The history of the fusion of American and European popular music can be traced back to the first half of the 1960s when British musicians started to actively conquer the U.S. audience. However, before dwelling on such phenomena as Beatlemania and the British Invasion, as well as the entire congruence of European and American traditions, it is important to analyze the nature rock music and other genres that appeared popular during those times. Rock music is a common title of a number of music trends that emerged in the 1950s. With that, rock is not merely music, but rather a global cultural phenomenon that paved the way for the emergence of many subcultures. The origins of rock music are to be found in blues, namely and rhythm and blues, which appeared the synthetic genre of popular music initially performed by Afro-American musicians and which included the elements of jazz, blues and gospel (Kellogg 420-429) (Wicke 15-19). Later, when rhythm and blues musicians began to weave electric guitar and drums in their performance, music witnessed a certain strict and emotional rhythm, which marked the beginning of rock music.
The very first genre of rock was rock-n-roll which integrated the features of blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, boogie-woogie and country (Kellogg 420-429). It is natural that, being the homeland of all these genres, America achieved the most prominent success in promoting rock-n-roll, with the most famous pioneers of it coming from the U.S.
The U.S. confidently occupied the dominant position in rock music up to the beginning of the 1960s when, under the influence of folk music, England witnessed the emergence of new bands who played a new style of dance music - beat. Among the subgenres of beat was Mersey Beat, the examples of which were represented by the records of Gerry & The Pacemakers, the Searchers, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, as well as the early records of the Beatles (Kane, 2013). It were namely the Beatles with their single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" who succeeded in supplanting the American dominance in charts and giving rise to the subsequent merger of American and European music (Gaar, 7-11, 20) (Kane, 2013). Moreover, the Beatles' popularity engendered such an unprecedented social phenomenon as Beatlemania, which appear a real cult among U.S. society (Miles 60-73).
The Beatles is a legendary band of the 1960s that stood at the origins of classic rock, had a great influence on a number of musical generations. The Beatles' popularity was so overwhelming that it engendered an entire phenomenon called "Beatlemania" and became largely approved by critics. The Beatles' heritage includes dozens of live and TV performances, 5 films, 27 albums and more than 200 songs. Even now, after more than half a century of its breakup, the band has myriads of fans all over the world.
If to talk about colossi of the music world, about those persons familiar to everyone, the Beatles surely beat all records. It was this band that is rightfully considered the greatest, iconic and unique landmark of its time, and the number of the Beatles' fans counts up to millions of people, though the band itself has long ceased to exist. All the members of the Fab Four were from the city of Liverpool, a large port-city in the UK. The families of the worldwide starts-to be were not very rich and of a noble origin, and, if it was not the musical destiny, most likely that the unknown Beatles would spend their lives working on a simple labor job and sailing on a merchant ship across the sea. However, destiny decided differently.
The beginning of 1956 is considered the emergence of the legend when John Lennon, having been largely impressed by the music of Elvis Presley, decided to create his own band (Jones 56-61). At first, he played with his school mates, and the band itself was called "The Quarrymen". The final variant of the band was formed in 1962 and existed up to 1970. The speed at which fame and prominence that came to the band was staggering indeed. Until 1960, the band was only known in Liverpool, and played practically the same things as others: the covers and interpretations of popular American songs. Even during their first tour around Scotland as an accompanying band the Beatles continued to remain one of the numerous rock bands of Liverpool which had little or no prominence.
Then, however, in August of 1960 the band made a five-month tour to Hamburg, playing in Indra and Kaiserkeller clubs, after which the Fab Four became of the most successful and ambitious Liverpool bands. By the beginning of 1961, the Beatles head the list of 350 best Liverpool bands. The quartet makes performances practically every day, thus gathering a great number of listeners.
After 4 months, in April 1961, during their second tour in Hamburg, the Beatles recorded their first single together with Tony Sheridan called "My Bonnie / The Saints". At the same time, in studio Lennon records one of this first songs "Ain't She Sweet" (Kane, 2013).
Soon after the release of the debut album in February 1963, the success of the band started to overgrow into a nation-wide hysteria. The beginning of such a mass obsession called "Beatlemania" was marked by the summer of 1963 when the Beatles were supposed to open the British concerts of Roy Orbison, but actually appear even more popular than the American musician (Miles 60-73).
The Beatles were listened to not solely by English-speaking nations, but by the entire Europe and Asia as well. The USA were conquered in the beginning of 1964, a year after the release of the debut album on the band's homeland. After the Beatles, the U.S. witnesses a wave of English invaders, that is, the Beatles prepared the ground for subsequent success of such bands as the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, Herman's Hermits, the Searchers and many others (Miles 119, 126-128, 130-133).
