Why did the Brits dominate Rock N Roll during the golden era?

Question

I've always wondered why the greatest of rock n roll (mainly 60s-70s) came from the British.

Bands like Cream, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, AC/DC (wouldnt call them aussie cuz theyre technically Scottish), Black Sabbath, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Beatles, The Who, Queen, Deep Purple, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, The Clash, The Police, etc.

How did they do it? How come the American bands weren't as successful after the 50s? Why didn't other European countries become as successful? ie the French

To BoosGrammy:

yes there are a lot of great American bands as you mentioned "KISS, grateful dead, the Doors, Hendrix, Jeff. Airplane/starship, joplin, the ramones, etc.

But even all those bands can never equal the dominance of the British bands in 60s-70s, why is that? What did the Brits have that the Americans didn't?

Answer 1

ALF W-hit it on the head..the british rock scene actually got its start from american blues artist. (black artists). thats how it all started..take the rolling stones for instance. alot of their songs were just good ol' blues songs turned to rock and roll. satisfaction was actually written as a blues song on guitar by keith richards.. after the first british invasion, ill ad that a little band called black sabbath changed the scene..a lot of your heavy metal influences from the 70's and 80's will tell you that black sabbath had a major influence on their music...

Answer 2

Oh they had some great ones but America had their share too and we had the best R&B, or basically all of it! Here's some rock 60's/70's that are all American----
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Molly Hatchet
Seeds
Jimi Hendrix
Jefferson Airplane
Steppenwolf
Byrds
Janis Joplin
Grateful Dead
Grass Roots
Shadows of Knight
Doors
Alice Cooper
Black Oak Arkansas
Kansas
Aerosmith
Boston
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Journey
Reo Speedwagon
Grand Funk Railroad
Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
Heart
Doobie Brothers
Turtles
Beach Boys
Jan & Dean
Gary US Bonds
Monkees
Tommy James & The Shondells
Rascals
Sonny & Cher
Paul Revere & The Raiders
Boxtops
Buckinghams
Van Halen
Kiss
Blondie
Talking Heads
Allman Brothers
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Eagles
Should I go on? Theres more. I havent even got to the garage bands and psychedelic bands of the 60's. Get the picture?

Answer 3

Because the gloomy Post-War Era lasted much longer in Britain than in the U.S. (gas was rationed well into the 50s, for example) and the British bands of the 60s grew up in that, without much hope of success, so they just wanted to have a little fun before they had to get down to work. So when you're not trying to play music as a commercial endeavor to please the massses, it comes out much better, and the masses are pleased anyway. Same in the 70s with the Sex Pistols, etc. There were no jobs in Britain in the 70s--hence the Sex Pistols singing "No Future" and so on.

It's pure economics. When there are few safe opportunities, like getting a job, more people go into risky enterprises.

Answer 4

British Bands covered songs of Black American R&B artists which were not allowed on the AM radio in the early mid sixties. So these superior dance-blues numbers filtered through white performers were acceptable enough for white radio, where Little Richard, Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown, Ray Charles, Muddy Waters, BB King, Howling Wolf, John Lee Hooker,and a host of others could not get radio play. Same songs, different presentation. Groups like Cream and Rolling Stones helped introduce these artists to white audiences in the ballroom circuit in the late sixties

Answer 5

I think some cases can be made for the success of Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, The Stooges, The Ramones, Jimmi Hendrix, CCR, Blue Oyster Cult, Kiss, Kansas, Santana, Janis Joplin, Greatful Dead, Boston, Cheap Trick, REO Speedwagon, etc, etc, etc

Plus, when you look at bands like MC5, Velvet Underground, Talking Heads, Ramones, etc....The Americas were a little more innovative.

Answer 6

The Brits were not scared to steal music from the African-American community. White artists in the U.S. either looked down on blues and soul music, or were too ashamed to blatently steal the sound for their own purposes. The Brits had no such qualms and gladly ripped-off the black community and culture, making it acceptable for white kids to listen to that kind of music.

Sad, but true.

Answer 7

hm...only during that era :)?
take look around for Gothic/progressive metal, many bands great bands are from Europe:

nightwish
crematory
motorhead
epica
after forever

I just gave you an example :)

I don't know but There are very rare American bands that have REAL TALENT. Most mainstream bands just can't get to the level of Pink Floyd, or Zed Zeppelin, Genesis, or Black Sabbath. reason because those bands do play whatever music labels tell them to play, and not what they want to play.

Answer 8

this is because we Brits have the raw talent to dominate the rock/metal scene. how many metal bands apart from Areosmith or Metalicca have had over 27 years on the charts?

Answer 9

all those bands just made high quality music that sounds amazing and people can relate to many of their songs.

