Series Editor’s Foreword
Timeline
Acknowledgments
Introduction: “Atlantic Crossing”
Chapter 1: “Shakin’ All Over” : 1956-1963
Chapter 2: “We’re Out!”: 1964
Chapter 3: “Like a Rolling Stone”: 1965
Chapter 4: “A Splendid Time is Guaranteed for All”: 1966-1967
Chapter 5: “It’s All Too Much”: 1968-1969
Conclusion: “Double Fantasy,” Post-1970
For Further Reading
For Further Listening
Index
About the Author
Simon Philo is Head of American Studies at the University of Derby. He has written numerous articles and chapters on transatlantic popular culture.
Spearheaded by the Beatles, British musical performers dominated
the American pop charts in the middle 1960s. Philo analyzes this
phenomenon in a chronological account of popular music on both
sides of the Atlantic starting with World War II through the 1980s.
After an introductory survey of pop music in Britain during the
1950s, the Beatles dominate the narrative. Other successful early
Invasion groups are briefly discussed, but the emphasis is on the
musical and cultural impact the Beatles had on American music.
American artists Brian Wilson (the Beach Boys) and the Byrds are
covered, as is The Monkees TV series. The book discusses how
important the Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night (1964) was in
spreading British influence. In 1967, the British Invasion shifted
into a psychedelic phase (Pink Floyd, Cream) and then to an
American roots–inspired sound. The political and social turmoil of
the late Sixties was reflected in influential albums such as the
Rolling Stones’s Let It Bleed, the Who’s Tommy, and the Beatles’s
Abbey Road. By 1970, new acts—Led Zeppelin, the Moody Blues, Jethro
Tull, and Elton John—prevailed . . . [T]his is a popular social
history . . . VERDICT Beatles fans and baby boomers who listened to
the music of the 1960s will find this title appealing. Philo offers
a fresh consideration of the British impact on American music
during this period and beyond.
*Library Journal*
Philo offers one of the best treatments to date of the ‘British
invasion’ of popular American music. Beginning with the 1950s
skiffle craze in Britain, he takes his study through to about 1970,
adding a brief epilogue that looks further. Not surprisingly,
the Beatles are at the book's core, with Dylan getting most of the
attention on the American side, but many other well-known artists
are also discussed. What makes the book exceptional is its
strong contextualing in the socioeconomic conditions of
the late 1950s and 1960s, particularly youth culture.
Philo makes excellent use of Billboard's charts to
demonstrate both the range of popular music in the 1960s and how
the impact of British artists was most strongly felt in the US in
1964; after that, the number of British hits, relative to domestic
offerings, in the charts declined as American artists adjusted to
new tastes. As the subtitle points out, the musical
influences went both ways across the Atlantic: British artists
responded to American music that was invigorated by British groups,
and British groups were then influenced by new American artists
such as Dylan and Brian Wilson. Readers will appreciate the
fine annotated bibliography and ‘further listening’ sections.
Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and
above; general readers.
*CHOICE*
Philo’s analysis is astute, and he makes all manner of useful
connections.
*Musoscribe*
Anyone who enjoys music and wants to learn more about the history
of rock and roll will certainly glean lots of information and new
knowledge from British Invasion: The Crosscurrents of Musical
Influence. . . .Overall a well researched book, filled with tons of
statistics that any pop culture fan will eat up. A bit of a heavy
volume for the average reader but I recommend it to all music fans
just the same.
*Scared Stiff Reviews*
The author’s theories and suppositions are supported by plenty of
well-researched borrowed quotes from artists and commentators
alike...and the whole thing moves along at a pace that manages to
lift it out of the realms of listology and into a vivid snapshot of
’60s pop’s turbo-charged development.
*Shindig! Magazine*
Like a competent musical surgeon, Philo cuts wide margins in his
account, beginning with Lonnie Donegan's 1955 recording of Huddie
'Leadbelly' Ledbetter's 'Rock Island Line,' igniting the British
Skiffle movement which was to eventually bring one John Lennon and
his band, The Quarrymen into its orbit. Then the Beatles happened
and simply eclipsed the other notable invasion bands that included:
(of course) The Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, The Dave Clark
Five, Eric Burdon and the Animals, and The Who. . . .Philo ends his
thoughtful essay with the only thing that could happen next and
that was the British import of American artists, in particular,
Jimi Hendrix.
*All About Jazz*
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