British Invasion
Mike Clement
MUS 245
21 March 2011
The British Invasion The British Music Invasion was one of the most influential time periods for the development and maturation of a new variation of rock and roll. This innovating movement was initially inspired by some of America’s greatest rock and blues musicians including: Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, and so on. The establishment of the British music scene absorbed and completely reconfigured the traditional instruments, established music forms, and the same overused lyrics that once belonged to rock and roll. Two different schools with two different sounds categorize this great time of influence, now known as the British Invasion. Even though both schools were yielded from the same “musical soil,” Great Brittan’s internal struggle between economic and social classes had a fundamental role in forming each school’s distinguishable style. The British Invasion was the product of Great Britain’s attempt to,” [break] free from the overt imitation of musical references and with the incorporation of direct influences from African American blues and R&B musicians, [Great Britain unknowingly] laid the foundations for the development of a uniquely British rock &roll sound” (Perone). Essentially, the American music scene provided a pattern that led to the synthesis of two very distinctive music styles that were influentially different yet generated from the same music source. The complexity of each school’s sound allocated a generous amount of variation from the same musical sources. Among the first of the two schools, Liverpool manufactured a sound comparable to skiffle and really laid the framework for deeper music interpretation. Originally, the term skiffle referred to the sound created by the poorer African-American musicians of the American South who resorted to raw materials and handmade instruments that produced a more homegrown, earthy sound (Harry). Especially at this point in
MUS 245
21 March 2011
The British Invasion The British Music Invasion was one of the most influential time periods for the development and maturation of a new variation of rock and roll. This innovating movement was initially inspired by some of America’s greatest rock and blues musicians including: Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, and so on. The establishment of the British music scene absorbed and completely reconfigured the traditional instruments, established music forms, and the same overused lyrics that once belonged to rock and roll. Two different schools with two different sounds categorize this great time of influence, now known as the British Invasion. Even though both schools were yielded from the same “musical soil,” Great Brittan’s internal struggle between economic and social classes had a fundamental role in forming each school’s distinguishable style. The British Invasion was the product of Great Britain’s attempt to,” [break] free from the overt imitation of musical references and with the incorporation of direct influences from African American blues and R&B musicians, [Great Britain unknowingly] laid the foundations for the development of a uniquely British rock &roll sound” (Perone). Essentially, the American music scene provided a pattern that led to the synthesis of two very distinctive music styles that were influentially different yet generated from the same music source. The complexity of each school’s sound allocated a generous amount of variation from the same musical sources. Among the first of the two schools, Liverpool manufactured a sound comparable to skiffle and really laid the framework for deeper music interpretation. Originally, the term skiffle referred to the sound created by the poorer African-American musicians of the American South who resorted to raw materials and handmade instruments that produced a more homegrown, earthy sound (Harry). Especially at this point in
Cited: Harry, Bill. The British Invasion. City: Chrome Dreams, 2004. Perone, James. Mods, Rockers, and the Music of the British Invasion. New York: Praeger Publishers, 2009. Stuessy, Joe and Scott Lipscomb. Rock and Roll. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009.