The British Invasion's Effect on America
The appearance of British rock groups in America changed our culture massively. The original Beatles invasion opened the floodgates, and provided a boost for other cultural exports such as films, art and television. British Invasion acts influenced fashion, haircuts and other manners of culture in the 1960s. It became known as the "counter-culture" because the groups gave the young "rebels" of the '60s something to relate to and thus influenced what defined a "cultural rebel."
The success of British acts time lead American garage rock bands to change their sound and style to match. The most famous example of this was the Monkees; an American made carbon-copy of the Beatles that were formed simply to capitalize off the British Invasion craze.
The latter part of the original invasion saw more blues-charged groups like the Rolling Stones coming over the Atlantic. These British blues groups were influenced by the black blues singers of the '40s and '50s such as Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, and B.B. King. The British artists covered the black artists this time out of respect, not simply to try to capitalize on the black artist’s success like the "vanilla" American cover artists of the '50s. This respectful covering of the original blues hits ended up paying off for the original blues artists when fans of groups such as the Rolling Stones tracked their influences back to the black blues artists. Soon American blues shows were filling up with white teens looking for the roots of their favorite British bands.
So the British invasion was more important as an event, as a mood: than as music. This was the British invasion. It wasn't just about the music, it was more then that; this is what makes it so unique. It didn't just happen to effect America by chance, it lifted the spirits and moods of its youth. It isn't just coincidence that Kennedy was assassinated right before the Beatles famous Ed Sullivan Show performance. The whole country was in a deep
The success of British acts time lead American garage rock bands to change their sound and style to match. The most famous example of this was the Monkees; an American made carbon-copy of the Beatles that were formed simply to capitalize off the British Invasion craze.
The latter part of the original invasion saw more blues-charged groups like the Rolling Stones coming over the Atlantic. These British blues groups were influenced by the black blues singers of the '40s and '50s such as Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, and B.B. King. The British artists covered the black artists this time out of respect, not simply to try to capitalize on the black artist’s success like the "vanilla" American cover artists of the '50s. This respectful covering of the original blues hits ended up paying off for the original blues artists when fans of groups such as the Rolling Stones tracked their influences back to the black blues artists. Soon American blues shows were filling up with white teens looking for the roots of their favorite British bands.
So the British invasion was more important as an event, as a mood: than as music. This was the British invasion. It wasn't just about the music, it was more then that; this is what makes it so unique. It didn't just happen to effect America by chance, it lifted the spirits and moods of its youth. It isn't just coincidence that Kennedy was assassinated right before the Beatles famous Ed Sullivan Show performance. The whole country was in a deep