View source for British popular music

{{Short description|General popular music in the UK}}
{{Distinguish|text=[[British pop music]], an article about the [[pop music]] genre of popular music|[[Britpop]], a genre of rock music originating from the United Kingdom}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}
[[File:Spiceupyourlifetorontofirst_cropped.jpg|thumb|[[Spice Girls]] [[List of best-selling girl groups#Best-selling girl groups worldwide|the best-selling female group of all time]], one of the best-selling pop groups of all time,<ref name=inde>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/will-spice-girls-inspired-musical-viva-forever-spice-up-my-life-again-8386944.html |work=[[The Independent]]|location=London|last=Jones|first=Alice|title=Will Spice Girls inspired musical Viva Forever! spice up my life again?|date=5 December 2012|access-date=8 December 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1683858/left-eye-tlc-death.jhtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120427105025/http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1683858/left-eye-tlc-death.jhtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=27 April 2012|title=TLC's Left Eye Remembered: 10 Years Later|first=Rebecca|last=Thomas|work=[[MTV News]]|date=25 April 2012|access-date=23 June 2012}}</ref> and the biggest British pop phenomenon since [[Beatlemania]].<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007/10_october/19/spice.shtml "New Spice Girls documentary on BBC One"]. [[BBC]]. 19 October 2007. Retrieved 25 August 2008.</ref><ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/31/newsid_2494000/2494855.stm "1998: Ginger leaves the Spice Girls"]. [[BBC]]. 31 May 1998. Retrieved 15 April 2017.</ref><ref name="Spice-Beatles comparison">Dawson, Ryan. [https://web.archive.org/web/20050428082355/http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/rd286/rock/beatlemaniagirlpower.html "Beatlemania and Girl Power: An Anatomy of Fame"]. ''Bigger Than Jesus: Essays on Popular Music''. University of Cambridge. Archived from [http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/rd286/rock/beatlemaniagirlpower.html original] on 28 April 2005. Retrieved 17 February 2017.</ref> Among the highest profile acts in 1990s [[British popular culture]], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' called them "arguably the most recognisable face" of [[Cool Britannia]], the mid-1990s celebration of youth culture in the UK.<ref name="Time magazine">{{cite magazine|title=An Important Lesson in British History From the Spice Girls|url=https://time.com/4382880/spice-girls-20th-anniversary-wannabe/|last=Waxman|first=Olivia B.|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=8 July 2016|access-date=31 October 2016}}</ref>]]
[[File:ROCK CONCERT. (FROM THE SITES EXHIBITION. FOR OTHER IMAGES IN THIS ASSIGNMENT, SEE FICHE NUMBERS 42, 97.) - NARA - 553890.jpg|thumb|[[Pink Floyd]] were a British rock band formed in London. They achieved international acclaim with their progressive and psychedelic music. Distinguished by their use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, extended compositions, and elaborate live shows, they are one of the most commercially successful and influential groups of popular music history.]]

'''British popular music''' and [[popular music]] in general, can be defined in a number of ways, but is used here to describe music which is not part of the [[Art music|art]]/[[classical music]] or [[Church music]] traditions, including [[folk music]], [[jazz]], [[Pop music|pop]] and [[rock music]].<ref>R. Shuker, ''Understanding popular music'' (London: Routledge, 2nd edn., 2001), pp. 8-10.</ref> These forms of music have particularly flourished in Britain, which, it has been argued, has influenced popular music disproportionately to its size, partly due to its linguistic and cultural links with many countries, particularly the former areas of British control such as United States, Canada, and Australia, but also a capacity for invention, innovation and fusion, which has led to the development of, or participation in, many of the major trends in popular music.<ref>P. Childs, M. Storry, ''Encyclopedia of contemporary British culture'' (London: Taylor & Francis, 1999), p. 412.</ref> This is particularly true since the early 1960s when the [[British Invasion]] led by [[The Beatles]], helped to secure British performers a major place in development of pop and rock music, which has been revisited at various times, with genres originating in or being radically developed by British musicians, including: [[blues rock]], [[heavy metal music]], [[progressive rock]], [[punk rock]], [[British folk rock]], [[folk punk]], [[acid jazz]], [[drum and bass]], [[Grime (music)|grime]], [[afroswing]], [[dubstep]] and [[Britpop]].

