British rock describes a wide variety of forms of music made in theUnited Kingdom. Since around 1964, with the "British Invasion" of the United States spearheaded bythe Beatles, Britishrock music has had a considerable impact on the development ofAmerican music and rock music across the world.[1]
Initial attempts to emulate Americanrock and roll took place in Britain in the mid-1950s, but the terms "rock music" and "rock" usually refer to the music derived from theblues rock and other genres that emerged during the 1960s. The term is often used in combination with other terms to describe a variety of hybrids or subgenres, and is often contrasted withpop music, with which it shares many structures and instrumentation. Rock music has tended to be more orientated toward the albums market, putting an emphasis on innovation,virtuosity, performance and song writing by the performers.[2]
Although much too diverse to be a genre in itself, British rock has produced an immense number of the most significant groups and performers in rock music internationally, and has initiated or significantly developed many of the most influential subgenres, includingbeat music,progressive rock,art rock,hard rock,heavy metal,punk,post-punk,new wave, andindie rock.
In the 1950s, Britain was well placed to receive American rock and roll music and culture. It shared a common language, had been exposed to American culture through the stationing of troops in the country, and shared many social developments, including the emergence of distinct youth sub-cultures, which in Britain included theTeddy Boys.[3]Trad jazz became popular, and many of its musicians were influenced by related American styles, includingboogie-woogie andthe blues.[4] Theskiffle craze, led byLonnie Donegan, utilised mostly amateurish versions mainly of American folk songs and encouraged many of the subsequent generation of rock and roll, folk, R&B and beat musicians to start performing.[5] At the same time British audiences were beginning to encounter American rock and roll, initially through films includingBlackboard Jungle (1955) andRock Around the Clock (1955).[6] Both films contained theBill Haley & His Comets hit "Rock Around the Clock", which first entered the British charts in early 1955 – four months before it reached theUS pop charts – topped the British charts later that year and again in 1956, and helped identify rock and roll with teenage delinquency.[7] American rock and roll acts such asElvis Presley,Little Richard andBuddy Holly thereafter became major forces in the British charts.
The initial response of the British music industry was to attempt to produce copies of American records, recorded with session musicians and often fronted by teen idols. British rock and rollers soon began to appear, includingWee Willie Harris andTommy Steele. The bland or wholly imitative form of much British rock and roll in this period meant that the American product remained dominant. However, in 1958 Britain produced its first "authentic" rock and roll song and star, whenCliff Richard reached number 2 in the charts with "Move It".[8] British impresarioLarry Parnes fashioned young singers to the new trend, giving them corny names such asBilly Fury,Marty Wilde andVince Eager. At the same time, TV shows such asSix-Five Special andOh Boy!, both produced byJack Good, promoted the careers of British rock and rollers like Marty Wilde andAdam Faith. Cliff Richard and his backing band The Drifters, who quickly changed their name toThe Shadows, were the most successful home grown rock and roll based acts of the era.[9] Other leading acts includedJoe Brown, andJohnny Kidd & The Pirates, whose 1960 hit song "Shakin' All Over" became a rock and roll standard. The first American rock and roll artist to hit British stages and appear on television wasCharlie Gracie, quickly followed byGene Vincent in December 1959, soon joined on tour by his friendEddie Cochran. The producerJoe Meek was the first to produce sizeable rock hits inEngland, culminating withThe Tornados' instrumental "Telstar", which went to number one in both the UK and USA.
In late 1950s Britain a flourishing culture of groups began to emerge, often out of the decliningskiffle scene, in major urban centres in the UK likeLiverpool,Manchester,Birmingham andLondon. 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.[10]
.png)
These beat bands were heavily influenced by American groups of the era, such asBuddy Holly and the Crickets (from which groupsthe Beatles andThe Hollies derived their names), as well as earlier British groups such asThe Shadows.[11] After the national success of the Beatles in Britain from 1962, a number of Liverpool performers were able to follow them into the charts, includingGerry & The Pacemakers,The Searchers, andCilla Black. Among the most successful beat acts from Birmingham wereThe Spencer Davis Group andThe Moody Blues;The Animals came fromNewcastle, andThem, featuringVan Morrison, fromBelfast. 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,The Kinks 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,[12] as wereHerman's Hermits andThe Hollies.[13] The beat movement provided most of the bands responsible for theBritish invasion of the American pop charts in the period after 1964, and furnished the model for many important developments in pop and rock music, particularly through their small group format – typically lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar, and drums, sometimes replacing the rhythm guitar with keyboards, either with a lead singer or with one of the musicians taking lead vocals and the others providing vocal harmonies.
