British pop music is popular music, produced commercially in theUnited Kingdom. It emerged in the mid-to late 1950s as a softer alternative to Americanrock 'n' roll. Like American pop music it has a focus on commercial recording, often orientated towards a youth market, as well as that of theSingles 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 ofpopular 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 byThe 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 thebroadside 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, includingparlour music and thebrass band, which produced a popular and communal form of classical music. Similarly, themusic 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 Americanjazz andswing music led to the creation ofBritish dance bands, who provided a social and popular music that began to dominate social occasions and the radio airwaves.
In the early 1950s sales of American records dominated British popular music. In the first full year of the charts in 1953 major artists werePerry Como,Guy Mitchell andFrankie Laine largely with orchestrated sentimentalballads, besidenovelty records like "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?" re-recorded by British artistLita Roza.[1] Some established British wartime stars likeVera Lynn were still able to chart into the mid-1950s, but successful new British acts likeJimmy 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" orAlma Cogan with "Dreamboat".[1] Many successful songs were the product of movies, including number ones forDoris Day in 1954 with "Secret Love" fromCalamity Jane and forFrank Sinatra with the title song fromThree Coins in the Fountain.
A notable British musical genre of the mid-1950s wasskiffle, which was developed primarily by jazz musicians copying American folk andcountry blues songs such as those ofLead Belly in a deliberately rough and lively style emulatingjug bands. The most prominent exponent wasLonnie 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.[2] It has been estimated that in the late 1950s there were 30–50,000 skiffle groups in Britain.[3] 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.[2]
At the same time,rock and roll was played in Britain after 1955.[4] 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.[4] However, it was important in establishing British youth and popular music culture and was a key factor in subsequent developments that led to theBritish Invasion of the mid-1960s. Since the 1960s some stars of the genre, most notablyCliff Richard, have managed to sustain very successful pop careers and there have been periodic revivals of this form of music.[4]
In the late 1950s, a flourishing culture of groups began to emerge, often out of the decliningskiffle 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.[5] Beat bands were heavily influenced by American bands of the era, such asBuddy Holly and the Crickets (from which groupThe Beatles derived their name), as well as earlier British groups such asThe Shadows.[6] 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, includingGerry & The Pacemakers,The Searchers, andCilla Black. Among the most successful beat acts from Birmingham wereThe Spencer Davis Group andThe Moody Blues. From London, the termTottenham Sound was largely based aroundThe Dave Clark Five, but other London bands that benefited from the beat boom of this era included theRolling Stones andThe Yardbirds. The first non-Liverpool, non-Brian Epstein-managed band to break through in the UK wereFreddie and the Dreamers, who were based in Manchester, as wereHerman's Hermits andThe Hollies.[7]
TheBritish Invasion of America led by the Beatles from their arrival in February 1964 saw them, uniquely, hold the top 5 positions on theBillboard Hot 100 singles chart simultaneously.[8][9] During the next two years,Peter and Gordon,The Animals,Manfred Mann,Petula Clark,Freddie and the Dreamers,Wayne Fontana andthe Mindbenders,Herman’s Hermits,The Rolling Stones,The Troggs, andDonovan would have one or more number one singles.[10] Other acts that were part of the invasion includedThe Dave Clark Five, Tom Jones,The Kinks andThe Who[9] 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 asblues-rock acts, emergingfolk rock and some beat bands, including the Beatles, veered towards a more serious forms of music (with an emphasis on meaning, virtuosity and orientated towards the albums market), 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.[11] 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 likeSandie Shaw.[12]
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 were10cc,Status Quo andMungo Jerry. Aiming much more for the teen market, partly a response tothe Osmonds wereThe Rubettes andThe Bay City Rollers.[13]
British soul anddisco enjoyed mainstream popularity during this era, with artists such as theBee Gees,Biddu,Carl Douglas,Tina Charles, andJimmy James.[14] The 1974 hit "Kung Fu Fighting" (by Carl Douglas and Biddu) in particular sold eleven million records worldwide.[15][16] Liverpool'sThe Real Thing,[17][18][19][20] a group which had developed from aMerseybeatdoo-wop act called The Chants (said to be the only group ever to be backed byThe Beatles),[21][22][23][24] 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 byThomas Bangalter and DJ Falcon.