==Early British popular music==
{{Main|Early British popular music}}
[[File:Tragical Ballad 18th century.png|right|thumb|An eighteenth-century broadside ballad]]
Commercial music enjoyed by the people can be seen to originate in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the arrival of the [[broadside ballad]], which were sold cheaply and in great numbers until the nineteenth century.<ref>B. Capp, 'Popular literature', in B. Reay, ed., ''Popular Culture in Seventeenth-Century England'' (Routledge, 1985), p. 199.</ref> Further technological, economic and social changes led to new forms of music in the nineteenth century, including the [[brass band]], which produced a popular and communal form of classical music.<ref name=Herbert2000>T. Herbert, ''The British Brass Band: a Musical and Social History'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 4-5.</ref> Similarly, the [[music hall]] sprang up to cater for the entertainment of new urban societies, adapting existing forms of music to produce popular songs and acts.<ref name=Howard>Diana Howard ''London Theatres and Music Halls 1850-1950'' (1970).</ref> In the 1930s the influence of US [[jazz]] led to the creation of [[British dance band]]s, who provided a social and popular music that began to dominate social occasions and the radio airwaves.<ref>C. Parsonage, ''The Evolution of Jazz in Britain, 1880-1935'' (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2005), pp. 197-200.</ref>

==1950s==
{{Main|Music of the United Kingdom (1950s)}}
By 1950, indigenous forms of British popular music were already giving way to the influence of American forms of music including [[jazz]], [[Swing music|swing]] and [[traditional pop]], mediated through film and records. The significant change of the mid-1950s was the impact of US [[rock and roll]], which provided a new model for performance and recording, based on a youth market.<ref name=Unterberger>R. Unterberger, "British Rock & Roll Before The Beatles", ''AllMusic'' {{dead link|date=November 2018}}</ref> Initially this was dominated by US acts, or re-creations of American forms of music, but soon distinctly British forms began to appear, first in the uniquely British take on US folk music in the [[Skiffle]] craze of the 1950s, in the beginnings of a [[folk revival]] that came to place an emphasis on national traditions and then in early attempts to produce [[British rock and roll]].<ref name=Unterberger/> However it's important to note that American folk music itself has its root in British and Irish folk music, and so was seen as more of a shared cultural tradition than a new form of music.<ref>
Raph, Theodore. The American Song Treasury, Dover Publications (1986)</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/americanrootsmusic/pbs_arm_es_folkballad.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011102014044/http://www.pbs.org/americanrootsmusic/pbs_arm_es_folkballad.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 November 2001|title=PBS - American Roots Music : Eternal Songs - Folk Songs and Ballads|website=Pbs.org|access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref> Indeed, many of the later American genres such as Blues and Rock & Roll share origins with earlier Folk and popular music that merged with predominantly African American forms of music to create what would become the aforementioned genres.<ref>Paul Kelbie, "Gospel Truth - Hebrides Invented Church Spirituals", The Independent - UK, 9-19-3</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sowell |first=Thomas |author-link= |title=Black Rednecks and White Liberals |year=2006 |url= |location= |publisher= Encounter Books|page= |isbn=9781594031434}}</ref> A key feature in much American music being the [[Lombard rhythm|Scotch Snap]] for example. This evidences a common theme of cyclical exportation and re-exportation of British and American music between the respective cultures.

