British pop music
British pop music is popular music, produced commercially in the United Kingdom. It emerged in the mid-to late 1950s as a softer alternative to American rock 'n' roll. Like American pop music it has a focus on commercial recording, often orientated towards a youth market, as well as that of the Singles Chart usually through the medium of relatively short and simple love songs. While these basic elements of the genre have remained fairly constant, pop music has absorbed influences from most other forms of popular music, particularly borrowing from the development of rock music, and utilising key technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes. From the British Invasion in the 1960s, led by The Beatles, British pop music has alternated between acts and genres with national appeal and those with international success that have had a considerable impact on the development of the wider genre and on popular music in general
Early British popular music
, in the sense of commercial music enjoyed by the people, arose in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the arrival of the broadside ballad, which were sold cheaply and in great numbers until the nineteenth century. Further technological, economic and social changes led to new forms of music in the nineteenth century, including parlour music and the brass band, which produced a popular and communal form of classical music. Similarly, the music hall sprang up to cater for the entertainment of new urban societies, adapting existing forms of music to produce popular songs and acts. In the 1930s the influence of American jazz and swing music led to the creation of British dance bands, who provided a social and popular music that began to dominate social occasions and the radio airwaves.Traditional pop, skiffle and rock 'n' roll 1950–1962
In the early 1950s sales of American records dominated British popular music. In the first full year of the charts in 1953 major artists were Perry Como, Guy Mitchell and Frankie Laine largely with orchestrated sentimental ballads, beside novelty records like " That Doggie in the Window?" re-recorded by British artist Lita Roza. Some established British wartime stars like Vera Lynn were still able to chart into the mid-1950s, but successful new British acts like Jimmy Young who had two number one hits in 1955, did so with re-recorded versions of American songs "Unchained Melody" and "The Man from Laramie" or Alma Cogan with "Dreamboat". Many successful songs were the product of movies, including number ones for Doris Day in 1954 with "Secret Love" from Calamity Jane and for Frank Sinatra with the title song from Three Coins in the Fountain.A notable British musical genre of the mid-1950s was skiffle, which was developed primarily by jazz musicians copying American folk and country blues songs such as those of Lead Belly in a deliberately rough and lively style emulating jug bands. The most prominent exponent was Lonnie Donegan, whose version of "Rock Island Line" was a major hit in 1956. The success of the skiffle craze, and the lack of a need for expensive instruments or high levels of musicianship, encouraged many working class British males to start their own groups. It has been estimated that in the late 1950s there were 30–50,000 skiffle groups in Britain. Sales of guitars grew rapidly and other musicians were able to perform on improvised bass and percussion in venues such as church halls and cafes, without having to aspire to musical perfection or virtuosity.
At the same time, rock and roll was played in Britain after 1955. The British product has generally been considered less successful than the American version of the genre at the time, and made very little international or lasting impact. However, it was important in establishing British youth and popular music culture and was a key factor in subsequent developments that led to the British Invasion of the mid-1960s. Since the 1960s some stars of the genre, most notably Cliff Richard, have managed to sustain very successful pop careers and there have been periodic revivals of this form of music.
Beat and the British Invasion 1963–1969
In the late 1950s, a flourishing culture of groups began to emerge, often out of the declining skiffle scene, in major urban centres in the UK like Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and London. This was particularly true in Liverpool, where it has been estimated that there were around 350 different bands active, often playing ballrooms, concert halls and clubs. Beat bands were heavily influenced by American bands of the era, such as Buddy Holly and the Crickets, as well as earlier British groups such as The Shadows. After the national success of the Beatles in Britain from 1962, a number of Liverpool performers were able to follow them into the singles charts, including Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Searchers, and Cilla Black. Among the most successful beat acts from Birmingham were The Spencer Davis Group and The Moody Blues. From London, the term Tottenham Sound was largely based around The Dave Clark Five, but other London bands that benefited from the beat boom of this era included the Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds. The first non-Liverpool, non-Brian Epstein-managed band to break through in the UK were Freddie and the Dreamers, who were based in Manchester, as were Herman's Hermits and The Hollies.The British Invasion of America led by the Beatles from their arrival in February 1964 saw them, uniquely, hold the top 5 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart simultaneously. During the next two years, Peter and Gordon, The Animals, Manfred Mann, Petula Clark, Freddie and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, Herman’s Hermits, The Rolling Stones, The Troggs, and Donovan would have one or more number one singles. Other acts that were part of the invasion included The Dave Clark Five, Tom Jones, The Kinks and The Who At this point most of the British Invasion bands did not distinguish their rock 'n' roll or blues based music from pop music. However, around 1967 as blues-rock acts, emerging folk rock and some beat bands, including the Beatles, veered towards a more serious forms of music, the term pop music began to be applied to rock and roll based music with more commercial aims, often with inconsequential lyrics, particularly simple love songs, and orientated towards the singles chart, continuing the path of traditional pop. Although some bands occupied territory that crossed the emerging rock/pop divide and were able to produce successes in both camps, including the Beatles and Rolling Stones, the British pop genre in the late 1960s would be dominated by individual singers like Sandie Shaw.
