the beatles and the british invasion

1964– 1966

The Beatles and the British Invasion

chapter 4

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

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

British pop from WWII to 1963

• History of British interest in American music includes folk and jazz

– “Trad” jazz

– Skiffle

– Cliff Richard, early rock

Lonnie Donegan

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

The Beatles, 1960-1962

• Hamburg– Played six and seven hour evenings

– Refined performing skills and repertoire

Beatles at the Cavern Club, 1961

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

Beatles at the Cavern Club, 1963

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

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

Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show

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 Day’s Night (1964)

• Help! (1965)

– Controversy over “bigger than Jesus” remark in 1966

– Final public concert in San Francisco, August 1966

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”

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

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

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

Gerry and the Pacemakers

The British Invasion (Beatles-type)

– Second wave, 1965• Herman’s Hermits

• Freddy and the Dreamers

• Hollies

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

Rolling Stones, Zurich, 1967

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

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

Yardbirds

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

Animals (Eric Burdon)

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

The Kinks

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

The Who, 1967

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