==1960s==
{{Main|Music of the United Kingdom (1960s)}}
[[Image:The Beatles members at New York City in 1964.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[The Beatles]]]]
By the early 1960s the British had developed a viable national music industry and began to produce adapted forms of American music in [[beat music]] and [[British blues]] which would be re-exported to America by bands such as [[The Beatles]] and [[Rolling Stones]].<ref name=Britannica>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/80244/British-Invasion|title=British Invasion - Origins, Groups, & Facts|website=Britannica.com|access-date=28 November 2018}}</ref> This helped to make the dominant forms of popular music something of a shared Anglo-American project. The development of British [[blues rock]] helped revitalised rock music and led to the growing distinction between [[pop music|pop]] and [[rock music]]. In the mid-1960s, British bands were at the forefront in the creation of the [[hard rock]] genre. While pop music continued to dominate the singles charts, teen culture continued to dominate. Rock began to develop into diverse and creative subgenres that characterised the form throughout the rest of the twentieth century.<ref name=Firth2001>S. Frith, "Pop Music" in S. Frith, W. Stray and J. Street, ''[[Cambridge Companions to Music|The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock]]'' (Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 93-108.</ref>

==1970s==
{{Main|Music of the United Kingdom (1970s)}}
[[File:LedZeppelinChicago75 2.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Led Zeppelin]] performing in 1975]]

In the 1970s, British musicians played a major part in developing the new forms of music that had emerged from [[blues rock]] towards the end of the 1960s, including [[folk rock]] and [[psychedelic rock]]. Several important and influential subgenres were created in Britain in this period, by pursuing the possibilities of rock music, including [[British folk rock]] and [[glam rock]], a process that reached its apogee in the development of [[progressive rock]] and one of the most enduring subgenres in [[heavy metal music]].<ref name = "AllMusic1">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/explore/style/d374 |title=Prog-Rock/Art Rock |access-date=4 December 2007 |year=2007 |work=AllMusic |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |archive-date=14 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110114030930/http://allmusic.com/explore/style/d374 |url-status=dead }}</ref> While jazz began to suffer a decline in popularity in this period, Britain began to be increasingly influenced by aspects of [[world music]], including [[Music of Jamaica|Jamaican music]], resulting in new music scenes and subgenres.<ref>A. Donnell, ''Companion to contemporary Black British culture'' (London: Taylor & Francis, 2002), p. 185.</ref> In the middle years of the decade, the influence of [[Pub rock (United Kingdom)|pub rock]] led to the British intensification of [[Punk rock|punk]], which swept away much of the existing landscape of popular music, replacing it with much more diverse [[New wave music|new wave]] and [[post-punk]] bands who mixed different forms of music and influences to dominate rock and pop music into the 1980s.<ref>P. Childs, and M. Storry, ''Encyclopedia of contemporary British culture'' (London: Taylor & Francis, 1999), p. 436.</ref>

==1980s==
{{Main|Music of the United Kingdom (1980s)}}
[[File:Queen 1984 011.jpg|thumb|left|215px|[[Queen (band)|Queen]] in concert, 1984]]
Rock and pop music in the 1980s built on the [[post-punk]] and [[New wave music|new wave]] movements, incorporating different sources of inspiration from subgenres and what is now classed as [[world music]] in the shape of [[Jamaican music|Jamaican]] and [[Music of India|Indian music]], as did British jazz, as a series of black British musicians came to prominence, creating new fusions like [[acid jazz]].<ref>N. Zuberi, ''Sounds English: Transnational Popular Music'' (University of Illinois Press, 2001), p. 188.</ref> It also explored the consequences of new technology and social change in the [[electronic music]] of [[synth-pop]].

[[File:Dire straits 22101985 23 800.jpg|thumb|200px|right|[[Dire Straits]] in 1985.]]
In the early years of the decade, subgenres like [[heavy metal music]] continued to develop separately, especially influenced by [[NWOBHM]] leaders [[Iron Maiden]], among others.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ironmaiden.com/the-band |title=Band Bio |publisher=ironmaiden.com |access-date=18 January 2021}}</ref> There was a considerable crossover between rock and more commercial popular music, with a large number of more "serious" bands, like [[the Police]] and [[UB40]], enjoying considerable single chart success.<ref name=Reynolds>''Rip It Up and Start Again Postpunk 1978-1984'' by [[Simon Reynolds]] pp. 340, 342-343.</ref> The advent of [[MTV]] and cable video helped spur what has been seen as a [[Second British Invasion]] in the early years of the decade, with British bands enjoying more success in America than they had since the height of the Beatles' popularity in the 1960s. However, by the end of the decade there was a fragmentation, with many new forms of music and sub-cultures, including [[hip hop]] and [[house music]], while the single charts were once again dominated by pop artists, now often associated with the [[hi-NRG]] hit factory of [[Stock Aitken Waterman]]. The rise of the [[indie rock]] scene was partly a response to this, and marked a shift away from the major music labels and towards the importance of local scenes like [[Madchester]] and subgenres like [[gothic rock]].<ref>S. Frith, ''Popular Music: The rock era'' (London, Routledge, 2004).</ref>

