British Invasion

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The arrival of The Beatles in the U.S., and subsequent appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, marked the start of the British Invasion.

The British Invasion is used to describe rock and roll, beat and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States from 1964 to 1966. The Second British Invasion refers to MTV acts of the 1980s. In the latter half of the 2000s the term would be used to describe the critical and popular success of mostly female acts at first and then British acts in general.

Original British Invasion

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The rebellious tone and image of American rock and roll and blues musicians became popular with British youth in the late 1950s. Early attempts to replicate American Rock and Roll failed. The skiffle craze with its "Do-it-yourself" attitude was imitated by several British acts that would later be part of the "invasion". Young British groups started to combine various British and American styles. This coalesced in Liverpool during 1962 in what became known as the “beat boom” for its Merseybeat sound.^[1][2][3][4]

On 7 February 1964 The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite ran a story about The Beatles' United States arrival in which the correspondent said "The British Invasion this time goes by the code name Beatlemania".^[5] A few days later they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Seventy five percent of Americans watching television that night viewed their appearance thus "launching" the invasion with a massive wave of chart success that would continue until they broke up in 1970.^[4] On 4 April 1964 the Beatles held the top 5 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, the only time to date that any act has accomplished this.^[6][4]

During the next two years, Chad & Jeremy, 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.^[1] Other acts that were part of the invasion included The Who, The Kinks, and The Dave Clark Five.^[4]

British Invasion acts influenced fashion, haircuts and manners of the 1960s of what was to be known as The Counterculture.^[4] In particular the Beatles movie A Hard Day's Night and fashions from Carnaby Street led American media to proclaim England as the center of the music and fashion world.^[1] The success of British acts of the time caused American garage rock bands subsequently to change their sound and style. The influence continued on subsequent groups such as Big Star, Sparks and Todd Rundgren amongst others.^[7] The emergence of relatively homogenous worldwide rock music styles about 1967 marked the end of the "invasion".^[1]

Second British Invasion

In 1981 the cable music channel MTV was initiated. The channel featured a disproportionate amount of music videos from British acts because videos produced for these acts during this period were usually more entertaining then those from their American counterparts. Videos produced for British acts tended to be image conscious and act as short films. Videos produced for American acts usually were taped concert performances.^[8] Also in 1981 Los Angeles radio station KROQ began the Rock of the '80's format which would make it the most popular station in that city causing radio consultant Lee Abrams in early 1983 to advise his clients at 70 Album Oriented Rock stations to double the amount of new music they played.^[8]

In the fall of 1982, "I Ran" by A Flock of Seagulls entered the Billboard Top Ten. It was the first successful song that owed almost everything to video (more specifically singer Mike Scores’s hair style).^[8] Duran Duran's glossy video's would come to symbolize the power of MTV.^[8]

In 1983 30% of the record sales were from British acts. 18 of the top 40 and 6 of the top 10 singles on July 18th were by British artists. Overall record sales would rise by 10% from 1982.^[8][9] Newsweek magazine featured Annie Lennox and Boy George on the cover of one of its issues while Rolling Stone Magazine would release an England Swings issue.^[8] In April 1984 40 of the top 100 singles were from British acts while 8 of the top 10 singles in a May 1985 survey were of British origin.^[6] Veteran music journalist Simon Reynolds theorized that similar to the first British Invasion the use of black American influences by the British acts helped to spur success.^[8]

All of this activity and the unusual high turnover of artists in the charts and caused a sense of upheaval. Commentators in the mainstream media credited MTV and the British acts with bringing color and energy to back to pop music while rock journalists were generally hostile to the phenomenon because they felt it represented image over content.^[8]

Subsequent years

British musical success in the United States was at its nadir in the early 2000's. Less than 2% of the top 100 United States albums in both 2000 and 2001 were from the United Kingdom. In April 2002 for the first time since October 1953 there were no British acts on the singles charts.^[6] This would be reversed in the latter half of the decade when the percentage of albums sold in the U.S. by British acts increased every year from 2005 through 2008. It would increase from 8.5% to 10% of the market between 2007 and 2008.^[10]

In July 2005 Natasha Bedingfield made her first of what would be many chart appearances.^[11] The following year Joss Stone's third album Introducing Joss Stone debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 becoming the first British solo female artist to have an album début that high on the chart.^[12] In 2006 and early 2007 British acts James Blunt, Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, Lady Soverign, KT Tunstall, Snow Patrol and Corinne Bailey Rae also had U.S. chart success. By March 2007 these successes had led to speculation that either another British Invasion was underway or a return to normalcy was occurring.^[13][14][15]

In 2008 Leona Lewis's debut single "Bleeding Love" would become the first number one single on U.S charts by a British Female Artist since 1986. Her album also reached number 1.^[16] 2008 would also be successful for Duffy, Adele, Estelle, and M.I.A.. The success of these British women led to the reporting of a British Female Invasion. It was noted that as during the original invasion earthier styles from previous eras were being mined.^{[17][18][19][20][21][22]} Led by Coldplay, British acts received a total of 16 Grammy Awards.^[23]

Mick Jagger thinks the current success of British acts are due to the diversity of their styles. A spokesmen for HMV Group an entertainment retail chain said that the catalyst for the current success of British acts were Amy Winehouse and possibly American Idol host Simon Cowell.^[23]

Original British Invasion artists

• The Animals
• The Beatles
• The Bee Gees
• Chad and Jeremy
• The Dave Clark Five
• Petula Clark
• Cream
• Donovan
• Dusty Springfield
• Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders
• The Fortunes
• Freddie and the Dreamers
• Gerry & The Pacemakers
• Herman's Hermits
• The Hollies
• The Kinks
• Lulu
• Manfred Mann
• The Moody Blues
• The New Vaudeville Band
• Peter and Gordon
• The Pretty Things
• The Rolling Stones
• The Searchers
• The Spencer Davis Group
• The Swinging Blue Jeans
• The Troggs
• The Who
• The Yardbirds
• The Zombies

Second British Invasion artists

• ABC^[8]
• Adam Ant
• Rick Astley
• Bananarama
• Big Country
• Culture Club^[8]
• The Cure
• The Clash
• Depeche Mode
• Thomas Dolby
• Duran Duran^[8]
• Erasure
• Eurythmics^[8]
• A Flock of Seagulls^[8]
• Fine Young Cannibals
• Eddy Grant^[8]
• Howard Jones
• The Human League^[8]
• Billy Idol
• Madness^[8]
• Musical Youth
• New Order
• Pet Shop Boys
• The Smiths
• Simple Minds
• Tears for Fears
• Thompson Twins^[8]
• Wang Chung
• Wham!^[8]
• Paul Young^[8]
• Yaz

See also

• Beatlemania
• Anglophilia
• Uruguayan Invasion
• Korean wave

References

Further reading

• Analysis of the recent success of British Acts in the United States Ian Youngs for the BBC News
• Poll: Americans embrace U.K. music United Press International March 13, 2009