Band pop, punk and new wave 1970–1978
The early 1970s were probably the era when British pop music was most dependent on the group format, with pop acts, like rock bands, playing guitars and drums, with the occasional addition of keyboards or orchestration. Some of these groups were in some sense "manufactured", but many were competent musicians, playing on their own recordings and writing their own material. Some of the technically more impressive groups who enjoyed number one hits in the UK were 10cc, Status Quo and Mungo Jerry. Aiming much more for the teen market, partly a response to the Osmonds were The Rubettes and The Bay City Rollers.British soul and disco enjoyed mainstream popularity during this era, with artists such as the Bee Gees, Biddu, Carl Douglas, Tina Charles, and Jimmy James. The 1974 hit "Kung Fu Fighting" in particular sold eleven million records worldwide. Liverpool's The Real Thing, a group which had developed from a Merseybeat doo-wop act called The Chants, had nine Top 40 hits in the late 1970s, including number one "You to Me Are Everything" in 1976, with their records re-charting a decade later via a number of remixes and their 1977 song "Love's Such a Wonderful Thing" becoming a known on the early 2000s French touch scene thanks to it being sampled by Thomas Bangalter and DJ Falcon.
Largely vocal-based groups included the New Seekers, Brotherhood of Man, the last of these designed as a British answer to ABBA. In addition there were the rock and roll revivalists Showaddywaddy, Mud and Alvin Stardust. Individuals who enjoyed successful pop careers in this period included Gilbert O'Sullivan, David Essex, Leo Sayer and Rod Stewart.
Perhaps the most unusual British development in pop was glam or glitter rock, characterised by outrageous clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and platform-soled boots. The flamboyant lyrics, costumes, and visual styles of glam performers were a campy playing with categories of sexuality in a theatrical blend of nostalgic references to science fiction and old movies, all over a guitar-driven hard rock sound. Pioneers of the genre included Marc Bolan with his band T. Rex and Mott the Hoople, while 1960s acts like Shane Fenton and The N'Betweens joined the scene, re-branding themselves as Alvin Stardust and Slade respectively. These, and many other acts including Queen and Elton John, straddled the divide between pop and rock music, managing to maintain a level of respectability with rock audiences, while enjoying success in the singles chart. Other performers aimed much more directly for the popular music market, where they were the dominant acts of their era. Acts enjoying many hits in this period included The Sweet, Gary Glitter and The Glitter Band, with the last two pushing the glitter image to its limits. British acts mixing art pop with glam included David Bowie, Roxy Music and Sparks. A scene most popular in the United Kingdom, glam rock peaked during the mid-1970s, before it disappeared in the face of punk and new wave trends.
The initial impact of punk on pop music, even when not banned from the charts, was not overwhelming, but by the end of the decade the British pop music industry was becoming dominated by post-punk new wave acts like Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Other successful new wave pop bands included XTC, Squeeze and Nick Lowe, as well as songwriters like Elvis Costello, rock & roll influenced bands like the Pretenders, and the reggae influenced music of bands like The Police. By the end of the decade, many of these bands, most obviously the Police, were beginning to make an impact in American and world markets.