Largely vocal-based groups included theNew Seekers,Brotherhood of Man, the last of these designed as a British answer toABBA.[25] In addition there were the rock and roll revivalistsShowaddywaddy,Mud andAlvin Stardust.[26] Individuals who enjoyed successful pop careers in this period includedGilbert O'Sullivan,David Essex,Leo Sayer andRod Stewart.[1]
Perhaps the most unusual British development in pop wasglam or glitter rock, characterised by outrageous clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and platform-soled boots.[27] The flamboyant lyrics, costumes, and visual styles of glam performers were acampy playing with categories of sexuality in a theatrical blend of nostalgic references to science fiction and old movies, all over a guitar-drivenhard rock sound.[28] Pioneers of the genre includedMarc Bolan with his bandT. Rex andMott the Hoople,[29] while 1960s acts like Shane Fenton and The N'Betweens joined the scene, re-branding themselves asAlvin Stardust andSlade respectively.[28] These, and many other acts includingQueen andElton 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 includedThe Sweet,Gary Glitter andThe Glitter Band,[28] with the last two pushing the glitter image to its limits. British acts mixing art pop with glam (the 'arthouse glam' crowd)[30] includedDavid Bowie,Roxy Music andSparks (then a British-based band featuring three Brits and the Maels, a couple of Anglophile brothers from the Californian band Halfnelson, who would become important in the development of synthpop in the late 1970s).[31][32][33] A scene most popular in the United Kingdom, glam rock peaked during the mid-1970s, before it disappeared in the face ofpunk andnew wave trends.[28]
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 bypost-punk new wave acts likeIan Dury and the Blockheads.[34] Other successful new wave pop bands includedXTC,Squeeze andNick Lowe, as well as songwriters likeElvis Costello, rock & roll influenced bands likethe Pretenders, and the reggae influenced music of bands likeThe Police.[35] 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.[36]
Having emerged from the post-punk and reggae scenes in the West Midlands in the 1970s, theska revival associated with 2 Tone records was a remarkable commercial success in the early years of the 1980s. Bands likeThe Specials,The Selecter,The Beat,Madness,Bad Manners andThe Bodysnatchers all enjoyed chart success, with Madness and The Specials managing number ones. The Specials' "Ghost Town" (1981) is often seen as summarizing the disillusionment of Thatcherite, post-industrial urban youth.[37] Madness managed to sustain a career that could still chart into the second half of the 1980s, but the 2-Tone movement faded early in the decade, and would have a longer-term impact through American bands of the third wave of ska.[38] The more reggae based music ofUB40 allowed them to continue to chart in to the twenty first century, enjoying four number ones in the UK, the last of these in 1994.[39]
TheNew Romantics emerged as the dominant force in the singles charts at the beginning of the 1980s, overtakingnew wave music.[40] Emerging originally in London nightclubs including Billy's and TheBlitz Club towards the end of the 1970s and influenced byDavid Bowie andRoxy Music, it further developed glam rock fashions, gaining its name from the frillyfopshirts of earlyRomanticism. Among the commercially most successful acts associated with the movement wereAdam and the Ants,Spandau Ballet andDuran Duran.[41]
Key figures of the New Romantic scene included Boy George, Steve Strange, Marilyn and Australian performance artistLeigh Bowery, all of whom would go on to have music careers over the next two decades in bands likeCulture Club, Visage and Minty. 'Gender bending' became a trend[42] that even the more conservative American media noticed, withNewsweek magazine featuringAnnie Lennox and Boy George on the cover of one of its issues, andRolling Stone having anEngland Swings issue.[43] In this periodStock Aitken Waterman would team up withDivine to produce "You Think You're a Man" (written by Modern Romance's Geoff Deane), a Hi-NRG pop record which would be their first UK Top 75 chart hit.