In parallel with beat music, in the late 1950s and early 1960s a British blues scene was developing, recreating the sounds of AmericanR&B and later particularly the sounds of bluesmenRobert Johnson,Howlin' Wolf, andMuddy Waters.[14] Initially led by purist blues followers such asAlexis Korner andCyril Davies, it reached its height of mainstream popularity in the 1960s, when it developed a distinctive and influential style dominated by electric guitar and made international stars of several proponents of the genre including The Rolling Stones,The Yardbirds,Eric Clapton,Cream,Fleetwood Mac andLed Zeppelin (who morphed out of The Yardbirds). A number of these moved throughBlues-rock to different forms of rock music, with increasing emphasis on technical virtuosity and improvisational skills. As a result, British blues helped to form many of the subgenres of rock, includingpsychedelic rock andheavy metal music. Since then direct interest in the blues in Britain has declined, but many of the key performers have returned to it in recent years, new acts have emerged and there has been a renewed interest in the genre.[14]
The Beatles themselves were less influenced by blues music than the music of later American genres such assoul andMotown. Their popular success in Britain in the early 1960s was matched by their new and highly influential emphases on their own song writing, and on technical production values, some of which were shared by other British beat groups. On 7 February 1964, theCBS Evening News withWalter Cronkite ran a story about the Beatles' United States arrival in which the correspondent said "The British Invasion this time goes by the code nameBeatlemania".[15] Two days later, on 9 February, they appeared onThe Ed Sullivan Show.[16] Seventy five per cent of Americans watching television that night viewed their appearance thus "launching"[17] the invasion with a massive wave of chart success that would continue until the Beatles broke up in 1970. On 4 April 1964, the Beatles held the top 5 positions on theBillboard Hot 100 singles chart, the only time to date that any act has accomplished this.[17][18] 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 in the US.[19] Other acts that were part of the "invasion" includedThe Who,The Kinks, andThe Dave Clark Five;[17] these acts were also successful within the UK, although clearly the term "British Invasion" itself was not applied there except as a description of what was happening in the USA. So-called "British Invasion" acts influenced fashion, haircuts and manners of the 1960s of what was to be known as the "Counterculture". In particular, the Beatles' movieA Hard Day's Night and fashions fromCarnaby Street led American media to proclaim England as the centre of the music and fashion world.[19] The success of British acts of the time, particularly that of the Beatles themselves, has been seen as revitalising rock music in the US and influenced many American bands to develop their sound and style.[1] The growth of the British music industry itself, and its increasingly prominent global role in the forefront of changing popular culture, also enabled it to discover and first establish the success of new rock artists from elsewhere in the world, notablyJimi Hendrix and, in the early 1970s,Bob Marley.[20]
Freakbeat is a loosely defined[21] subgenre ofrock and roll music developed mainly by harder-driving British groups, often those with amod following, during theSwinging London period of the mid-to late 1960s.[22][23] The genre bridges British Invasion mod/R&B/pop andpsychedelia.[24] The term was coined by English music journalistPhil Smee.[25] AllMusic writes that "freakbeat" is loosely defined, but generally describes the more obscure but hard-edged artists of theBritish Invasion era such asthe Creation,the Pretty Things orDenny Laine's early solo work.[21] Much of the material collected onRhino Records's 2001 box-set compilationNuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969 can be classified as freakbeat.[26] Other bands includeThe Smoke,The Eyes,The Birds,The Action andThe Sorrows.
