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Throughout thehistory of the British Isles, the land that is now theUnited Kingdom has been a major music producer, drawing inspiration fromchurch music and traditionalfolk music, using instruments fromEngland,Scotland,Northern Ireland, andWales. Each of the fourcountries of the United Kingdom has its own diverse and distinctive folk music forms, which flourished until the era of industrialisation when they began to be replaced by new forms of popular music, includingmusic hall andbrass bands. Many British musicians have influenced modern music on a global scale, and the UK has one of the world's largestmusic industries.English,Scottish,Irish, andWelsh folk music as well as other British styles of music heavily influencedAmerican music such asAmerican folk music,[1]American march music,[2]old-time,[3]ragtime,[4]blues,[5]country,[6] andbluegrass.[7] The UK has birthed manypopular music genres such asbeat music,psychedelic music,progressive rock/pop,heavy metal,new wave,industrial music, and drum 'n' bass.
In the20th century, influences from themusic of the United States, including blues, jazz, androck and roll, were adopted in the United Kingdom. The "British Invasion"—spearheaded byLiverpool bandthe Beatles, often regarded as themost influential band of all time[8]—saw British rock bands become highly influential around the world in the 1960s and 1970s. Pop music, a term which originated in Britain in the mid-1950s as a description for "rock and roll and the new youth music styles that it influenced",[9] was developed by British artists likeBlack Sabbath, the Beatles andthe Rolling Stones,[10] whom among other British musicians led rock and roll's transition into rock music.
Music in the British Isles, from the earliest recorded times until theBaroque and the rise of recognisably modernclassical music, was a diverse and rich culture, including sacred and secular music and ranging from the popular to the elite.[11] Each of the major nations ofEngland,Ireland,Scotland andWales retained unique forms of music and instrumentation, but British music was highly influenced by continental developments, while British composers made an important contribution to many of the major movements in early music in Europe, including thepolyphony of theArs Nova and laid some of the foundations of later national and international classical music.[12] Musicians from the British Isles also developed some distinctive forms of music, includingCeltic chant, theContenance Angloise, therota, polyphonic votiveantiphons and thecarol in themedieval era.
Church music and religious music were profoundly affected by theProtestant Reformation which affected Britain from the 16th century, which curtailed events associated with British music and forced the development of distinctive national music, worship and belief. Englishmadrigals,luteayres andmasques in theRenaissance era led particularly toEnglish language opera developed in the earlyBaroque period of the later seventeenth century.[13] In contrast, court music of the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, although having unique elements remained much more integrated into wider European culture.
The Baroque era in music, between theearly music of theMedieval andRenaissance periods and the development of fully fledged and formalised orchestralclassical music in the second half of the eighteenth century, was characterised by more elaborate musical ornamentation, changes inmusical notation, new instrumental playing techniques and the rise of new genres such asopera. Although the termBaroque is conventionally used for European music from about 1600, its full effects were not felt in Britain until after 1660, delayed by native trends and developments in music, religious and cultural differences from many European countries and the disruption tocourt music caused by theWars of the Three Kingdoms andInterregnum.[14] Under the restoredStuart monarchy the court became once again a centre of musical patronage, but royal interest in music tended to be less significant as the seventeenth century progressed, to be revived again under theHouse of Hanover.[15]
Britishchamber and orchestral music drew inspiration from continental Europe as it developed into modernclassical music. The Baroque era in British music can be seen as an interaction of national and international trends, sometimes absorbing continental fashions and practices and sometimes attempting, as in the creation ofballad opera, to produce an indigenous tradition.[16] However, arguably the most significant British composer of the era,George Frideric Handel, was a naturalised German, who helped integrate British and continental music and define the future of theclassical music of the United Kingdom that would be officially formed in 1801.[17]
Musical composition, performance and training in the United Kingdom inherited European classical traditions of the eighteenth century (above all, in Britain, from the example of Handel) and saw a great expansion during the nineteenth century.[18]Romantic nationalism encouraged clear national identities and sensibilities within thecountries of the United Kingdom towards the end of the nineteenth century, producing many composers and musicians of note and drawing on the folk tradition.[19]
These traditions, including the cultural strands drawn from the United Kingdom's constituent nations and provinces, continued to evolve in distinctive ways through the work of such composers asArthur Sullivan,Gustav Holst,Edward Elgar,Hubert Parry,Ralph Vaughan Williams,Benjamin Britten,[20]Michael Tippett,Peter Maxwell Davies andHarrison Birtwistle. Notable living British classical composers includeMichael Nyman,James MacMillan,Jeremy Peyton Jones,Gavin Bryars,Andrew Poppy,Judith Weir,Sally Beamish andAnna Meredith.