In the late 1970s and early 1980sHi-NRG (hi energy disco) had become popular in the gay scenes of American cities like New York and San Francisco.[44] In 1983 in the UK, music magazineRecord Mirror championed the gay underground sound and began publishing a weekly Hi-NRG Chart.[45] Hi-NRG also entered the mainstream with hits in the UK singles chart, such asHazell Dean's "Searchin' (I Gotta Find a Man)" andEvelyn Thomas's "High Energy".[46][47]
By about 1983, the original New Romantic movement had dissolved with surviving acts dropping most of the fashion elements to pursue mainstream careers. New Romantic music often made extensive use ofsynthesizers, merging intosynthpop, which followed European pioneers likeKraftwerk,Jean Michel Jarre, andTangerine Dream.Tubeway Army, a little known outfit from West London, dropped theirpunk rock image and topped the UK charts in 1979 with the single "Are Friends Electric?", prompting their singer,Gary Numan to go solo and release the album,The Pleasure Principle from which he gained a number one in the single charts with "Cars", and which much to popularise the synthpop sound.Trevor Horn ofThe Buggles captured the changing scene in the international hit "Video Killed the Radio Star". New Romantic acts that made extensive use of synthesizers includedVisage,Ultravox,Duran Duran andJapan.
Around the start of the decade, experimental, alternative and avant-garde acts likeNew Order,Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,The Human League,Depeche Mode andSoft Cell would emerge from grim, industrial parts of high-rise Britain.[48][49][50][51] Even though they were all alternative electronic acts on independent labels (Factory, Fast, Mute and Some Bizzare) in time they would all end up in the pages of Smash Hits as synthpop became playlisted on BBC Radio 1 and on various children's TV shows like the Wide Awake Club.[52] Some of these acts would continue down a purer pop route, such as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (which featured Andy McCluskey, who became the 1990s pop svengali behindAtomic Kitten), whilst others became darker and more industrial, as in the case of Depeche Mode, who became a major alternative rock stadium-filler in the 1990s. Other key artists from the first wave of synthpop includeEurythmics,Talk Talk,Thomas Dolby,Bronski Beat,Heaven 17 andBlancmange.[53]
The British charts at the opening of the 1980s were dominated by a mix of imports, novelty acts, megamixes, rock and roll revivalists (includingShakin' Stevens) and long-term careerists likeQueen andCliff Richard, but there were also more conventional pop acts, includingBucks Fizz, who had three number ones after theirEurovision Song Contest victory in 1981 and the Trevor Horn produced duoDollar[1]
From its inception in 1981, the American version of MTV featured a disproportionate amount of music videos from image conscious British acts.[43] By looking at a modern-day music video channel such as Freeview'sNow 70s,[54] you can see that record companies such asVirgin Records put money into making inventive videos for their new wave acts, where other genres and bigger artists are just represented by live or in-studio performances. This resulted in MTV having to use the video archive of many of these British record companies (when videos for a lot of the big Billboard chart hits did not exist), giving UK acts a large amount of exposure over in the States.[55][56][57]
In the autumn of 1982, "I Ran (So Far Away)" byA Flock of Seagulls entered the Billboard Top Ten, arguably the first successful song that owed almost everything to its video being played on MTV, though in the United Kingdom their only Top Ten hit would be "Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)".[43] They would be followed by bands likeDuran Duran whose glossy videos would come to symbolise the power of MTV.[43] In 1983, 30% of the record sales were from British acts. On 18 July, 18 of the top 40 and 6 of the top 10 singles were by British artists. Overall record sales would rise by 10% from 1982.[43][58] In April 1984, 40 of the top 100 singles and in a May 1985 survey, 8 of the top 10 singles, were of British origin.[59]
In 1981, prog rock drummer and Genesis vocalistPhil Collins would release "In the Air Tonight" on Virgin Records, a single which would start a solo career that would see his MOR,[60] soft rock andsoul-pop records generate three UK number one singles[61] and seven number ones on the Billboard chart. It would be the success of CD-friendly acts like Phil Collins andDire Straits that would prompt Mark Ellen and David Hepworth to launch Q magazine in 1986, a publication that was to last for 34 years.[62][63][64][65][66][67]
Another act getting three number ones in the first half of the 1980s wasFrankie Goes to Hollywood.[68] Signed to Trevor Horn's ZTT Records, Frankie Goes to Hollywood became the second act to reach number one in the UK Singles Chart with their first three single releases after fellow Liverpudlian actGerry and the Pacemakers[69] with both acts peaking at number two with their fourth releases and both act's frontmen (Holly Johnson andGerry Marsden) teaming up as part ofcharity assemble which reached number one at the end of the 1980s. Frankie Goes to Hollywood's controversial, bombastic music mixed Hi-NRG, new wave rock and synthpop together and their success was helped in part due to memorable videos directed people like 10cc'sGodley & Creme and clever marketing by ZTT‘s Paul Morley, who managed to harness any outrage created and turn it into promotion for ZTT.[70][1][71][72][73]
Probably the most successful British pop band of the era were the duoWham! with a mix ofdisco,soul,ballads andrap. Wham! saw four singles go to number one in the UK chart, between 1982 and 1986, with lead singer George Michael achieving three more in the period.[74][75][76] He became the third act to reach number one in the UK Singles Chart with their first three singles but due to the fact that he was the lead singer in Wham!, and one of these records was withAretha Franklin, this honour usually fell in the press toJive Bunny and the Mastermixers with their rock and roll megamixes at the end of the 1980s. However, as Jive Bunny was credited on aChildren in Need charity single ("It Takes Two, Baby", also featuring BBC Radio 1'sLiz Kershaw andBruno Brookes as well as AnXious Records actLondonbeat) that charted a couple of weeks before their third hit "Let's Party", it could be say that this honour only applied to the Mastermixers as many of theBritish Hit Singles books of the early 2000s added the charity record to their discography.