Psychedelic music is a style of music that is inspired or influenced bypsychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences ofhallucinogenic drugs.[27] It particularly grew out of blues-rock andprogressive folk music and drew on non-Western sources such as Indian music'sragas andsitars as well as studio effects and long instrumental passages and surreal lyrics. It emerged during the mid-1960s amongprogressive folk acts in Britain such asThe Incredible String Band andDonovan, as well as in the United States, and rapidly moved into rock and pop music being taken up by acts includingthe Beatles,The Yardbirds,The Moody Blues,Small Faces,The Move,Traffic,Cream andPink Floyd.Psychedelic rock bridged the transition from earlyblues-rock toprogressive rock,art rock,experimental rock,hard rock and eventuallyheavy metal that would become major genres in the 1970s.[28]Shock rock pioneerArthur Brown performed his 1968 hit song "Fire" wearing black and white makeup (corpse paint) and a burning headpiece.[29][30] He has been a significant influence on extreme acts that have followed.[31][32]
By the early 1970s, rock music had become more mainstream, and internationalised, with many British acts becoming massively successful in the United States and globally. Some of the most successful artists, such as the individual members of The Beatles,Elton John,David Bowie, andRod Stewart performed their own songs (and in some cases those written by others) in an eclectic variety of styles, in which the presentation of the performance itself became increasingly important.[33] By way of contrast, the former psychedelic-pop act, TheStatus Quo, dropped thedefinite article from their name and became one of the most successful British rock acts by presenting an apparently unsophisticated style ofboogie-based rock music;[34] andVan Morrison gained international critical acclaim through a blend of rock,jazz andblues styles.[35] Some well-established British bands that began their careers in the British Invasion, notablyThe Rolling Stones,The Who andThe Kinks, also developed their own particular styles and expanded their international fan base during that period, but would be joined by new acts in new styles and subgenres.[36]
British folk rock developed in Britain during the mid to late 1960s by the bandsFairport Convention, andPentangle which built on elements of Americanfolk rock, and on the secondBritish folk revival.[37] Using traditional English music as its basis, these bands drew heavily on theChild Ballads,ballads of the British Isles from the medieval period until the 19th century.[38] An early success was Fairport Convention's 1969 albumLiege and Lief, but it became more significant in the 1970s, when it was taken up by groups such asPentangle,Steeleye Span and theAlbion Band.[38] It was rapidly adopted and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures ofBrittany, where it was pioneered byAlan Stivell and bands likeMalicorne; in Ireland by groups such asHorslips; and also in Scotland, Wales and theIsle of Man andCornwall, to produceCeltic rock and its derivatives.[39] It was also influential in those parts of the world with close cultural connections to the UK, such as the US and Canada and gave rise to the subgenre ofMedieval folk rock and the fusion genres offolk punk andfolk metal.[38] By the end of the 1970s the genre was in steep decline in popularity, as other forms of music, including punk and electronic began to be established.[38]
Progressive or prog rock developed out of late 1960sblues-rock andpsychedelic rock. Dominated by British bands, it was part of an attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility.[40] Progressive rock bands attempted to push the technical and compositional boundaries of rock by going beyond the standard verse-chorus-basedsong structures. Thearrangements often incorporated elements drawn fromclassical,jazz, and international sources later called "world music".Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy. Progressive rock bands sometimes usedconcept albums that made unified statements, usually telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme.[40]King Crimson's 1969 début album,In the Court of the Crimson King, which mixed powerful guitar riffs andmellotron, withjazz andsymphonic music, is often taken as the key recording in progressive rock, helping the widespread adoption of the genre in the early 1970s among existing blues-rock and psychedelic bands, as well as newly formed acts. The term was applied to the music of bands such asYes,Genesis,Pink Floyd,Jethro Tull,Soft Machine,Electric Light Orchestra,Procol Harum,Hawkwind, andEmerson, Lake & Palmer.[40] It reached its peak of popularity in the mid-1970s, but had mixed critical acclaim and the punk movement can be seen as a reaction against its musicality and perceived pomposity.[41] Many bands broke up, but some, including Genesis, ELP, Yes, and Pink Floyd, regularly scored Top Ten albums with successful accompanying worldwide tours.[42]
Glam or glitter rock developed in the UK in the post-hippie early 1970s. It was characterised by "outrageous" clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and platform-soled boots.[43] The flamboyant lyrics, costumes, and visual styles of glam performers were acampy, playing with categories of sexuality in a theatrical blend ofnostalgic references to science fiction and old movies, all over a guitar-drivenhard rock sound.[44] Pioneers of the genre includedDavid Bowie,Roxy Music,Mott the Hoople,Marc Bolan andT. Rex.[44] These, and many other acts straddled the divide between pop and rock music, managing to maintain a level of respectability with rock audiences, while enjoying success in the UK singles chart, includingQueen andElton John. Other performers aimed much more directly for the popular music market, where they were the dominant groups of their era, includingSlade,Wizzard,Mud andSweet.[44] The glitter image was pushed to its limits byGary Glitter andThe Glitter Band. Largely confined to the British music scene where it originated, glam rock peaked during the mid-1970s, before it declined in the face of punk rock and new wave trends.[44][45] It has had a direct influence on acts that rose to prominence later.[46]