Each of the fourcountries of the United Kingdom has its own diverse and distinctivefolk music forms. Folk music flourished until the era of industrialisation when it began to be replaced by new forms of popular music, includingmusic hall andbrass bands. Realisation of this led to threefolk revivals, one in the late-19th century, one in the mid-20th century and one at the start of the 21st century which keeps folk music as an important sub-culture within society.[21]
England has a long and diverse history of folk music dating back at least to the medieval period and including many forms of music, song and dance. Through three periods of revival from the late nineteenth century much of the tradition has been preserved and continues to be practiced.[21] It led to the creation of a number of fusions with other forms of music that produced subgenres such asBritish folk rock,folk punk andfolk metal and continues to thrive nationally and in regional scenes, particularly in areas such asNorthumbria andCornwall.[22]
Ireland, including Northern Ireland, has vibrant folk traditions. The popularity of traditional instruments such asfiddles has remained throughout the centuries even as analogues in Great Britain died out. Perhaps the most famous modern musician from Northern Ireland influenced by folk tradition isVan Morrison.
Scottish folk music includes many kinds of songs, includingballads andlaments, sung by a single singer with accompaniment bybagpipes, fiddles orharps. Traditional dances includewaltzes,reels,strathspeys andjigs. Alongside the other areas of the United Kingdom, Scotland underwent aroots revival in the 1960s.Cathy-Ann McPhee andJeannie Robertson were the heroes of this revival, which inspired some revolutions in band formats by groups likeThe Clutha, The Whistlebinkies,The Boys of the Lough and theIncredible String Band.
Wales is aCeltic country that features folk music played attwmpathau (communal dances) and gwyl werin (music festivals). Welsh music also includes male voice choirs and songs accompanied by a harp. Having long been subordinate to English culture, Welsh musicians in the late 20th century had to reconstruct traditional music when aroots revival began. This revival began in the late 1970s and achieved some mainstream success in the UK in the 1980s with performers likeRobin Huw Bowen, Moniars and Gwerinos.
In the sense of commercial music enjoyed by the people, British popular music can be seen to originate in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the arrival of thebroadside ballad, which were sold cheaply and in great numbers until the nineteenth century.[23] Further technological, economic and social changes led to new forms of music in the 20th century, including thebrass band, which produced a popular and communal form of classical music.[24] 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.[25] In the 1930s, the influence of AmericanJazz led to the creation ofBritish dance bands, who provided a social and popular music that began to dominate social occasions and the radio airwaves.[26]
Britain has influenced popular music disproportionately to its size, due to its linguistic and cultural links with many countries, particularly the United States and many of its former colonies like Australia, South Africa, and Canada, and its capacity for invention, innovation and fusion, which has led to the development of, or participation in, many of the major trends in popular music.[27] Forms of popular music, includingfolk music,jazz,rapping/hip hop,pop androck music, have particularly flourished in Britain since the twentieth century.
In the early-20th century, influences from the United States became most dominant in popular music, with young performers producing their own versions of American music, includingrock n' roll from the late 1950s and developing a parallel music scene. During the early 1960s, theBritish Invasion, led bythe Beatles, further entrenched British performers as major drivers of the development ofpop androck music. According to the website ofThe New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the term "pop music" "originated in Britain in the mid-1950s as a description forrock and roll and the new youth music styles that it influenced".[9]
The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that while pop's "earlier meaning meant concerts appealing to a wide audience [...] since the late 1950s, however, pop has had the special meaning of non-classical mus[ic], usually in the form of songs, performed by such artists as the Beatles,the Rolling Stones,ABBA [a Swedish act], etc."[10] Since then, rock music and popular music contributed to a British-American collaboration, with trans-Atlantic genres being exchanged and exported to one another, where they tended to be adapted and turned into new movements.