In 1987,George Michael reinvented himself as a white soul ('blue-eyed soul') singer with the multi-platinum albumFaith.[77] In the 1980s, soul emerged as a major influence on British pop music, with flourishing soul scenes in major cities like London and Manchester, the latter known for being part of the Northern Soul scene which included venues such as theTwisted Wheel[78][79] and theWigan Casino.[80][81][82][83] Many black artists were supported by local radio stations (both licensed and pirate) and radio presenters/DJs likeRobbie Vincent,[84] Chris Hill[85][86][87][88][89] andSteve Walsh.[90][91] In October 1987, about seven months before he died, Walsh had a number nine hit with a cover of "I Found Lovin'" which was joined in the Top Ten by the original 1983 recording by the Fatback Band in the same week, while other popular soul covers includedPhil Collins's "You Can't Hurry Love", his first number one from 1982. Other songs influenced by soul included Culture Club's "Church of the Poison Mind" (1983),The Style Council's "Speak Like a Child" (1983),Eurythmics' "Missionary Man" (1986), andSteve Winwood's "Roll With It" (1998).[77] Also significant wereSade,Simply Red and toward the end of the decadeLisa Stansfield andSoul II Soul.[77] Soul II Soul's breakthrough R&B hits "Keep on Movin'" and "Back to Life" in 1989 have been seen as opening the door to the mainstream for black British soul and R&B performers.[77]
In the mid-1980s, Hi-NRG producers in the dance and the main singles charts includedIan Levine and trioStock Aitken Waterman, the latter had two of the most successful Hi-NRG singles ever with their productions ofDead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" (UK #1 & US #11 in 1985) andBananarama's cover of theShocking Blue song "Venus" (US #1 & UK #8 in 1986). Artists, includingRick Astley and Australian actors from teatime soap opera Neighbours (such asKylie Minogue andJason Donovan), dominated British pop music and the charts in the late 1980s and early 1990s.[92]
In stark contrast to the upbeat dance based music of the Hi-NRG was the emergence Indie pop that emerged as part of the independent or alternative rock scenes of the 1980s, following the lead of early 80s independent bands likeAztec Camera,Orange Juice and particularlyThe Smiths. It was initially dubbed as 'C86' after the 1986NME tape, and also known as "cutie", "shambling bands" and later as "twee pop".[93][94] Indie pop was characterised by jangling guitars, a love of sixties pop and often fey, innocent lyrics.[95] The UK labelSarah Records and its most popular bandThe Field Mice, although more diverse than the label indicates, were probably its most typical proponents. It was also inspired by the DIY scene of punk and there was a thriving fanzine, label and club and gig circuit. Genres such asRiot Grrrl and bands as diverse asNirvana,Manic Street Preachers, andBelle and Sebastian have all acknowledged its influence. A further development was Dream pop, which followed bands likeCocteau Twins,The Chameleons,The Passions,Dif Juz,Lowlife andA.R. Kane began fusingpost-punk andethereal experiments with bittersweetpop melodies into sensual, sonically ambitious soundscapes.[96] A louder, more aggressive strain of dream pop came to be known asshoegazing; key bands of this style wereLush,Slowdive,My Bloody Valentine,Chapterhouse,Curve andLevitation. These bands kept the atmospheric qualities of dream pop, but added the intensity of post-punk-influenced bands such asThe Chameleons andSonic Youth.[97]
At the very tail-end of the 1980s, came the most successful (chart-wise) of all the British indie music scenes.[98][99][100][101][102] Coming after the moral panic around acid house, which brought D-Mob a top ten hit with "We Call It Acieed"[103] and featuring many of the same producers/remixers from the Balearic scene, indie-dance would see guitar bands take to the dancefloor, acts like Shaun Ryder'sHappy Mondays andThe Stone Roses turn up onTop of The Pops[104] and see an emphasis placed on acts fromManchester,[105] in a local scene which became better known asMadchester. Though of all the indie-dance acts that were around in the era before grunge (1989-1991), it would be the less 'baggy' bands that would get the big international hits withBig Audio Dynamite (a band which had been mixingbeatbox rock'n'roll with punk, funk, hip-hop and dance since 1984),Jesus Jones andEMF charting high in Australia, New Zealand and the US, with EMF's "Unbelievable" getting to number one on theBillboard chart.
