Musik Invasi Inggris

British Invasion, gerakan musik pertengahan 1960-an yang terdiri dari grup rock-and-roll Inggris (“beat”) yang popularitasnya menyebar dengan cepat ke Amerika Serikat.

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Kedatangan kejayaan The Beatles di New York City pada 7 Februari 1964, membuka pintu Amerika bagi banyak talenta musik Inggris. Apa yang terjadi selanjutnya disebut — dengan sejarah merendahkan oleh koloni yang dengan sukarela ditaklukkan kembali — Invasi Inggris kedua. Seperti rekan transatlantik mereka pada 1950-an, pemuda Inggris mendengar masa depan mereka dalam ketukan panik dan lirik sugestif rock and roll Amerika. Tetapi upaya awal untuk mereplikasi gagal. Karena tidak memiliki bahan-bahan dasar asli — ritme dan blues dan musik country — dari rock and roll, para penggemar hanya bisa membawa kesopanan dan kemewahan Inggris yang melumpuhkan. Satu-satunya tanda kehidupan adalah kegilaan di akhir 1950-an, yang dipelopori oleh Lonnie Donegan dari Skotlandia. Kelompok skiffle (seperti Quarrymen yang meluncurkan Beatles) adalah ansambel gitar-dan-banjo akustik drummer, benar-benar band-band kendi,yang paling sering menyanyikan lagu-lagu rakyat Amerika tradisional, seringkali dengan lebih semangat daripada pemoles instrumental.

Pada 1962, didorong oleh populisme yang bisa bermain siapa saja dan belajar mandiri dalam musik Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, James Brown, dan Muddy Waters, beberapa remaja Inggris memiliki kehidupan nyata rasakan idiom rock-and-roll. Memadukan itu dengan tradisi lokal seperti dancehall, pop, dan rakyat Celtic, mereka merumuskan musik asli yang dapat mereka klaim, mainkan, dan nyanyikan dengan penuh keyakinan. Kelompok-kelompok muda dengan gitar listrik mulai tampil dan menulis melodik pop, rock and roll berapi-api, dan blues listrik bergaya Chicago.

Liverpool became the first hotbed of the so-called “beat boom.” With the Beatles, other exuberant male quartets such as the Searchers, the Fourmost, and Gerry and the Pacemakers—plus the quintet Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas—launched “Merseybeat,” so named for the estuary that runs alongside Liverpool. The Beatles first reached the British record charts in late 1962 (shortly after the Tornados’ “Telstar,” an instrumental smash that sent word of what was in store by becoming the first British record to top the American singles chart); the rest joined the hit parade in 1963.

Rock swept Britain. By 1964 Greater London could claim the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, the Who, the Kinks, the Pretty Things, Dusty Springfield, the Dave Clark Five, Peter and Gordon, Chad and Jeremy, and Manfred Mann. Manchester had the Hollies, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, Freddie and the Dreamers, and Herman’s Hermits. Newcastle had the Animals. And Birmingham had the Spencer Davis Group (featuring Steve Winwood) and the Moody Blues. Bands sprang up from Belfast (Them, with Van Morrison) to St. Albans (the Zombies), with more inventive artists arriving to keep the syles moving forward, including the Small Faces, the Move, the Creation, the Troggs, Donovan, the Walker Brothers, and John’s Children. While the beat boom provided Britons relief from the postimperial humiliation of hand-me-down rock, the Beatles and their ilk brought the United States more than credible simulations. They arrived as foreign ambassadors, with distinctive accents (in conversation only; most of the groups sang in “American”), slang, fashions, and personalities. The Beatles’ first film, A Hard Day’s Night (1964), further painted England as the centre of the (rock) universe. American media took the bait and made Carnaby Street, London’s trendy fashion centre in the 1960s, a household name.

From 1964 to 1966 the United Kingdom sent a stream of hits across the Atlantic. Behind the conquering Beatles, Peter and Gordon (“A World Without Love”), the Animals (“House of the Rising Sun”), Manfred Mann (“Do Wah Diddy Diddy”), Petula Clark (“Downtown”), Freddie and the Dreamers (“I’m Telling You Now”), Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders (“Game of Love”), Herman’s Hermits (“Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter”), the Rolling Stones (“[I Can’t Get No] Satisfaction” and others), the Troggs (“Wild Thing”), and Donovan (“Sunshine Superman”) all topped Billboard’s singles chart. These charming invaders had borrowed (often literally) American rock music and returned it—restyled and refreshed—to a generation largely ignorant of its historical and racial origins. In April 1966 Time magazine effectively raised the white flag with a cover story on “London: The Swinging City.” Peace quickly followed; by the pivotal year 1967 a proliferation of English and American bands were equal partners in one international rock culture.