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Britain's most significant contribution topopular music during the 20th century was towards the expansion ofrock music.Progressive rock was predicated on the "progressive" pop groups from the 1960s who combinedrock and roll with various other music styles such as Indianragas,oriental melodies andGregorian chants, like the Beatles andthe Yardbirds.[29] According toAllMusic, the emergence ofpsychedelic rock in the mid-1960s resulted from British bands who made up theBritish Invasion of the US market.[30] Many of the top British bands during the 1960s experiencedart school during their youth,[31] and espoused an approach based onart and originality—which came to createart rock.[32]
As a diverging act to the popularpop rock of the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, heavier-driven sound that came to definehard rock.[33]Heavy metal was created by British musicians, including acts likeBlack Sabbath andDeep Purple.[34]Glam rock, which was developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s, was performed by musicians who wore outrageous costumes,makeup, and hairstyles, particularlyplatform shoes andglitter—this is widely associated withDavid Bowie.[35]Rolling Stone argued that theSex Pistols, a prominentpunk rock band, came to spark and personify one of the few truly critical moments in pop culture—the rise ofpunk during the 1970s.[36]
Music historian Vernon Joynson claimed thatnew wave emerged in the UK in late 1976, when many bands began disassociating themselves from punk.[37]Gothic rock emerged frompost-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s by bands includingThe Sisters of MercySiouxsie and the Banshees,[38]Joy Division,[39][38][40]Bauhaus,[39] andthe Cure.[38] Other subgenres of rock invented by or radically changed by British acts includeblues rock,ska,British folk rock,folk punk,shoegaze, andBritpop.
In addition to advancing the scope of rock music, British acts developedavant-funk andneo soul and createdacid jazz. Whilstdisco is an American form of music, British popgroupBee Gees were the most prominent performers of the disco music era in the mid-to-late 1970s, and came be to known as the "Kings of Disco" by media outlets.[41] TheSecond British Invasion, which derived from theBritish Invasion of the US in the 1960s, consisted of music acts from the United Kingdom that became popular in the United States during the early-to-mid 1980s primarily due to the cable music channelMTV.[42]
Thesesynthpop andnew wave associated acts often featured on the American pop charts, and according toRolling Stone, brought "revolution in sound and style".New Pop became anumbrella term used by the music industry to describe young, mostly British,androgynous, and technologically oriented artists such asCulture Club andEurythmics.[43]Boy George of Culture Club was a leading figure in thenew romantic movement which became a major part in the Second British Invasion of the US. British rock bands, most notablyDef Leppard andIron Maiden,[44] also became part of the renewed popularity of British music.[45]Newsweek magazine ran an issue which featured Scottish singerAnnie Lennox of Eurythmics and Boy George on the cover of its issue with the captionBritain Rocks America – Again, whileRolling Stone would release an "England Swings: Great Britain invades America's music and style. Again." issue in November 1983.[43] Pop-starGeorge Michael was one of the most popular acts of theMTV Generation, cementing this position with his hugely successfulFaith album in 1987.[46]
During most of the 1990s,Cool Britannia—a period of increased pride in theculture of the United Kingdom, inspired by the 1960sSwinging Sixties—was coined due to the success of thegirl bandSpice Girls andBritpop actsBlur andOasis, which led to a renewed feeling of optimism in the United Kingdom following the pessimistic tone of the 1970s and 1980s.[47] Theelectronic subgenrestrip hop,dubstep, andindustrial originated in Britain during the 1990s.[48][49][50] During the 21st century,blue-eyed soul came to be dominated by British singers, includingAmy Winehouse,Duffy and most notablyAdele, who has broken several sales and chart records.[51] Adele has won moreGrammy Awards than any other woman who was born outside the US.[52] This wave of popular British soul singers led to a consideration of whether a thirdBritish Invasion was taking place—this time asoul invasion—in contrast to the 1960srock andpop, and 1980snew wave and synthpop invasions.
English singerEd Sheeran was the foremostfolk-orientated artist of the 2010s; theOfficial Charts Company named him artist of the decade, with the most combined success in the UK album and singles charts in the 2010s.[53] Globally,Spotify named Sheeran the secondmost streamed artist of the decade.[53] London formed English-Irishpopboy bandOne Direction were one of the biggestteen idols of the 2010s.[citation needed]Little Mix, apopgirl group and the winner of theeight series of the British version ofThe X Factor, established themselves as the UK's biggest girl group and one of thebest-selling girl groups in the world.[54][55]
Highlighting the influence of immigrants in the United Kingdom during the 21st century,British African-Caribbean people createdgrime, Bashment, Dubstep, Jungle andafroswing. Grime has been described as the "most significant musical development within the UK for decades."[56] In addition,British Asians have popularisedBhangra within the South Asian diaspora.
Curtis' death wrapped an already mysterious group in legend. From the press eulogies, you would think Curtis had gone to join Chatterton, Rimbaud and Morrison in the hallowed hall of premature harvests. To a group with several strong gothic characteristics was added a further piece of romance. The rock press had lost its great white hope, but they had lost a friend. It must have made bitter reading.