Indeed, the success of the Beatles in the U.S. signified the fact that the band was becoming something more than merely a music group. What is more, it was becoming an idol, an exemplar of style, a trendsetter, the source of answers to all questions, the anchor of many hopes. Their integral concepts and philosophy begin to feel closely in musical framework and enter the neighboring areas of art, such as cinematograph, and later socio-political movements. In the genre of cinematograph the band debuted in 1964 by "A Hard Day's Night" (Kane, 2013). By its example, the Beatles demonstrated that a successful music conception exists happily not only in its standard type, but can also be conveyed to adjacent fields like cinematograph.
In the light of these circumstances, the phenomenon of the Beatles is expected to be understood as a type of a band's success that managed to outgrow into a real national mania. Hence, what is the cause of the fact that four persons had such a tremendous popularity, while no other could achieve such a high success? In order to comprehend the nature of the Beatles' success, it is crucial to dwell on the aspirations of each member. The band's aim had been quite simple since the very beginning of its formation - to become the best band of all time. After band's breakup, John Lennon told that is was the faith in the Beatles' uniqueness that made them so popular rock artists.
Furthermore, a crucial factor that contributed to the quick rise in the Beatles' popularity, as well as in the entire merging of American and European popular music, was represented by unsophisticated and inexperienced listeners. In the English-speaking environment, music as a cultural phenomenon only started to develop, with the genre of love lyrics far from being filled with virtuously performed compositions. Until 1960s, European and American listeners did not witness any technically perfect and professional music offer of a nation-wide character. John Robertson notes that before the Beatles' phenomenon, music had remained in a state of lethargy, and only after the band's rise it turned not just into a multi-million industry, but in art per se.
At the moment of the band's formation there was no music offer which would aspire to an ideal, which would be able to completely satisfy listeners and lure everyone by the tones it encompassed. Moreover, in the 1960s there was not such a great number of distracting informational and entertaining factors that would take place in the beginning of the 21st century. There was no titanic industry of entertainment, starting from computer games and ending with social networks. The thing is that the more entertaining resources are at place, the more time they require from a person to use them. Today, if to use the most popular services there will not be enough time for any serious kind of art. Consequently, the inexperienced information environment of the society of the 1960s provided people with the inclination towards creative engagement in music, cinema, painting, and so on.
Having received undisputed prominence in their homeland, the Beatles aimed at the last English-speaking outpost - the USA. The conquest of America was especially flattering for the Beatles, since they started with imitating Elvis Presley, the king of American rock-n-roll (Jones 56-61). In the U.S., however, the Beatles had to overcome the negative disposition of the American listeners and especially American producers to British popular music. Such attitude emerged because of the fact that no British band of that time had a long success in America.
Despite the sudden increase in the Beatles' fame in the U.K., Capitol Records, the American subdivision of EMI, did not agree to release their tapes up the January of 1964 (Everett 205-218, 382). The first attempt to agree on the release of "Please Please Me" in the U.S. ended in refusal, since many believed that the Beatles would not be able to have any success on American market.
Not losing his heart, Brian Epstein signed a contract with other record companies: Vee-Jay in Chicago and Swan Records in Philadelphia. The first company made a limited edition of "Please Please Me / Ask Me Why" and "From Me to You / Thank You Girl", with the other releasing "She Loves You / I'll Get You" (Everett 205-218, 382). Nonetheless, the songs did not manage to rise in Billboard rates all three times.
In the U.S., the single "Love Me Do" had been already released in May of 1964, which was the climax of Beatlemania in the U.K., managed to remain at the peaks of charts for 18 months (Miles 60-73). An important role here was played by the commercial trick of Brian Epstein who decided to purchase 10 thousand copies of the tape, thus significantly raised the index of its payback and attracting new audiences.
Another strategic step of Epstein was his trip New York and meeting with Ed Sullivan in 11-12 of November. On this meeting he succeeded persuading Sullivan to arrange three Beatles' performances on his show on 9, 16 and 23 of February (Gaar, 8-11). Of course, Sullivan's decision was largely influenced by the evidence of the scale of Beatlemania when his flight to London was delayed by a crowd of screaming teenagers who were meeting the Beatles from the tour of Sweden.
The situation regarding the U.S. promotion changes by the end of November of 1963 when Epstein urges Alan Livingston, the president of Capital Records, to listen to the single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and reminds of the fact that the Beatles would be performing on Sullivan's show, which could be a great opportunity for Capitol Records. Livingston later agreed to spend $40.000 for the Beatles' promotion (Spizer 72).
After the decision to launch the Beatles' campaign, Capitol Records releases "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in the end of 1963, which got the first place in the chart of Cash Box magazine, and the third place in Billboard charts. On January 20 Capitol Records releases the album "Meet the Beatles!", which partly resembles that of "With the Beatles". By the beginning of April, the top five of the national U.S. hit parade had been comprised of only the Beatles' songs, with the total number of their songs represented by 14.
The fact that the U.S. was conquered by the band became known on February 7 of 1964 when musicians landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport, with more than four thousand people waiting to see them. As a result, it took nearly a year for Beatlemania, after its beginning in Great Britain, to move across the ocean. The main factors that fostered the Beatles' success were their explosive message and the phenomenal prominence in their homeland. It were these factors that allowed musicians to ruin the wall of mistrust of the representatives of American show business towards British music. The firsts mentions of the band were in newspapers and TV programs which were entirely devoted to the screaming success of England.
