The Beatles and the British Invasion

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The Beatles and the British Invasion

• chapter 4

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British pop between 1964 and 1966

• American business taken by surprise in early 1964
  by the Beatles
• An American fad for British music ensued
• Two important strains of the story
• Chronicle of British pop
• Influence of British pop on American pop

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British pop from WWII to 1963

• Prior to 1964 British music was considered
  inferior in America
• In contrast, American Culture was interesting to
  Britons
• Result of American involvement in WWII
• British labels licensed music from American
  independents
• Facilitated the spread of American black pop

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British pop from WWII to 1963

• History of British interest in American music
  includes folk and jazz
• Trad jazz
• Skiffle
• Cliff Richard, early rock

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Lonnie Donegan
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The Beatles, 1960-1962

• Early years
• Formed out of the skiffle-based Quarrymen
• Among the first generation of musicians who
  listened to rock as youth
• Began performing live actively in 1960

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The Beatles, 1960-1962

• Hamburg
• Played six and seven hour evenings
• Refined performing skills and repertoire

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Beatles at the Cavern Club, 1961
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The Beatles, 1960-1962

• Liverpool
• Played at the Cavern nearly 300 times through
  1962
• Met future manager Brian Epstein in 1961
• Secured Parlophone recording contract in 1962
• First single (Love Me Do) goes to 17 on
  British charts

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Beatles at the Cavern Club, 1963
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The Beatles, 1960-1962

• Influences
• Beatles learned from cover songs performed in
  early period
• Songs performed at Star Club and BBC, 1962-1965
• American pop dominates
• Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins,
  Lieber and Stoller, Spector, Motown

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The Beatles 1963-1966

• Success in England in 1963
• Two high-profile television performances
• Four consecutive hits
• Led wave of British-based hits in England

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Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show
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The Beatles 1963-1966

• Success in America in 1964
• Performed on Ed Sullivan in February
• 30 Top Ten pop hits between 1964 and 1966
• All studio albums went to number 1 in both UK and
  U.S.
• Feature films
• Hard Days Night (1964)
• Help! (1965)
• Controversy over bigger than Jesus remark in
  1966
• Final public concert in San Francisco, August 1966

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The Beatles 1963-1966

• Musical development, 1964-1966
• Imitated and extended American models in early
  music
• Used songwriting techniques from Brill Building,
  1963-1964
• Found variety in solving compositional problems
• I Want To Hold Your Hand
• Moved from craft to artistic approach, 1964-1966
• Experimented with studio effects, stylistic
  juxtapositions, and timbre, and structure
• Tomorrow Never Knows

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The Beatles 1963-1966

• Importance of lyrics
• Teenage love in early years
• Unconventional in later music
• Self-confidence
• Sexual frustration
• Alienation
• Stylistic range
• Widens in 1965 with Help!
• Novel instrumentation
• Stylistic eclecticism

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The British Invasion

• Beatles led the surge of British music in the
  United States in 1964
• Groups were British, played guitars, and had long
  hair
• Broad stylistic range
• Had many hits on the U.S. charts between 1964 and
  1966
• Two strains modeled after Beatles and Stones

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The British Invasion (Beatles-type)

• Charming, cute, friendly
• First wave, 1964
• Gerry and the Pacemakers
• Dave Clark Five
• Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas
• Searchers

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Gerry and the Pacemakers
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The British Invasion (Beatles-type)

• Second wave, 1965
• Hermans Hermits
• Freddy and the Dreamers
• Hollies

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The British Blues Revival (Stones-Type)

• Bad boys, in contrast to the Beatles-type image
• Followed the lead of the Rolling Stones
• Drew on tradition of Chicago electric blues from
  1950s
• Spawned a wave of enthusiasm for collecting and
  performing American blues

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Rolling Stones, Zurich, 1967
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The British Blues Revival (Stones-Type)

• Rolling Stones, 1962-1966
• Formed by guitarist Brian Jones as a blues band
• Managed by Andrew Loog Oldham and Eric Easton,
  1963
• Started move toward pop in 1963
• Early recordings
• Covered songs by American artists
• I Wanna Be Your Man by Lennon and McCartney
• Jagger and Richards achieve success as
  songwriters in 1964
• Did not achieve widespread success in America
  until 1965
• Preferred contrasting verse-chorus rather than
  AABA

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The British Blues Revival (Stones-Type)

• Yardbirds
• Guitarists included Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and
  Jimmy Page
• Used studio musicians on early records
• Recorded in Chicago at Chess

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Yardbirds
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The British Blues Revival (Stones-Type)

• Animals
• Reputation from wild stage act
• House of the Rising Sun (1964)
• Bassist Chas Chandler became manager for Jimi
  Hendrix in 1966
• Spencer Davis Group

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Animals (Eric Burdon)
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The British Blues Revival

• Other British groups did not fit into
  Beatles/Stones categories
• Kinks
• Formed in 1963
• Aggressive pop approach
• You Really Got Me (1964)
• Mirrored the Beatles move into artistic
  songwriting, 1965

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The Kinks
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The British Blues Revival

• Who
• Not influential until the late 1960s
• Never made the U.S. Top 40 during the mid-1960s
• Representative of the Mod subculture in London

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The Who, 1967
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Transformation of American Popular Music

• Rise of the Beatles transformed popular music
• Opened doors for British acts within the UK
• Opened new opportunities for British acts outside
  the UK
• British Invasion established a cross
  fertilization between U.S. and UK