With roots inblues-rock,psychedelic rock andgarage rock the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, powerful sound, characterised by overt rhythmic basslines, highly amplifieddistortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness. Heavy metal lyrics and performance styles often incorporated elements of fantasy and science fiction, and are generally associated with masculinity andmachismo.[47] The three pioneering heavy metal bands,Led Zeppelin,Black Sabbath, andDeep Purple, were all British and, while gaining little critical acclaim, they and the next generation of metal groups, which included American, Australian and continental bands beside British actsJudas Priest,Motörhead andRainbow, attracted large audiences and record sales.[48] Rainbow moved heavy metal intostadium rock whileMotörhead introduced apunk rock sensibility and an increasing emphasis on speed. After a decline in popularity in the late 1970sJudas Priest discarded most of the genre'sblues influences, particularly on their 1980 albumBritish Steel, which opened the door for thenew wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) includingIron Maiden,Vardis,Saxon andDef Leppard, and a return to popularity in the 1980s.[48]
.jpg)
Although NWOBHM inspired many new bands, in the late 1980s much of the creative impetus in the genre shifted towards America and continental Europe (particularly Germany and Scandinavia), which produced most of the major new subgenres of metal, which were then taken up by British acts. These includedthrash metal anddeath metal, both developed in the USA;black metal andpower metal, both developed in continental Europe, but influenced by the British bandVenom; anddoom, which was developed in the USA but which soon had a number of bands from England, includingPagan Altar andWitchfinder General.[49] There's also a large British influence in the doom/gothic metal scene, pioneered by such bands asParadise Lost,My Dying Bride andAnathema.Grindcore, or simply grind, was a hybrid of death metal and hardcore punk, characterized by heavilydistorted,down-tuned guitars, high speedtempo,blast beats, songs often lasting no more than two minutes (some are seconds long), and vocals which consist ofgrowls and high-pitched screams. Pioneers, the British bandNapalm Death inspired other British grindcore groups in the 1980s, among themExtreme Noise Terror,Carcass andSore Throat.[50]
Probably the most successful British metal band since the days of NWOBHM wereCradle of Filth, formed in 1991, and pursuing a form of extreme metal that is difficult to categorise.[51] The term "retro-metal" has been applied to such bands asThe Darkness, whose mix ofglam rock and heavy riffs earned them a string of singles hits and a quintuple platinum album withOne Way Ticket to Hell... and Back (2005), which reached number 11 in the UK charts.[52]Bullet for My Valentine, from Wales, broke into the top 5 in both the U.S. and British charts with their metalcore, a mixture of metal and hardcore, withScream Aim Fire (2008).[53]
Pub rock was a short-lived trend that left a lasting influence on the British music scene, especially inpunk rock. It was a back-to-basics movement that reacted against the glitteryglam rock ofDavid Bowie andGary Glitter, and peaked in the mid-1970s. Pub rock developed in large north London pubs.[54] It is said to have begun in May 1971 withEggs over Easy, an American band, playing in the Tally Ho! inKentish Town. A group of musicians who had been playing in blues and R&B bands during the 1960s and early '70s soon formed influential bands likeBrinsley Schwarz,Ducks Deluxe andBees Make Honey. Brinsley Schwarz was probably the most influential group, achieving some mainstream success both in the UK and in the States.[55] The second wave of pub rock includedKilburn and the High Roads,Ace, Johnny Kid & the Pirates, andChilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers; these were followed by the third and final wave of pub rock, includingDr. Feelgood, andSniff 'n' the Tears. Several pub rock musicians joined the new wave acts such asGraham Parker's backing band,The Rumour,Elvis Costello & the Attractions and evenThe Clash.[56]
Punk rock developed between 1974 and 1976, originally in the United States, where it was rooted ingarage rock, and other forms of what is now known asprotopunk music.[57] The first punk band is usually thought to be theRamones from 1976. This was taken up in Britain by bands also influenced by thepub rock scene, like theSex Pistols,The Clash andThe Damned, particularly in London, who became the vanguard of a new musical and cultural movement, blending simple aggressive sounds and lyrics withclothing styles and a variety ofanti-authoritarian ideologies.[58] Punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock, creating fast, hard-edged music, typically with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation, and often political,anti-establishment lyrics.[58] Punk embraced aDIY (do it yourself) ethic, with many bands self-producing their recordings and distributing them through informal channels.[58] 1977 saw punk rock spreading around the world, and it became a major international cultural phenomenon. However, by 1978, the initial impulse had subsided and punk had morphed into the wider and more diverse new wave and post-punk movements.[58]
As the initial punk impulse began to subside, with the major punk bands either disbanding or taking on new influences, the term "New Wave" began to be used to describe particularly British bands that emerged in the later 1970s with mainstream appeal. These included pop bands likeXTC,Squeeze andNick Lowe, theelectronic rock ofGary Numan as well as songwriters likeElvis Costello, rock & roll influenced bands like the Pretenders, the reggae influenced music of bands likeThe Police, as well as bands of themod revival likeThe Jam and of theska revival likeThe Specials andMadness.[59] 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.[60]
Beside the development of mainstream new wave, there were also less commercial, darker acts, classified as post-punk. Like new wave they incorporated a range of influences, includingglam rock,krautrock, electronic music, Jamaicandub music (specifically in bass guitar), and Americanfunk. Examples of early British post-punk wereSiouxsie and the Banshees,Wire,Magazine andPublic Image Ltd.[62] The other outfits that arrived on the British scene were per chronological order,Joy Division,the Cure,the Fall,Echo & the Bunnymen,Gang of Four,Bauhaus,Tubeway Army,Orange Juice,the Psychedelic Furs,Television Personalities,the Lords of the New Church,Killing Joke,the Smiths andthe Jesus and Mary Chain.[63] Post-punk would be a major element in subsequentgothic andalternative rock genres.