Answer 10

I'm not sure the Brit's dominated as much as people say...

The Beatles were the most popular & influential artist of the rock era. But it wasn't all them. There was a cross-polination going on where the Beatles both influenced others as well as incorporated the influence of their peers into their music. Two contemporaries that had a huge influence on the Beatles were Bob Dylan & Brian Wilson (and in turn were influenced back by them). Both American.

The comments about the British bands incorporating blues & African-American music much more then their American peers in the early 60's is extremely valid. To my ears, a lot of the music that was labeled 'rock & roll' prior to the British Invasion was primarily influenced by the popular music of the 40's & early 50's, especially the stuff that isn't guitar based.

Comments about the British labels being more open minded are certainly valid. Prior to the Beatles, labels were pretty much like they are today, interested in 'product' & making money & demographics & maintaining the formula. The Beatles massive success gave them the license to expand, and London became the center of the rock & roll universe. (Even though Jimi Hendrix is American by birth, he was based in London when he broke out and his bandmates were both British). And the American labels (as well as individuals like Mike Love) didn't understand and pushed for more product, more formula, even as the Beatles put out albums like Revolver. One of the great tragedies of rock & roll was the non-completion of 'SMiLE' in the 60's...

But creativity and incorporating 'world' music wasn't exclusive to British rock. Phil Spector's 'Wall of Sound', Brian Wilson's use of the 'Wrecking Crew', and even Dick Dale's guitar playing drew on other influences.

And it could be argued that the center of rock & roll music in 1967 (a year many point to) was in fact San Francisco, not London.

And the likes of Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder & Issac Hayes showed that creative youth based popular music wasn't exclusive to rock & roll (whether British or American).

I'd say that popular music became more of a 'melting pot' from the mid 60's onward. American acts like Santana incorporate Latin-American music, while British acts incorporate more continental European music (I've seen the opinion stated that classical music is 'German' music due to the heritage of many of the composers) as well as Indian music.

As far as British music goes, even though you had (as has been stated) a good amount come from people who were down on their luck due to post-war problems, you also had acts like Genesis that essentially started in an upper-crust boarding school where they were taught classical music & hymns and it was incorporated into their early sound. (IIRC, Steve Hackett, who was perhaps the first to employ the 'tapping' technique on his guitar on a rock record [eddie van certainly wasn't, though I've seen opinions that both Jimi Hendrix & Robert Fripp were doing it in concert though not on record before then, as well as jazz players doing a different form of it] said he developed it to emulate Bach). And a lot of the British lead in the 70's music is due to the likes of people like Tony Stratton-Smith who signed a lot of these progressive rock bands like Genesis to Charisma. I don't recall any significant American prog acts in the 70's (and, no, Kansas is in no way was significant). There's Rush, but they are Canadian.

And I think an advantage that British music had was that it was all based in London (yes, the Beatles started in Liverpool, but they hightailed it to London and were based there essentially their whole worldwide popular period), while in America you had acts based in San Francisco, acts in Los Angeles, acts in Detroit, acts in Memphis, acts in Nashville, and acts in New York. (And you can add Chicago, New Orleans, and perhaps Boston).

But in general music, when you look at it as a whole, seemed to be equal parts British & American (when you take into consisideration r&b as well as jazz fusion) when you look at the top stuff as a whole, both in personel as well as influences in/influences out.

Even punk rock. Some might think of it as mostly British exercise (outside of the Ramones), but so many of it's influences are American in origin. What is overlooked by many is how extensive the influence of 60's American bubblegum pop & surf music on punk music. Who were the Ramones covering on their early records? Alice Cooper? MC5? No, stuff like Lets Dance, Surfin Bird & Califorina Sun. And at the conclusion of the 70's, it can be argued that the most influential artist on the scene was the American Talking Heads, being produced by the British Brian Eno.

As far as why other countries didn't get popular, part of it in many cases was the fact that the dominant language wasn't English. Which in turn led the labels to not spend too many resources in Contentential Europe or other parts of the world seeking out artists to sign & promote. Arguably the most popular acts to come out of non-English speaking countries are Abba & the Scorpions prior to 1980 (and at that the Scorpions success came in the 80's). And AFAIK, their music was done in English (I've never heard anything from either of them that wasn't). And the most influential was Kraftwerk (they might have done some in German, what I've heard of them sounded English to me). English is essentially a global language, it seems to be taught all over the world. But even then, they didn't seem to seek out acts in Britain until the Beatles broke out. In general, you don't hear about a lot of Canadian bands (outside of Rush... Neil Young was born in Canada but was American based during his career), Australian bands outside of AC/DC (and where were they based when they broke out? Don't know that one), and Irish bands before U2, or any bands from New Zealand. Labels spend their dime where they think they will get a return on it.