Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 204
•
Trim: 6½ x 9¼
978-0-8108-8626-1 • Hardback • November 2014 • $65.00 • (£50.00)
978-0-8108-9504-1 • Paperback • December 2017 • $35.00 • (£30.00)
978-0-8108-8627-8 • eBook • November 2014 • $33.00 • (£25.00)
Simon Philo is Head of American Studies at the University of Derby. He has written numerous articles and chapters on transatlantic popular culture.
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
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 Reviews
I’ve read countless books about The Beatles, about their fellow British Invasion (aka Beat Era) acts, and about the sixties from both musical and socio-cultural points of view. To say that the overall topic interests me is grand understatement. So I was intrigued when I learned of a new book called British Invasion: The Crosscurrents of Musical Influence. Having some familiarity with other works from the book’s publisher (Rowman & Littlefield), I suspected that British Invasion wouldn’t be a pop-culture, general readership tome; no, I fully expected it to lean in a more scholarly direction. And that would be fine by me.
Author Simon Philo is a British citizen who – as he relates in the book’s introduction – first traveled to the USA many years ago. That inaugural visit lit a fire within him to better understand the ways in which British music of the 1960s influenced American music and culture. What an interesting idea, I thought: many books have looked through the lens from the opposite end, charting how The Beatles (and others) were influenced by such things as (a) the film The Girl Can’t Help It, (b) Bill Haley’s UK tour, and (c) records brought to Britain by merchant seamen landing at Liverpool docks (though this last one has been – if not debunked – shown to have happened much less often than many music chroniclers have claimed/guessed).
But considering how the music of The Beatles and other British groups influenced American music at the time (as opposed to in the grand scheme of things) is a topic that hasn’t been done to death. So Philo’s book is welcome. In the earliest chapters – truth be told, the best, most insightful ones among the book’s 150-plus pages – Philo outlines British pop music history, and he does so in a manner that places skiffle and trad jazz (the two biggest pre-rock musical sensations in postwar England) in their proper context. Philo displays a deep understanding of these forms and how they fit into the big picture. . . Philo does a commendable job of outlining the American cultural scene into which The Beatles sprang in early 1964, debunking a few myths of his own (namely, that the country was in a deep depression post-JFK, and that The Beatles single-handedly rescued American consciousness from that malaise). . . From there, Philo’s analysis is astute, and he makes all manner of useful connections. . . . That final third of British Invasion is actually the part in which Philo’s keen observations are the most significant. He discusses the “Britishness” of the Monterey Pop Festival; touches on the (discussed-ad infinitum) contrast between the Woodstock and Altamont festivals, and then breezily discusses the relationship between UK and American music from the mid-1970s onward. But he then jumps back to his own personal story circa 1981, neatly stepping over punk and new wave.
As scholarly works go, British Invasion is good on the merits (Philo strives to make as many original points as he possibly can, and nearly always hits the mark). . . There’s enough straightforward analysis to make the required few hours spent with British Invasion most rewarding.
— 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