13.01 Introduction

Overview

As the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were achieving enormous commercial success in the United States, there were many other British rock and roll bands hard at work back home in the UK. Some of these bands played blues revival music like the Rolling Stones, but others represented other musical aesthetics. In particular, bands such as The Who were influenced by the Mod movement in London youth culture. As we will see, most of these bands had far more commercial success in the UK than they did in the United States, but some of them did chart some significant hits with American audiences.

Objectives

Identify a number of British rock groups that were popular at the same time as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones
Recall the roots and artistic inspirations of these groups
Identify a number of figures who will be critical to the development of rock, including Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, and Ray Davies
Recall factors that made their music popular in Britain but did not necessarily inspire the same commercial success in the United States

Introduction

Jimmy Page

As the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were achieving record-breaking record sales in the United States, other rock and roll bands were hard at work back in the UK. Some of these bands played blues revival music like the Stones, and others represented different aesthetics. In particular, bands such as The Who were strongly influenced by the Mod movement in London youth culture. In this lesson, we will survey a number of other British rock groups that were popular at the same time as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Although some of these groups had modest commercial success in the United States, for the most part, they were far more popular domestically than in the United States.

“Most white Americans only discovered the blues with the British invasion.”

-Ronnie Wood

“I felt that the elegance of pop music was that it was reflective: we were holding up a mirror to our audience and reflecting them philosophically and spiritually, rather than just reflecting society or something called 'rock and roll.'”

-Pete Townshend

"The most expensive drum kit ever sold at an auction is a five-piece Premier set used by Keith Moon of The Who from 1968 to 1970. It fetched more than $252,000 at Christie's in 2004."

Songfacts