Two-tone or 2 tone is a genre of British popular music of the late 1970s and early 1980s that focused traditionalJamaicanska,rocksteady andreggae music with elements ofpunk rock andnew wave music.[64] Its name derives from2 Tone Records, a record label founded in 1979 byJerry Dammers ofthe Specials,[65] and references a desire to transcend and defuse racial tensions inThatcher-era Britain: many two-tone groups, such asthe Specials,the Selecter andthe Beat, featured a mix ofblack,white, andmultiracial people. Originating in the Midlands cityCoventry in England in the late 1970s, it was part of the second wave of ska music, following on from the first ska music that developed in Jamaica in the 1950s and 1960s, and infused withpunk andnew wave textures.
Folk punk or rogue folk is a fusion offolk music andpunk rock, or occasionally other genres, which was pioneered by the London-based bandThe Pogues in the 1980s. It achieved some mainstream success in the 1980s and, particularly as the subgenre ofCeltic punk, has been widely adopted in areas of theCeltic diaspora in North America and Australia and by many bands in continental central and eastern Europe. Unlike earlierCeltic rock and electric folk groups, folk punk groups tend to include relatively littletraditional music in their repertoire, but instead usually performed their own compositions, often following the form of punk rock, using additional folk instrumentation, including,mandolin,accordion,banjo and particularly violin.[66] Other bands adopted some traditional forms of music, includingsea shanties and eastern Europeangypsy music. Among the most successful performers wereThe Men They Couldn't Hang,New Model Army,Oysterband,The Levellers,[38] and singer-songwriterBilly Bragg, who enjoyed a series of hits in the 1980s.[67]
Many progressive rock bands had incorporated synthesizers into their sound, includingPink Floyd,Yes andGenesis.[68] In 1977,Ultravox memberWarren Cann purchased aRoland TR-77 drum machine, which was first featured in their October 1977 single release "Hiroshima Mon Amour".[69] The ballad arrangement, metronome-like percussion and heavy use of theARP Odyssey synthesizer was effectively a prototype for nearly allsynthpop and rock bands that were to follow. In 1978, the first incarnation ofThe Human League released their début single "Being Boiled". Others were soon to follow, includingTubeway Army, a little known outfit from West London, who dropped theirpunk rock image and jumped on the band wagon, topping the UK charts in the summer of 1979 with the single "Are Friends Electric?". This prompted the singer,Gary Numan to go solo and in the same year he release theKraftwerk inspired album,The Pleasure Principle and again topped the charts for the second time with the single "Cars".[70] Particularly through its adoption byNew Romantics, synthesizers came to dominate the pop and rock music of the early 80s. Albums such asVisage'sVisage (1980),John Foxx'sMetamatic (1980),Gary Numan'sTelekon (1980),Ultravox'sVienna (1980),The Human League'sDare (1981) andDepeche Mode'sSpeak & Spell (1981), established a sound that influenced most mainstream pop and rock bands, until it began to fall from popularity in the mid-1980s.[71]
New Romantic emerged as part of thenew wave music movement in London nightclubs including Billy's and TheBlitz Club towards the end of the 1970s. Influenced byDavid Bowie andRoxy Music, it developedglam rock fashions, gaining its name from the frillyfopshirts of earlyRomanticism. New Romantic music often made extensive use of synthesizers. Pioneers includedVisage,Japan andUltravox and among the commercially most successful acts associated with the movement wereAdam and the Ants,Culture Club,The Human League,Spandau Ballet andDuran Duran.[72] By about 1983 the original movement had dissolved, with surviving acts dropping most of the fashion elements to pursue mainstream careers.
