I grew up after the British Invasion and it never really occurred to me that there was a time that pop music had little to no British influence. According to Wiki the BI was started by Beatlemania but doesn’t really discuss possible reasons. What was it about the early 1960’s that led to English bands dominating pop music?
Perhaps British bands were able to appreciate the blues without getting caught up in the racial issues that existed in America.
… is a popular response. However contrast Elvis with, say, the Dave Clark Five - who was influenced?
Rock or Pop Rock in the US was sort of in a wait and see pattern in the early 60s. Elvis was either in the Army or making movies, Jerry Lee Lewis had crashed and burned with that 13 year old cousin/wife, Buddy Holly had crashed and burned in an airplane, Little Richard was studying to be a minister, and Chuck Berry was a guest of the government due to a relationship with an underaged female.
There were the doo-wop groups and falsetto singers. There were the teen idols. There were the socially conscious folk singers. And there was surf music. That was about it. And then JFK was assassinated and the country went into a period of mourning. 79 days later, after an appropriate period of mourning I’d say, The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan. Happy, snappy music with some nice looking musicians with a fresh look. No crew cuts or brylcream laden pompadours for them. And the youth of the US were ready to be happy and carefree again.
And after the success of the Beatles, promoters in the US (this had already happened in the UK) were clamoring for more British music acts (Well, in the UK, they were clamoring for the Mersey sound). Come to think of it, is it really an invasion when you open the gates wide and wave the invaders in?
After Elvis went into the Army and Jerry Lee Lewis was disgraced into obscurity, the music rolls were dominated by really awful acts like Skitch Henderson and Mitch Miller and whoever that woman was who sang “Pink Shoelaces.” I would’ve been pretty receptive to some street-sounding Liverpool urchins at that point, too!
Basically, UK groups who tried to make it in the US failed. There were a few exceptions – Mr. Acker Bilk, for instance – but American audiences rarely took to British groups. Cliff Richard – the biggest name in British rock music before the Beatles, with 5 UK top ten hits in 1958-59 – never broke into the US Market.
Indeed, it was first thought that the Beatles would also fail, and Capitol Records, the US branch of EMI, declined for release them in the US for over a year, despite their popularity in the UK. It was Brian Epstein who managed to get money for promotion and who convinced one or two US DJs to play the music.
It was Walter Cronkite who made the Beatles in the US. CBS News had a report for them ready to go the day JFK was assassinated. It was postponed. Several months later, Cronkite decided it was enough time and ran the report. Ed Sullivan watched and decided to get the Beatles for his Shew.
That was also an era when a lot of novelty/joke songs made it high in the charts: Itsy Bitsy Teenty Weeny Bikini, Monster Mash, Alley Ooop (the rock version). These weren’t just running along like Weird Al songs do today, they were #1 hits! Some others had popped up in the late 50’s but that just shows even the big American acts were running out of steam.
(my embolden) There are some people who think the Beatles were, in actual fact, rather a good band whose own lyrics and music made them.
IDK, how many other bands did Cronkite make who were as successful?
For a while back then, there was a seesaw cycle between record labels and more independent music. E.g., Alan Freed & Co. opened up a lot of R&B to American teens in the 50s, etc.
The early 60s was a record company dominated phase of the cycle. They wanted to sell teen idols and all that crap. Hence you got the two teens from The Donna Reed Show each with manufactured hit songs. A lot of “safe” music. It was a fairly low ebb in popular music.
But the British music scene didn’t have the same record label dominance. So the Beatles were able to break out there and eventually jump across the pond. Once they landed, a lot of other groups that were hitting the charts in Britain were able to follow.
One thing that’s hard to believe is how “rebellious” the Beatles looked at the time. With their long hair. (And earlier Elvis with his sideburns.) The American teen was really tired of the conformity culture and was eager for something new.
The last phase of these cycles pretty much stopped after the College Radio went mainstream in the 90s. Since then the labels have heavily controlled the charts and it really, really shows.