==1990s==
{{Main|Music of the United Kingdom (1990s)}}
[[File:Oasis Liam and Noel.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Gallagher brothers of [[Oasis (band)|Oasis]] on stage]]
In the 1990s, while the singles charts were dominated by [[boy bands]] and [[girl groups]] like [[Take That]] and [[Spice Girls]],<ref>P. Shapiro, ''[[Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco]]'' (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2006), pp. 288-9.</ref> [[British soul]] and Indian-based music also enjoyed their greatest level of mainstream success to date, and the rise of [[World music]] helped revitalise the popularity of [[folk music]].<ref name=Else2007>D. Else, J. Attwooll, C. Beech, L. Clapton, O. Berry, and F. Davenport, ''Great Britain'' (London, Lonely Planet, 2007), p. 75.</ref> Electronic rock bands like [[The Prodigy]] and [[Chemical Brothers]] began to achieve a high profile. [[Alternative rock]] reached the mainstream, emerging from the [[Madchester]] scene to produce [[dream pop]], [[shoegazing]], [[post rock]] and [[indie pop]], which led to the commercial success of [[Britpop]] bands like [[Blur (band)|Blur]] and [[Oasis (band)|Oasis]]; followed by a stream of [[post-Britpop]] bands like [[Travis (band)|Travis]] and [[Feeder (band)|Feeder]], which led the way for the international success of bands including [[Snow Patrol]] and [[Coldplay]].<ref name=Allmusicrockindie>V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra, S. T. Erlewine, ''All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul'' (Backbeat Books, 3rd edn., 2002), pp. 1346-7.</ref>

==2000s==
{{Main|Music of the United Kingdom (2000s)}}
[[File:Coldplay-3.jpg|thumb|200px|right|[[Coldplay]], considered to be the most successful band of the 21st century.<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 June 2024 |title=Glastonbury 2024: The Reason Coldplay Are the 21st Century's Defining Band |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240624-the-reason-coldplay-are-the-21st-centurys-most-loved-band |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240728050702/https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240624-the-reason-coldplay-are-the-21st-centurys-most-loved-band |archive-date=28 July 2024 |access-date=28 July 2024 |website=BBC Culture}}</ref>]]
At the beginning of the new millennium, while talent show contestants were one of the major forces in pop music, British soul maintained and even extended its high-profile with figures like [[Joss Stone]], [[Amy Winehouse]] and [[Adele]], while a new group of singer/songwriters, including [[KT Tunstall]] and [[James Blunt]], achieved international success and to rock bands such as [[Arctic Monkeys]], [[Coldplay]] and [[Bring Me the Horizon]].<ref>N. McCormick, [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandjazzmusic/3611114/Flower-of-Brit-soul-turns-shrinking-violet.html "Flower of Brit-soul turns shrinking violet"] ''Daily Telegraph'', 29 January 2004, retrieved 02/07/09.</ref> New forms of dance music emerged, fusing [[hip hop]] with [[UK garage|garage]] to form [[Grime (music)|grime]].<ref name="grime wave">{{cite news |first=Matthew |last=McKinnon |title=Grime Wave |url=http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/grimewave.html |work=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]] |date=5 May 2005 |access-date=24 February 2008 }}</ref> There was also a revival of [[garage rock revival|garage rock]] and [[post punk revival|post punk]], which when mixed with electronic music produced [[new rave]].<ref name="new rave? old rubbish">[[John Harris (critic)|J. Harris]], [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/oct/13/electronicmusic.popandrock "New Rave? Old Rubbish"], ''The Guardian'', 13 October 2006, retrieved 31 March 2007.</ref>