From its inception in 1981, the cable music channel MTV featured a disproportionate amount of music videos from image conscious British acts.[73] British acts, who had been accustomed to using music videos for half a decade, featured heavily on the channel.[73][74]The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" was thefirst music video shown on MTV. In late 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 video.[73] They would be followed by bands likeDuran Duran whose glossy videos would come to symbolise the power of MTV.[73]Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" gently poked fun at MTV which had helped make them international rock stars.[75] In 1983, 30% of the record sales were from British acts. 18 of the Top 40 and 6 of the Top 10 singles on 18 July were by British artists. Overall record sales would rise by 10% from 1982.[73][76]Newsweek featuredAnnie Lennox ofEurythmics andBoy George ofCulture Club on the cover of one of its issues, whileRolling Stone would release an "England Swings" issue.[73] 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.[18] Veteran music journalistSimon Reynolds theorised that similar to the first British Invasion the use of black American influences by the British acts helped to spur success.[73] Commentators in the mainstream media credited MTV and the British acts with bringing colour and energy back to pop music while rock journalists were generally hostile to the phenomenon because they felt it represented image over content.[73]
Oi! is a subgenre ofpunk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s.[77] The music and its associatedsubculture had the goal of bringing togetherpunks,skinheads, and other disaffectedworking-class youth.[78][79] The movement was partly a response to the perception that many participants in the early punk rock scene were, in the words ofThe Business guitarist Steve Kent, "trendy university people using long words, trying to be artistic... and losing touch."[80] First-generation Oi! bands such asSham 69 andCock Sparrer were around for years before the wordOi! was used retroactively to describe their style of music. In 1980, writing inSounds magazine, rock journalistGarry Bushell labelled the movementOi!, taking the name from the garbled "Oi!" that Stinky Turner ofCockney Rejects used to introduce the band's songs.[81][82] The word is aBritish expression meaninghey orhey there! In addition to Cockney Rejects, other bands to be explicitly labeled Oi! in the early days of the genre includedAngelic Upstarts,the 4-Skins,the Business,Anti-Establishment,Blitz,the Blood andCombat 84.[83]
A related scene wasstreet punk which emerged from the style ofOi! andhardcore punk bands. A key band in defining the aesthetic wasthe Exploited.[84][85][86] The three most prominent UK82 bands, according toIan Glasper, arethe Exploited,Discharge,[87] andGBH.[88] Street punks generally have a much more ostentatious and flamboyant appearance than theworking class orskinhead image cultivated by many Oi! groups.[89] Lyrics frequently denounced the Conservative leaderMargaret Thatcher[90] in the same way that American hardcore punk bands addressed theRonald Reagan administration.
In the second half of the 1980s, it became increasingly normalised forUK hardcore bands to be influenced by heavy metal styles.[91] Crust punk is a form of music influenced by punk rock andextreme metal.[92] Founded by the English bandsAmebix[93][94] andAntisect, taking its name from Newcastle bandHellbastard's 1986Ripper Crust demo. Crust punk influenced further developments into UK hardcore, specifically in its contribution to the creation ofgrindcore.[92] Grindcore, developed during the mid-1980s in the United Kingdom byNapalm Death, a group who emerged from theanarcho-punk scene in Birmingham, England. Napalm Death's seismic impact inspired other British grindcore groups in the 1980s, among themCarcass andSore Throat.[50]Extreme Noise Terror, from Ipswich, formed in 1984 with the goal of becoming "the most extreme hardcore punk band of all time,"[95] the group took Mick Harris from Napalm Death in 1987. Ian Glasper describes the group as "pissed-off hateful noise with its roots somewhere between early Discharge andDisorder, with [vocalists] Dean [Jones] and Phil [Vane] pushing their trademark vocal extremity to its absolute limit."[96]
