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Music from the United Kingdom has achieved great international
popularity since the 1960s, when a wave of British musicians
helped to popularize rock and roll. Since then, the UK has
produced numerous popular performers in far-ranging fields
from heavy metal to folk-rock and drum n bass, as well as
undergoing a renaissance in the ancient forms of folk music
indigenous to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Possibly the most famous band the world has ever seen,
The Beatles grew up in Liverpool
Coldplay
Folk music
There are four primary components of the United Kingdom, each
with their own diverse and distinctive folk music forms -
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In addition,
there are numerous distinct and semi-distinct folk traditions
from the Isle of Man, Cornwall and the Channel Islands, as
well as immigrants from Jamaica, India, the Commonwealth and
other parts of the world.
English folk music
English traditional music is an extremely broad concept, as
there is much variety between the different regions of England.
Folk music varies across Northumbria, Kent, Sussex and Yorkshire,
and even within cities like London. England's Martin Carthy
was perhaps the most influential traditional English performer
of the 20th century, alongside the Copper Family and the Waterson
Family, who helped inspire a roots revival later in the century.
Irish folk music
Of all the regions of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland
(and its neighbor, the Republic of Ireland) has the most vibrant
folk traditions. Traditional bands including instruments like
fiddles have remained throughout the centuries even as analogues
on Britain died out. Traditional music includes a wide array
of traditional dances and songs, many of which have had a
major impact on British popular music.
Scottish folk music
Scottish folk music includes many kinds of songs, including
ballads and laments, sung by a single singer with accompaniment
by bagpipes, fiddles or harps. Traditional dances include
waltzes, reels, strathspeys and jigs. Alongside the other
areas of the United Kingdom, Scotland underwent a roots revival
in the 1960s. Cathy-Ann McPhee and Jeannie Robertson were
the heroes of this revival, which inspired some revolutions
in band formats by groups like The Clutha, The Whistlebinkies,
Boys of the Lough, Incredible String Band and The Chieftains.
Welsh folk music
Wales is a Celtic country that features folk music played
at twmpathau (communal dances) and gwyl werin (music festivals).
Having long been subordinate to English culture, Welsh musicians
in the late 20th century had to reconstruct traditional music
when a roots revival began. This revival began in the late
1970s and achieved some mainstream success in the UK in the
80s with performers like Robin Huw Bowen, Moniars and Gwerinos.
Early British popular music
Beginning in the 16th century, printed broadside ballads were
the first genre of British popular music. These were lyrics
transcribed and eventually printed (after the invention of
the printing press) and meant to be sung to some well-known
tune. They were popular until the early 20th century, when
a combination of newspapers and recording technology made
them obsolete.
After the industrial revolution, bars that provided musical
entertainment arose, fuelling demand for popular songs and
professional songwriters. These bars were called music halls.
1950s and 60s: Importation and Exportation
The 1950s saw most of the world that had access to records
listening to American rock and roll, especially the country-rock
hybrid rockabilly, exemplified by superstars like Elvis Presley
and Bill Haley. Though most countries soon developed their
own rock traditions, it was the United Kingdom that evolved
its own distinctive scene, making American traditions into
distinctively British ones such as Skiffle and Trad jazz,
and eventually adding influences from English, Scottish and
Irish folk music. By the middle of the 1960s, British artists
had grown so adept at British-style rock, R&B and blues
that the British Invasion occurred, and artists began to popularize
more authentic forms of American roots music in the States
than had previously found mainstream success there, while
highly-evolved forms of rock like heavy metal and progressive
rock were developing into full-fledged genres of British popular
music. British music in the 60s also saw a roots revival of
folk music, beginning with England and Northern Ireland before
spreading to Scotland, Wales and, eventually, even smaller
cultural regions like Cornwall, the Isle of Man and Northumbria.