Strictly speaking, before the Beatles' phenomenon, popular music in both Europe and American was developing in isolation, preserving the linguistic national identification: songs in Germany were performed in German, in France they were sung in French, and so on. With that, if foreign compositions were released, it was primarily followed either by its translation into the language of the host country or by the own interpretations of local musicians. However, international prominence was gained by some American performers, that is why it became historically stipulated that the U.S. represented the main music nation.
After the world had experienced several numbers of orchestras, as well as crooners like Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby or Perry Como, the really significant breakthrough of American music into the world scene was made by Elvis Presley, who paved the way for the young generation of musicians. Besides, these events coincided with the social revolution and change of values in society at the turn of 1950-60s. However, before the emergence of the Beatles the U.K. had not played such a role that could be compared to the U.S. in terms of its significance. Nevertheless, the Fab Four overturned the entire comprehension of image, exemplar of stylish sound, as well as the approach towards song writing not only in their homeland, but also in the U.S.
As well as any new phenomenon, the emergence of the Beatles, though it should be admitted that the Fab Four were not the founders of beat or their own musical style, since many similar bands had already existed by the first signs of the Beatles' success, engendered a great number of followers, which urged the world music community to look at British music more closely. It was due to the Beatles that the English-speaking community faced the famous British Invasion that subsequently fostered the further merger between American and European music. Many bands were largely influenced by rhythm and blues, such as the Yardbirs, as well as the Animals who gained prominence through weaving unconventional instruments in their songs, such as the organ (Kellogg 420-429) (Perone 124-128). However, the largest success was made by the Rolling Stones, whose image was far more aggressive as compared with the performers Mersey Beat (Miles 126-128).
Furthermore, the fusion of American and European musical trends opened the way for such musicians as the Kinks, who were mainly known for presenting classical rock in its modern understanding (Warner 224-238). In fact, it were the Kinks who became the founders of the Mods movement, which was inseparably connected with the art of the Who (Miles 133-136). The first records of the Who are considered one of the harshest in terms of sound for that time, whereas the band was peculiar for its wild energy on the stage.
With that, such bands as the Troggs stood apart from the rest of British musicians (Warner 237-243). From the entire British Invasion, their music was the closest to garage rock. Relatively similar bands in terms of the sound produced by the Troggs were the Primitives, the Fairies and the Misunderstood who represented freakbeat (Philo 92-96). This was a peculiar underground response to Beatlemania and the British Invasion as a whole (Miles 60-73). Their sound was similar to that of garage rock, which was largely influenced by beat and the Mods culture.
Moreover, many musicians started to incorporate the elements of Indian and other ethical music trends into their art. The first Indian motives were used by the Yardbirds, which was later developed by the Kinks (Miles 119, 130-133). The Beatles were the first to use the India sitar in recording, which later became one of the most famous cases of using Indian motives in psychedelic rock (Miles 130-150, 273). However, the most significant British band was represented by Pink Floyd, whose extraordinary musical structures, along with a special guitar sound, was called to convey the feelings and images that take place after taking LSD (Miles 270-271).
Since those time, British music appears demanded throughout the world, and there exists a just statement that everything which is regarded as the most famous in music emerges in the U.K., while the U.S. witnessed the most massive waves of popularity. Hence, success in the U.S. is not only the dream of any popular artist, but also a certain qualification of the notion of international acknowledgement. It is not due to the fact that success in the U.S certainly entails the increase in albums and singles sales, but rather due to the evidence of the competitiveness of foreign music in a country that its own numbers of great musical talents.
After the British Invasion of the middle of the 1960s, there were rumors about a second or even a third wave of the phenomenon. However, none of these could replicate the success introduced by the first confluence of American and European music. Nonetheless, this period in the history of popular music played a crucial role in the merger of American and European musical traditions and bridged the gap between the two cultures. Though the origins of rock music were represented entirely by Afro-American musicians, it was primarily the music of British bands and musicians who achieved in promoting musical art as something had actually has no cultural borders (Wicke 15-19).
The success of musicians of that era proved that when it comes to real manifestations of art, cultural and political boundaries appear powerless in suppressing the influence of these phenomena. Though the 1960s did not introduce any ground shaking innovations in terms of musical structure or sound, it was due to this period that the world finally faced a band who wanted to spread their uncompromising emotions and messages. Of course, the Beatles were not the pioneers of rock, but before them there had not existed any music group in which all members were so equally involved, who aspired to the ideal in all terms, starting from appearance and ending with the quality of records. In those times when a musician became a usual person once he hid his instrument in the case, the Beatles had always remained united with music. On the whole, this was the primary factor that contributed to the convergence of two cultures, which had appeared impossible before. Furthermore, the revolutions of the 1960s prepared a favorable playground for all subsequent generations of musicians who wanted to become popular on the global musical stage.
Works Cited
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