UK rock 1960s: The Beatles from Merseybeat onwards. The essay will describe the key musical and stylistic features of the Rock genre during the 1960s with the ‘Merseybeat’ genre as the foundation of 60s rock. The essay will set out why the Beatles and the social phenomenon of the “British invasion” are crucial to development of the emergence and reception of Anglo-American Rock music during the 1960s. By the early 1960s, new upcoming artists started combing various British and American pop and rock styles in places such as Liverpool. Liverpool in particular had a youth movement that created and popularised a genre called “Merseybeat’ by 1962.
The Beat genre, featured vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums for their instrumentation influenced by the Rock and roll genre that developed throughout the 1950s in the United State of America. The format of this instrumentation is significant, as it becomes the common configuration of many musical ensembles in rock music. “The musical community (referring to Livepool) fed on a furious energy, bands scouted other bands, keen for the best unnoticed B-sides of American popular records that the Yankee sailors would bring them from across the Atlantic on the Cunard shipping lines”. Riley, 1987) Tim Riley in this quote points out the connection between Liverpool and the United states of America. At the time Liverpool was a thriving seaport that gave many locals access to rare American records and instruments brought back from sailors.
This gave Liverpool a wide variety of influences of music with many records not heard by other parts of the country. lan Ingies at Northumbria University argues “any attempt to contextualise the emergence of Merseysbeat must begin by acknowledging the absence of any authentic domestic popular music activity in Britain in the late 1950s and early 960s. ” (Inglis, 2009 p2). Drawing back to the influence of what the Rock and Roll genre had on Merseybeat, this is apparent and validates lan ingies argument the lack of any domestic popular music activity in Britain was what lead to many to seek out for music outside of their paradigm. The Beatles were a four-piece Rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960s that practically helped popularise the Merseybeat genre.
The Beatles first single “Love Me Do” released on 5th October 1962 became the first single and managed to hit the UK charts. The song peaked at No. 7 and arguable allowed a number of Liverpool performers able to follow them into the charts, including Gerry & The Pacemakers and The Searchers. Love me Do is in the musical key of G major with a Mixolydian modal inflection. The song has a common time signature in AABA form with partial reprise. The arrangement of the composition featured vocals, harmonica, acoustic rhythm guitar, tambourine, and drums. The use of a Harmonic as a lead instrument played by John Lennon is a prominent feature of the composition that creates melody against the open chords played on the acoustic guitar by George Harrison.
John Lennon oddly plays the F natural as the first note of the opening motif on the harmonica, which adds an Mixolydian modal inflection. George Harrison plays the chords G major and C major before moving the chords to D major, C major and G major for the middle eight. The motifs and instrumental solo of the Harmonica played by John Lennon has a bluesy feel along with the Shuffle drum beat complimented with the Tambourine. The song was completely co-written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon.
Even though it could be argued song is too musically simplistic, it should be credited for being original material, as many popular musicians of the era would record music in then the Tin Pan Alley practice of having the group record songs by professional songwriters. “At that stage Please Please Me was a very dreary song. It was like a Roy Orbison number, very slow, bluesy vocals. It was obvious to me that it badly needed pepping up. I told them to bring it in next time and we’d have another go at it. ” (Lewisohn, 1988)
George Martin is an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, audio engineer and musician. George Martin is renowned for producing and arranging The Beatles for which sometimes he is referred to as the “the Fifth Beatle”. The Beatles recorded the song ‘Please Please Me’, which was released on the 11 January 1963. Martin’s crucial contribution to the song was to tell them to speed up what was initially a slow ballad. ‘Please please me’ placed number one in the charts and was chosen for The Beatles’ first national UK television appearance on Thank Your Lucky Stars on 19 January 1963. Thank Your Lucky Stars, 1963) For the first the Beatles album ‘Please please me’, George Martin had seen the band play live in the Cavern club and made the band essentially record as a live act. This production technique was used to capture the energy of the Cabin club and stage repertoire. The band only had a day to record ten songs and was rush-released, due to not foreseeing the success of the single ‘Please please me’ making recording sessions intense, recording for 13 hours.
Please please Me hit the top of the UK album charts in May 1963 and remained there for 30 weeks before being replaced by with the Beatles by the Beatles. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was not only a success, it was a calculated one. The band’s manger Brian Epstein – troubled by the group’s lack of presence in America – asked Lennon and McCartney to write a song that would appeal to the U. S. market.
Anticipation on both sides of the Atlantic was high when the disc’s imminent arrival was announced. One million copies were ordered by retailers in advance. (Drozdowsk, 2014) The Beatles were the first band from the Merseybeat roots to tour and create a giant fan base across the USA after the track ‘l want to hold your hand’ was released in the USA on 26th December 1963. The track managed to hit number on the U. S. charts. The Beatles arrived at New York’s JFK airport on February 7th, 1964 with band arriving with hoards of reporters and fans.
The Beatles appearance on The Ed Sullivan show on February 9th 1964 is considered the waypoint as the broadcast drew an estimated 73 viewers million viewers. (Rowan, 2015) Marketing and music created ‘Beatlemania’, a fan frenzy of obsessed American youth. Beatlemania’ encouraged other British rock artists such as the Hollies, the Animals, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Zombies and the Who to begin to touring outside the UK and creating tours across the US. This phenomenon was known as The British Invasion. The concept of British artists touring the US was once never heard. This generation of British rock bands were youth from different parts of the UK that grew up listening to American rock and roll, Blues and Jazz that brought their own interpretation of these genres to the American youth again.