and British artists–from beat groups to skiffle bands–were rapidly signed up by
American producers and labels and promoted through the mass media (Hoffman). The Beatles’
arrival in the United States that year marked the spread of Beatlemania from the UK to the
extensive world, established the group’s international prestige, and, triggering the British
Invasion, caused changes in US popular culture. However; the Beatles did spur lots of
controversy during the invasion.
Otero !6
Although the Beatles were insanely popular during the mid-1960s, they managed to
ignite a dispute concerning their presence in the states. Jordan Runtagh of Rolling Stone explains
that in 1966, John Lennon was interviewed and argued that Christianity was in decline and that
the band is now, “…more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first – rock and
roll or Christianity.” Lennon unknowingly strolled into a big split in American culture between a
more religious, in some ways anti-contemporary, section of the U.S. and a more liberal and
progressive part of America which embraced of modernity (Fagge et al.). Lennon's quote set off
an outburst of album burnings and prohibitions of their albums; even the Ku Klux Klan burnt a
cross with a Beatles album attached to it in South Carolina, nevertheless; their success did not
suffer. Even Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll, even met with then President Richard Nixon
and requested him to ban the Beatles from entering the United States. As the article "The British
Invasion” explains, the reasons Elvis asked Nixon were because he perceived that the Beatles
supported lifestyles that encouraged drug use, especially lysergic acids or LSDs, and that they
were anti-war. Since the Beatles were anti-war, “the King” believed that they were antiAmericans as well. He also felt that the band was an adverse influence on American youth and
their impact should limit by obstructing them from performing in the country. Elvis was right as
the Beatles were becoming more associated with the counterculture movement of the 1960s and
even assisted in spreading it across the country.
As the 1960s progressed, widespread tensions developed in American society concerning
the Vietnam War, race relations, women’s rights and traditionalist interpretations of the American
Dream. In 1966, the level of artistic consistency among British rock musicians dramatically
accelerated for bands such as the Beatles, who started to fuse elements of cultivated music with
Otero !7
the modern traditions of rock. According to Saylor, the music of the 1960s moved towards an
electric, psychedelic version of rock, “…reflecting the off-beat, experimental characteristics of
the counterculture itself.” The Beatles were influenced by many American artists, among them
was folk singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, who was a lyrical inspiration and also an introduction to
marijuana. Psychedelic rock and counterculture peaked in the final years of the decade. In 1967,
the Beatles, who have decided to stop touring because they didn't want to focus on things they
can do in the recording studio, released their absolute psychedelic and progressive rock concept
album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Saylor). The band started to experiment with
novel instrumentation, studio effects, stylistic juxtapositions, timbre, and structure. Professor
Charles Olney gives an explanation, saying that the Beatles moved from being pop to rock and
this produced backlashes for their audience and LSD drugs took on, “…increasing relevance
when Paul McCartney admitted only two weeks after the album’s release that he had taken LSD,
shocking the world.” People began to search where the drug’s influence can be seen. The furor
over the song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” demonstrates the counterculture movement as
the first letter of each of the title nouns intentionally spelled LSD. If the concept album has any
theme in it, it is this: turning their listeners on to the truth of alienation and the destruction of
self-identity in contemporary society (Olney). For the first time, avant-garde art became
intertwined with popular music, and voice had come out from the chaos to speak for the
counterculture as the album represented a radical revision to conventional thinking (Olney).
The Beatles kick-started the British Invasion, and during the next two years after the
Beatles entered the Hot 100 for the first time, invasion acts kept swarming into the US. By 1964,
the greater London area released British artists placed in styles categorized either as blues-based
Otero !8
rock music or as guitar driven rock/pop (Hoffman). Some of the loudest and toughest music of
the British Invasion came out of London. The first onslaught of British performers to achieve
success on the American charts included Dusty Springfield, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds,
the Animals, the Searchers, the Who, and Peter and Gordon. For example, the Rolling Stones’ “(I
Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” delivered a knockout punch in 1965, with “…its central riff and
basic lyrical thrust created by guitarist Keith Richards” (Puterbaugh). This was in stark contrast
to the Beatles, as the Rolling Stones were perceived by the U.S. public as a much edgier and
dangerous bad boy band. The Rolling Stones would become the biggest band other than the
Beatles to come out of the British Invasion, topping the hot 100 eight times. Bands from London
appealed more to an “outsider” demographic and popularized the rhythm and blues genre which
had been largely ignored or rejected by black American artists in the 1950s (“The British
Invasion”).
The British Invasion had a profound impact on traditional music, internationalizing the
production of rock and roll, establishing the British music industry as a center for musical
creativity and opening the door for British acts to achieve international success. By the end of the
1960s, the Invasion arguably spelled the end of surf music, the 1960s American folk music
revival and the teen idols that dominated the American charts during the 1950s and 1960s. By the
pivotal year 1967, a proliferation of English and American bands were equals in one rock music
culture (Fagge et al.). The Beatles dominated the 60s and in many ways helped start the British
Invasion in the 1960s. Their music, style, and ethos became a template for American bands with
many young men seeking success just like this awesome band. Without the Beatles, there would
have been no British Invasion at all.
Otero !9
Works Cited
Andrews, Evan. "Beatlemania Sweeps the United States." History.com. A&E Television
Networks, 07 Feb. 2014. Web. 14 May 2017.
Brown, Bryan. "BEATLEMANIA!." Junior Scholastic, vol. 115, no. 14, 18 Feb. 2013, p. 10.
EBSCOhost, libproxy.chapman.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=prh&AN=85504409&site=eds-live.
"Counterculture." Saylor. Boundless, n.d. Web. 16 May 2017. <https://www.saylor.org/site/wpcontent/uploads/201304/POLSC301-9.1.3-Counterculture.pdf>.
Fagge, Roger, and Collin Lieberg. "A Very British Invasion: The Beatles in America." University
of Warwick. N.p., 11 Jan. 2016. Web. 14 May 2017.
Harry, Bill. The British Invasion : How the Beatles and Other UK Bands Conquered America.
Independent Publishers Group, 2004. EBSCOhost, libproxy.chapman.edu/login?
url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=nlebk&AN=275343&site=eds-live.
Hoffmann, Frank. "The British Invasion." Survey of American Popular Music. N.p., 2003. Web.
14 May 2017. <http://www.shsu.edu/lis_fwh/book/british_invasion/
British%20Invasion2.htm>.
Olwig, KR. "The 'British Invasion': The 'New' Cultural Geography and beyond." Cultural
Geographies, vol. 17, no. 2, n.d., pp. 175-179. EBSCOhost, libproxy.chapman.edu/login?
url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx
direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=edswss&AN=000276779500004&site=edslive.
Puterbaugh, Parke. "The British Invasion: From the Beatles to the Stones, The Sixties Belonged
to Britain." Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone, 14 July 1988. Web. 14 May 2017.
Robbins, Ira A. "British Invasion." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., n.d.
Web. 8 May 2017.
Runtagh, Jordan. "When John Lennon's 'Jesus' Controversy Turned Ugly." Rolling Stone. Rolling
Stone, 29 July 2016. Web. 15 May 2017.
"The British Invasion." The 1960s: The Decade of Discontent. N.p., 02 Aug. 2011. Web. 14 May
2017. <https://dancedetroit.wordpress.com/the-british-invasion/>.