Indie or independent rock, particularly in America often known as alternative rock, was a scene that emerged from post-punk and new wave in the 1980s, eschewing themajor record labels for control of their own music and relying on local scenes or national sub-cultures to provide an audience. Having enjoyed some success a number of indie acts were able to move into the mainstream, including early indie bandsAztec Camera,Orange Juice andThe Smiths, followed byThe Housemartins andJames. Other forms of alternative rock developed in the UK during the 1980s.The Jesus and Mary Chain wrapped their pop melodies in walls of guitar noise, whileNew Order emerged from the demise of post-punk bandJoy Division and experimented withtechno andhouse music, forging thealternative dance style. The Mary Chain, along with Dinosaur Jr and thedream pop ofCocteau Twins, were the influences for theshoegazing movement of the late 1980s.[97]
Gothic rock, often shortened to goth, developed out of the post-punk scene in the later 1970s. It combines dark, often keyboard-heavy music with introspective and depressing lyrics. Notable early gothic rock bands includeSiouxsie and the Banshees,Joy Division,Bauhaus (whose "Bela Lugosi's Dead" is often cited as the first goth record),the Cure,the Sisters of Mercy andFields of the Nephilim.[98] Gothic rock gave rise to a broadergoth subculture that included clubs,various fashion trends and numerous publications that grew in popularity in the 1980s, gaining notoriety by being associated with severalmoral panics over suicide and Satanism.[99]
The independent rock scene that had developed in Manchester in the second half of the 1980s, based inThe Haçienda nightclub andFactory Records and dubbed Madchester, came to national prominence at the end of the decade, with theHappy Mondays, theInspiral Carpets, andStone Roses charting late in 1989.[100] The scene became the centre of media attention for independent rock in the early 1990s, with bands likeWorld of Twist,New Fast Automatic Daffodils,The High,Northside,Paris Angels, and Intastella also gaining national attention.[100] The period of dominance was relatively short lived with The Stone Roses beginning to retreat from public performance while engaged in contractual disputes, the Happy Mondays having difficulty in producing a second album andFactory Records going bankrupt in 1992.[100] Local bands catching the tail-end of Madchester, such asThe Mock Turtles, became part of a widerbaggy scene. The music press in the UK began to place more focus onshoegazing bands from thesouth of England and bands emerging through USgrunge.[100]
Dream pop had developed out of the indie rock scene of the 1980s, when bands likeCocteau Twins,The Chameleons,The Passions,Dif Juz,Lowlife andA.R. Kane began fusingpost-punk andethereal experiments with bittersweet pop melodies into sensual, sonically ambitious soundscapes.[101] The 4AD record label is the one most associated with dream pop, though others such asCreation,Projekt, Fontana,Bedazzled, Vernon Yard, andSlumberland also released significant records in the genre. A louder, more aggressive strain of dream pop came to be known asshoegazing; key bands of this style wereLush,Slowdive,My Bloody Valentine,Ride,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.[102]
Post-rock originated in the release ofTalk Talk's albumLaughing Stock and US bandSlint'sSpiderland, both in 1991, which produced experimental work influenced by sources as varied aselectronica,jazz, and minimalist classical music, often abandoning the traditional song format in favour of instrumental and ambient music.[103] The term was first used to describe the bandBark Psychosis and their albumHex (1994), but was soon employed for bands such asStereolab,Laika,Disco Inferno andPram and other acts in America and Canada.[103] Scottish groupMogwai are one of the influential post-rock groups to arise at the turn of the 21st century.[104]
Initially dubbed as 'C86' after the 1986NME tape, and also known as "cutie", "shambling bands" and later as "twee pop",[105][106] indie pop was characterised by jangling guitars, a love of sixties pop and often fey, innocent lyrics.[107] It was also inspired by the DIY scene of punk and there was a thriving fanzine, label and club and gig circuit. Early bands includedThe Pastels,The Shop Assistants andPrimal Scream. Scenes later developed in the United States particularly around labels such asK Records. Genres such asRiot Grrrl and bands as diverse asNirvana,Manic Street Preachers, andBelle and Sebastian have all acknowledged its influence.