==2010s==
The success of UK artists in the US during the early 2010s led to some claiming a new [[British Invasion]] was taking place, as British musicians took their largest ever share of the US album charts year-on-year between 2011 (11.7% of US market), 2012 (13.7% of US market), 2013 and 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/1538581/the-new-british-invasion-uk-acts-claim-largest-share-ever-of-us-album|title=The New British Invasion: UK Acts Claim Largest Share Ever of US Album Market|website=Billboard.com|access-date=28 November 2018|archive-date=29 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129100137/https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/1538581/the-new-british-invasion-uk-acts-claim-largest-share-ever-of-us-album|url-status=dead}}</ref> Notable British musicians achieving global success at the beginning of the 2010s include [[Dua Lipa]], [[One Direction]], [[Little Mix]], [[Cher Lloyd]], [[Rita Ora]], [[Adele]] and [[Mumford & Sons]].
[[File:Ed_Sheeran,_Royal_Albert_Hall_(13401567334).jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Ed Sheeran]] performing at the Royal Albert Hall in London, March 2014]]
[[Adele]]'s album ''[[21 (Adele album)|21]]'' sold over 6 million copies and became the UK's best-selling album of the 21st century and its fourth best-selling album of all time, certified platinum 16 times. During the same year, ''[[Back to Black]]'' by [[Amy Winehouse]] became the UK's second best selling album of the 21st century and its 13th best-selling album of all time following her death in 2011, certified platinum 11 times.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14660787 |title=Amy Winehouse's Back to Black sets chart record |work=BBC News |date=25 August 2011 |access-date=27 August 2011 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110826030839/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14660787 |archive-date=26 August 2011}}. [[BBC News]]. 25 August 2011.</ref>
[[File:Adele - Live 2016, Glasgow SSE Hydro 03.jpg|thumb|255x255px|Adele performing in Glasgow, 2016.]]
In 2013, despite the trend of declining album sales persisting, the British music industry saw a 9% growth in revenue which could be traced to "individual revenues by musicians, singers, composers, songwriters and lyricists",<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/sep/17/british-music-industry-38bn-uk-economy-2013-measuring-music-report|title=British music industry added £3.8bn to the UK economy in 2013|first=Sean|last=Michaels|date=17 September 2014|website=The Guardian|access-date=28 November 2018}}</ref> adding £3.8bn to the UK economy. In 2014, the UK's top 10 albums were all by British artists, including releases by [[Ed Sheeran]], [[Sam Smith (singer)|Sam Smith]], [[George Ezra]], [[Paolo Nutini]], [[Coldplay]] and [[One Direction]].<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30641372 "UK album chart for 2014 dominated by British artists"]. BBC. Retrieved 1 January 2014.</ref>

Sam Smith's debut album ''[[In the Lonely Hour]]'', released in 2014, peaked at number one in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Sweden, and number two in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Norway and the United States. In the same year, [[Ed Sheeran]]'s second album ''[[x (Ed Sheeran album)|x]]'' charted at number one in twelve countries, topping both the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200, and reaching the top 5 in eleven other countries. Also in 2014, [[One Direction]]'s album ''[[Four (One Direction album)|Four]]'' reached number 1 in the UK, became the top charted album on iTunes in 67 countries and debuted at No. 1 on the [[Billboard 200]] chart in the US. As a consequence, One Direction became the first band to reach number one on the US Billboard chart with each of their first four albums, British or otherwise.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a612774/one-direction-make-us-billboard-chart-history-with-new-album-four.html#~p0vcL4l9Mno0JD#ixzz3NxLCU1gJ|title=One Direction make US album chart history|date=26 November 2014|website=Digitalspy.co.uk|access-date=28 November 2018}}</ref> Adele's 25 released in 2015 has gone on to sell over 3.5 million copies and broke records immediately after its release in the UK. Adele's success was noted for reviving the music industry and saving the dwindling sales worldwide.

==See also==
* [[List of number-one singles (UK)]]
* [[British pop music]]
* [[British rock]]
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==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Music of the United Kingdom}}
{{Pop music}}
{{Popular music in Europe}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:British popular music| ]]
[[Category:British music history]]