It’s true Capitol’s chief of A&R had a long-standing distaste for rock ‘n roll. The decision to finally release “I Want to Hold Your Hand” came about when the head of EMI, Joseph Lockwood, flew to New York and flat-out ordered Capitol to put the record out — an unheard-of step, even though Capitol was owned by EMI. While this was going on (largely outside the Beatles’ involvement), Brian Epstein was drumming up some US dates for the band, securing a concert in Carnegie Hall as well as several appearances on Ed Sullivan. The Sullivan appearances came about because he saw the band returning to Heathrow from a short tour of the continent, and saw how completely nuts the kids went for them. Ed knew a good story when he saw it, and reached out to Epstein for some appearances.
Capitol originally slated “I Want to Hold Your Hand” for release in February 1964. However, in late 1963, a DJ in Washington DC, responding to one of his teenaged listeners, started playing an imported pressing of the song. It took off, the DJ sent tape copies to some fellow jocks in other markets, and it quickly started lighting up the charts all over the country. Capitol then moved “I Want to Hold to Hold Your Hand” up to January and quickly put together an album to go with it (Meet the Beatles).
Thus, thanks to an extraordinary confluence of timing, the Beatles arrived in New York in February with the #1 record in the country (and Walter Cronkite had nothing to do with it), kicking off the British Invasion in the process.
Don’t forget that English bands nailed the 4 or 5 member beat/rock ensemble - electrified, as well! And they did it with proper youthful energy.
Contrast with country (and western), surf, doo wap, girl groups, etc.
Cronkite’s decision to run the story was what got the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. He could have just dropped the story, but he felt that it was time (the piece had already run on the morning of November 22, 1963, and was going to run at night, too, but events overtook it and few remembered).
The report ran on the evening news on December 10. Sullivan called Cronkite immediately to get them on his show. There’s little doubt that the teenage listeners called the DJs because of what they saw on the news that night.
The Beatles were a great band, but no one really knew that in 1963 (not even the Beatles). British fans thought Cliff Richard was a great performer, too. But what UK fans liked meant nothing to US fans. Indeed, when the Beatles didn’t have any US hits in 1963, many UK people talked as though they were just another in a line of UK rock acts that couldn’t get traction in the US.
Cronkite was not in the business of making rock bands successful. But deciding to run the Beatles story was instrumental in their success in the US.
Let me add that the Beatles were damn lucky to get their first UK recording contract. Parlophone Records was considered a joke in the UK record industry at the time, a dumping ground for second-rate acts. George Martin didn’t have much of a reputation, and primarily produced comedy albums (his biggest hits before the Beatles were Flanders and Swann and Beyond the Fringe, though he did manage to turn its reputation around and make money).
Martin wanted to have a rock act, and auditioned the Beatles, though he was unenthused until he asked if there was anything that they didn’t like. George Harrison replied, “Well, there’s your tie, for a start.” Some Parlophone execs in the room were aghast, but Martin thought it funny and, when John and Paul joined in the joking, decided to hire the band. Parlophone was at the time the last record company left (the others had said no to a recording contract), so that quip changed the course of music history.
This.
They were just DAMN GOOD. And they rode the wave of changing cultural taste in music, lifestyle, fashion. They didn’t create the wave, but they were just ahead of it.
Yep, but how long do executives keeping saying ‘no’ to what Lennon/McCartney were starting to write.
It’s all very well retelling the old stories but at some point a deal would have been done, and air play would have done the rest.
Just a wild thought (which may be wrong): It could also be due to the availability of transatlantic jet flights that started in the late 1950s. Prior to that, it would probably be very difficult for a British band to come and tour the states. Without a physical presence over here, it would be difficult for a band to gain much traction.
Having their tea dumped into Boston harbor, tax laws flouted and royal authority being so openly challenged had much to do with it.
…what?
Those Brits didn’t invade. They were already here keeping France out of their colonies full of Brits.
Elvis was drafted, Buddy Holly was dead . . . the field was wide open!
Weren’t there a lot of British musicians who went to art school in their late teens, hung out and formed bands? Also a lot of them were influenced by the skiffle craze of people such as Lonnie Donegan.
Rick James once put down his joint long enough to remark the Beatles combined the “earth music” of Chuck Berry and other black American artists with the “sky music” of such people as Beethoven.