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.[100] 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.[100] 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,The Boo Radleys,Kula Shaker,Ash,Ocean Colour Scene andElastica.[100] Other bands with a heavier sound were sometimes referred to by the sobriquet 'Britrock', includingSkunk Anansie,The Wildhearts,Terrorvision,Reef, andFeeder. Britpop and Britrock groups brought British alternative rock into the mainstream and formed the backbone of a larger British cultural movement calledCool Britannia.[108] 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.[100]
From about 1997, as dissatisfaction grew with the concept of Cool Britannia, and Britpop as a movement began to dissolve, emerging bands began to avoid the Britpop label while still producing music derived from it.[109][110] Many of these bands tended to mix elements of British traditional rock (or British trad rock),[111][112] with American influences, including grunge.[113][114]Radiohead,Placebo and Post-Britpop bands likeThe Verve,Travis,Stereophonics,Feeder, and particularlyColdplay, achieved much wider international success than most of the Britpop groups that had preceded them, and were some of the most commercially successful acts of the late 1990s and early 2000s.[114][115][116][117]
In the 2000s British indie rock experienced a resurgence. Like modern Americanalternative rock, many British indie bands such asFranz Ferdinand,The Libertines andBloc Party drew influences from post-punk groups such asJoy Division,Wire, andGang of Four. Other prominent independent rock bands in the 2000s include:Editors,The Fratellis,Lostprophets,Razorlight,Keane,Kaiser Chiefs,Muse,Kasabian,The Cribs,The Maccabees,The Kooks andArctic Monkeys[118] (the last being the most prominent act to gain their initial fan base through the use ofinternet social networking).
In 1996, a hardcore scene in London began around the informal collective "London Black-Up", which include bands likeKnuckledust, Ninebar and Bun Dem Out. Bands in this scene often incorporated elements ofgrime,hip hop and metal into their sounds and was based around venues such as theCamden Underworld,New Cross Inn and the Dome inTufnell Park.[119] The 2000s saw the rise in prominent of a number of UKpost-hardcore bands,[120] the most prominent of which was Bridgend'sFuneral for a Friend, whose 2003 debut albumCasually Dressed & Deep in Conversation peaked at number 12 on the UK singles chart.[121] In March 2007,Gallows signed a deal withWarner Bros Records, making them the first British hardcore punk band to sign to a major label.[122] The success of Gallows led to other British hardcore acts of the time gain notability likethe Ghost of a Thousand,Heights,[123]Dead Swans[124] andBlackhole.[125] The late-2000s metalcore scene was fronted byArchitects andBring Me the Horizon. The style of Bring Me the Horizon´s early work, including their debut albumCount Your Blessings, has been described primarily asdeathcore, but over the course of several albums, the band has shifted its style and moved in a more melodically-oriented direction by combining their approach to metalcore with elements ofelectronica,pop andhip hop.[126][127]Asking Alexandria from York were the most successful bands to originate from theMySpace metalcore scene.[128]
With developments in computer technology andmusic software advanced, it became possible to create high quality music using little more than a single laptop computer.[129] This resulted in a massive increase in the amount of home-produced electronic music available to the general public via the expanding internet,[130] and new forms of performance such aslaptronica[129] andlive coding.[131] In Britain the combination of indie with American pioneereddance-punk was dubbednew rave in publicity forKlaxons and the term was picked up and applied by theNME to a number of bands,[132] includingTrash Fashion,[133]New Young Pony Club,[134]Hadouken!,Late of the Pier,Test Icicles,[135] andShitdisco[132] forming a scene with a similar visual aesthetic to earlierraves.[132][136]
In the mid-to-late 2010s and early 2020s, a new wave of post-punk bands from England emerged. The groups in this scene have now identified as being part of theWindmill scene, due to their formation at thevenue of the same name in Brixton.[137][138][139] Described byNPR writerMatthew Perpetua in 2021 as "bands that kindatalk-sing over post-punk music, and sometimes it's more likepost-rock."[140] Many of the acts are associated with producerDan Carey and his record label Speedy Wunderground, which have also earned it the title of "Speedy Scene", with other names including "Crank Wave" and "Post-Brexit New Wave"[141][142] Artists that have been identified as part of the scene includeBlack Midi,Squid,[143]Black Country, New Road,Dry Cleaning,Shame,Fontaines D.C.,Yard Act.[144][140] Described by theRamapo College of New Jersey'sRamapo News in 2025 as "easily the most significant movement in rock music in the past decade", Windmill scene bands have achieved important commercial success, with Black Country, New Road'sAnts From Up There album debuting at No. 3 on theUK Albums Chart.[145][146]
post-punk pioneers like [...] Siouxsie and the Banshees
We've lined up pioneering post-punks Siouxsie and the Banshees
Joining the Banshees in 1977 aged 19, McKay's unconventional, jaggedly metallic playing transformed the band from punk contenders to post-punk pioneers.
To help him trace the origins of the genre that was a pre-cursor to indie music...
| Africa | |
|---|---|
| Americas | |
| Asia | |
| Europe | |
| Oceania | |
.jpg)