1970s: Rock splinters, Jamaican and Indian music
In the 1970s, the United Kingdom saw intense diversification
in both popular and folk music. Heavy metal evolved from pioneers
like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath into the hard-edged, complex
music of bands like Iron Maiden. Progressive rock grew extremely
popular, with ever-increasingly "progressive" elements
added in the form of obtuse lyrics, classical-tinged music
and long-playing suites in multiple parts. Pink Floyd, Genesis
and King Crimson are notable examples of this movement. The
reaction against progressive rock was swift, as the genre
came to be perceived as needlessly obscure and inaccessible;
a new generation of British youth hated progressive rock and
the bombastic, indulgent sounds of heavy metal, disco and
glam. They were called punks, and their music was loud, angry,
rebellious punk rock. Punk became well-known after the coming
of the Sex Pistols and their anarchist, incendiary lyrics
which attacked the pillars of British society, such as the
monarchy. In its purest form, however, it was short-lived;
the energy could not be sustained, especially after anti-pop
bands like The Clash found mainstream success and became unwilling
pop stars. The 1970s saw tremendous changes in folk music
as well, which saw the development of folk-rock fusions and
powerful singer-songwriter traditions and the evolution of
popular forms of folk-based music from the United Kingdom's
Jamaican and Indian immigrant communities.
1980s
In the 1980s, the spirit of punk rock fuelled a gaggle of
new genres that took stylistic elements of punk and added
new approaches and influences. The first of these developments
was New Wave music, which featured atmospheric accompaniment
to dreamy, otherworldly vocals. New Wave was very popular
in the early 1980s, while other, less mainstream outgrowths
of punk developed underground. These included an ever-increasing
number of alternative rock subgenres, including The Cure and
Joy Division's Gothic rock and psychedelic-influenced bands
like The Smiths and Jesus & Mary Chain. The latter was
the primary impetus behind the growth of new genres late in
the decade, including Madchester and shoegazing, both of which
incorporated more pop structures into alternative rock and
led to the next decade's Britpop explosion. The 1980s also
saw tremendous diversification and modernisation of the sounds
of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, especially bhangra, which
fused traditional Punjabi music with the burgeoning house
music scene. House and allied genres like techno music evolved
out of a complex electronic music scene in 1970s United States,
but began to grow popular as part of club culture in 80s Britain,
where it spawned numerous subgenres like drum n bass.
1990s: Britpop and techno
Two genres that remained mostly underground throughout the
80s burst into the mainstream around the middle of the decade.
Britpop was a fusion of all the alternative rock stylings
of the previous two decades, with a special focus on neo-psychedelia
and it began to dominate the charts. In late 80s/early 90s,
American acid-house and Detroit techno music have made it
to UK. The British have proved to be true alchemists of electronic
sound, in turn pioneering multiple genres of (electronic)
musical expression. From the academic point of view, the exploits
of British IDM scene have recieved attention from contemporary
composers and musicologists. In early 21st century, the British
pop scene revealed a number of pop groups to have combined
both the stylings of Britpop along with synthetic qualities
of British experimental electronic music. That fusion of rock,
hip hop, and other genres appears to be the current affair
in the British popular music scene.
Composers
William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, John Taverner, John Blow, Henry
Purcell, Edward Elgar, Arthur Sullivan, William Walton, Ralph
Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett have
made major contributions to British music, and are known internationally.
Living composers include John Tavener, Harrison Birtwistle,
Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Oliver Knussen.
Britain also supports a number of major orchestras including
the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,
the Philharmonia, the London Symphony Orchestra and the London
Philharmonic Orchestra. Because of its location and other
economic factors, London is one of the most important cities
for music in the world: it has several important concert halls
and is also home to the Royal Opera House, one of the world's
leading opera houses. British traditional music has also been
very influential abroad.
The UK was, with the US, one of the two main countries in
the development of rock and roll, and has provided bands including
The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Pink
Floyd, Queen, Status Quo, the Sex Pistols, the Manic Street
Preachers, Oasis, Radiohead and Coldplay. Since then it has
also pioneered in various forms of electronic dance music
including acid house, drum and bass and trip hop, all of which
were in whole or part developed in the United Kingdom. Acclaimed
British dance acts include Underworld, Massive Attack, The
Chemical Brothers and Portishead.
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