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Chapter
4
The Beatles and the British Invasion (1964-1966)
Outline
  1. British Pop between 1964 and 1966
    1. American business taken by surprise in early 1964 by the Beatles
    2. An American fad for British music ensued
    3. Two important strains of the story
      1. Chronicle of British pop
      2. Influence of British pop on American pop
  2. British Pop from WWII to 1963
    1. Prior to 1964, British music was considered inferior in America
    2. In contrast, American culture was interesting to Britons
      1. Result of American involvement in WWII
    3. British labels licensed music from American independents
      1. Facilitated the spread of American black pop
    4. History of British interest in American music includes folk and jazz
      1. "Trad" jazz
      2. Skiffle
      3. Cliff Richard, early rock
  3. The Beatles, 1960-1962
    1. Early years
      1. Formed out of the skiffle-based Quarrymen
      2. Among the first generation of musicians who listened to rock as youth
      3. Began performing live actively in 1960
    2. 1960-1962
      1. Hamburg
        1. Played six- and seven-hour evenings
        2. Refined performing skills and repertoire
      2. Liverpool
        1. Played at the Cavern nearly 300 times through 1962
        2. Met future manager Brian Epstein in 1961
        3. Secured Parlophone recording contract in 1962
        4. First single ("Love Me Do") goes to 17 on British charts
      3. Influences
        1. Beatles learned from cover songs performed in early period
        2. Songs performed at Star Club and BBC, 1962-1965
          1. American pop dominates
          2. Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, Leiber and Stoller, Spector, Motown
  4. The Beatles 1963-1966
    1. Success in England in 1963
      1. Two high-profile television performances
      2. Four consecutive hits
      3. Led wave of British-based hits in England
    2. Success in America in 1964
      1. Performed on Ed Sullivan's TV show in February
      2. Thirty Top Ten pop hits between 1964 and 1966
      3. All studio albums went to # 1 in both the UK and the United States
      4. Feature films
        1. Hard Day's Night (1964)
        2. Help! (1965)
      5. Controversy over "bigger than Jesus" remark in 1966
      6. Final public concert in San Francisco, August 1966
    3. Musical development, 1964-1966
      1. Imitated and extended American models in early music
      2. Used songwriting techniques from Brill Building, 1963-1964
        1. Found variety in solving compositional "problems"
        2. "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
      3. Moved from craft to artistic approach, 1964-1966
        1. Experimented with studio effects, stylistic juxtapositions, timbre, and structure
        2. "Tomorrow Never Knows"
      4. Importance of lyrics
        1. Teenage love in early years
        2. Unconventional in later music
          1. Self-confidence
          2. Sexual frustration
          3. Alienation
      5. Stylistic range
        1. Widens in 1965 with "Help!"
        2. Novel instrumentation
        3. Stylistic eclecticism
  5. The British Invasion
    1. Beatles led the surge of British music in the United States in 1964
      1. Groups were British, played guitars, and had long hair
        1. Broad stylistic range
        2. Had many hits on the U.S. charts between 1964 and 1966
      2. Two strains modeled after Beatles and Stones
      3. Beatles-type
        1. Charming, cute, friendly
        2. First wave, 1964
          1. Gerry and the Pacemakers
          2. Dave Clark Five
          3. Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas
          4. Searchers
        3. Second wave, 1965
          1. Herman's Hermits
          2. Freddy and the Dreamers
          3. Hollies
  6. The British Blues Revival (Stones-Type)
    1. Bad boys, in contrast to the Beatles-type image
    2. Followed the lead of the Rolling Stones
    3. Drew on tradition of Chicago electric blues from 1950s
    4. Spawned a wave of enthusiasm for collecting and performing American blues
    5. Rolling Stones, 1962-1966
      1. Formed by guitarist Brian Jones as a blues band
      2. Managed by Andrew Loog Oldham and Eric Easton, 1963
      3. Started move toward pop in 1963
      4. Early recordings
        1. Covered songs by American artists
        2. "I Wanna Be Your Man" by Lennon and McCartney
        3. Jagger and Richards achieve success as songwriters in 1964
      5. Did not achieve widespread success in America until 1965
      6. Preferred contrasting verse-chorus rather than AABA
    6. Yardbirds
      1. Guitarists included Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page
      2. Used studio musicians on early records
      3. Recorded in Chicago at Chess studios
    7. Animals
      1. Earned their reputation through their wild stage act
      2. "House of the Rising Sun" (1964)
      3. Bassist Chas Chandler became manager for Jimi Hendrix in 1966
    8. Spencer Davis Group
    9. Other British groups did not fit into Beatles/Stones categories
      1. Kinks
        1. Formed in 1963
        2. Aggressive pop approach
          1. "You Really Got Me" (1964)
        3. Mirrored the Beatles move into artistic songwriting, 1965
      2. Who
        1. Not influential until the late 1960s
        2. Never made the U.S. Top 40 during the mid-1960s
        3. Representative of the Mod subculture in London
  7. Transformation of American Popular Music
  8. Rise of the Beatles transformed popular music
  9. Opened doors for British acts within the UK
  10. Opened new opportunities for British acts outside the UK
    1. British Invasion established a cross fertilization between United States and the UK
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