AfterSoul II Soul's breakthrough R&B hits "Keep on Movin'" and "Back to Life" in 1989, existing black soul acts, includingOmar andacid jazz bandsIncognito andBrand New Heavies, were now able to pursue mainstream recording careers.[77] Particularly noticeable was the proliferation of British female black singers includingMica Paris,Caron Wheeler,Gabrielle andHeather Small.[91]
The success of American vocal harmony and teen pop groups (boy bands)[106] likeNew Edition andNew Kids on the Block led to acts in the UK, including Nigel Martin-Smith'sTake That andTom Watkins's[107][108]East 17 becoming famous from 1992, later competing with Irish bands likeBoyzone andOTT.[109] By the end of the century, acts from the early '90s likeWorlds Apart and Take That had either split up or changed their line-ups substantially, but many provided the launchpad for solo careers like that of Take That'sGary Barlow,Mark Owen andRobbie Williams (with the latter act going on to achieve seven number one singles in the UK between 1998 and 2012).[110] As the life (or at least the imperial phase) of a boyband/teen act was only a few years, new boybands would emerge at the end of the 1990s to take over as those found as the cover stars (or pull-out poster acts) in all the teen pop magazines, with5ive,A1 and911 all topping the UK Singles Chart around the turn of the millennium.[111][112][113][114][115][116][117]
As well as a number of new boybands, newgirl groups began to appear on the front covers and in the pages of magazines likeSmash Hits andBig!, like the R&B actEternal, who achieved a string of international hits from 1993.[118] The most successful and influential act of the genre were theSpice Girls, who added well-aimed publicity and the ideology ofgirl power to their pop careers. They had nine number one singles in the UK and US, including "Wannabe", "2 Become 1" and "Spice Up Your Life".[118] They were followed by British groups likeAll Saints, who had five number-one hits in the UK and two multi-platinum albums.[110] New girl groups managed to continue to enjoy sustained success, includingSugababes[119] andGirls Aloud, the last of these the most successful British product of the manyPopstars format programmes, which began to have a major impact in the charts from the beginning of the 2000s.[120]
Britpop emerged from the Britishindependent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s.[121] The movement developed as a reaction against various musical and cultural trends in the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly thegrunge phenomenon from the United States.[121] New British groups such asSuede andBlur launched the movement by positioning themselves as opposing musical forces, referencing British guitar music of the past and writing about uniquely British topics and concerns. These bands were soon joined by others includingOasis,Pulp,Supergrass andElastica.[121] Britpop groups brought British alternative rock into the mainstream and formed the backbone of a larger British cultural movement calledCool Britannia.[122] Although its more popular bands were able to spread their commercial success overseas, especially to the United States, the movement largely fell apart by the end of the decade.[121]
While the stars of Britpop could be found around the Good Mixer pub in Camden,[123][124][125][126][127] another London scene was developing aroundMadame Jojo's cabaret club in Soho and kitsch easy listening music.[128][129] Scene figures like Count Indigo,[130][131] Lenny Beige[132][133] andMike Flowers may have been loving homages to the era, in an Austin Powers type of way, but this easy listening rival did produce a contender for the 1995 Christmas number one[134][135] (Mike Flowers Pops' "Wonderwall") and a BBC Radio One show (Radio Tip Top) in the 1990s, and a longer re-appraisal of this kind of 'forgotten' music which would see club nights playing easy listening tracks alongside test card music and KPM Production Music albums in the 21st century.[136][137][138]
After the decline of Britpop, British indie was kept alive by "post pop" bands includingRadiohead,Feeder,Stereophonics andTravis, who largely abandoned the elements of national and retro-60s culture.[139] Recently[when?] British indie bands with a foot in both the rock and pop camps has experienced a resurgence, spurred in part by the international success ofthe Strokes. Like modern American indie rock, many British indie bands such asFranz Ferdinand,the Libertines andBloc Party are influenced by post-punk groups such as Joy Division,Wire, andGang of Four. Other prominent independent bands in the 2000s includeEditors,the Fratellis,Razorlight,Keane,Kaiser Chiefs,Coldplay andArctic Monkeys, the last the most prominent act to owe their success to the use of Internet social networking.[140]
British soul in the 2000s has also been dominated by female singers, includingLeona Lewis,Natasha Bedingfield,Joss Stone,Amy Winehouse,[141]Estelle,Lily Allen,Florence Welch,Adele,Duffy,Jessie J,Floetry andPaloma Faith, all of whom have enjoyed success in the American charts, leading to talk of a "Female Invasion", "British Soul Invasion" or, together with successful indie acts, a "Third British Invasion".[142] Male R&B artists who have had mainstream success in the United States includeJay Sean,Taio Cruz andOne Direction. Many of these British R&B artists have increasingly incorporatedelectropop sounds in their music.[143] In the early 21st century, ITV talent shows such asThe X Factor discovered artists includingCher Lloyd,Will Young andLeona Lewis, all who went on to have number one hits either in the UK or abroad.
The late 2000s 'guilty pleasures pop' craze[144][145][146] brought a lot of bands to the charts that harked back to the sounds ofsoft rock, glam pop andMOR. Acts likeMIKA,[147] future dance vocalistGary Go, the Yeah You's[148][149] andthe Feeling[150] were not afraid to state their less-than-trendy influences, with the Feeling going on to supportJeff Lynne'sELO during the next decade.[151][152][153][154]
In the 2010s, as long-term artist successes from talent shows such asThe X Factor andThe Voice UK became rarer, a number of new artists where launched via the 'featured artist' route. Modern British pop singers includingRita Ora[155] andSam Smith, were launched after being the guest vocalists on a number of dance music hits, with Smith[156] featuring onDisclosure's "Latch" andNaughty Boy's number one success, "La La La".[citation needed]
Even though she appeared onThe Voice UK (but did not make the grand final),Becky Hill[157] became a 'songwriter for hire' and part ofPete Tong's live band before starting to appear on numerous dance hits by people such asOliver Heldens,Jax Jones andSigala.[158][159] The BBC wondered if Hill was 'pop's biggest unknown star' after she notched up a series of co-credited top 40 hits, all of which were included on her Polydor compilationGet to Know, the album which stayed on the UK Albums Chart for more than a year, mainly due to the chart compiling methodology of that chart, which saw streaming points from singles included into an albums sales total. That same factor also helped Jax Jones,[160] and saw hisSnacks collection go top 10 (with a total of 78 weeks on the album chart by 3 December 2020).[161]
Away from streaming, the popularity of the BBC'sMOR/adult contemporary stationRadio 2,[162][163][164][165][166] combined with the success of various international crossover acts in the 1990s and 2000s, to create a UK country music scene that saw acts chart high on the albums chart. Where once country music would be seen either as 'naff' or 'niche'[167] in the UK, usually only found in a specialist music slots such as Bob Harris'The Country Show on BBC Radio 2, British acts includingthe Shires[168] andWard Thomas[169] achieved a number of top 10 albums in the main UK chart after being playlisted on daytime radio, with Ward Thomas topping the chart in 2016 with their albumCartwheels.[citation needed]
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