Beat music,
British beat, or
Merseybeat (for
bandsIn music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform songs. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band* Dansband* Fife and drum...
from
LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
beside the
River MerseyThe River Mersey is a river in North West England. It is around long, stretching from Stockport, Greater Manchester, and ending at Liverpool Bay, Merseyside. For centuries, it formed part of the ancient county divide between Lancashire and Cheshire....
), is a
pop musicPop music is a music genre that developed from the mid-1950s as a softer alternative to rock 'n' roll and later to rock music. It has a focus on commercial recording, often orientated towards a youth market, usually through the medium of relatively short and simple love songs...
genre that developed in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
in the early 1960s. Beat music is a fusion of
rock and rollRock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States after World War II in the late 1940s, from a combination of the rhythms of the blues, from the African American culture, and from America's country music and gospel music scenes...
, doo wop,
skiffleSkiffle is a type of popular music with jazz, blues, folk and country influences, usually using homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a term in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, it became popular again in Britain in the 1950s, where it was associated with...
,
R&BRhythm and blues is the name given to a wide-ranging genre of popular music created by African Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s...
and
soulSoul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
. The beat movement provided most of the bands responsible for the
British invasionThe British Invasion is used to describe rock and roll, beat and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States from 1964 to 1966. The Second British Invasion refers to MTV and New Wave acts of the 1980s...
of the American pop charts in the period after 1964, and provided the model for many important developments in pop and rock music.
Beat groups characteristically had simple
guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
-dominated line-ups, with
vocalThe human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary sound source...
harmonies and catchy tunes.
Beat music,
British beat, or
Merseybeat (for
bandsIn music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform songs. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band* Dansband* Fife and drum...
from
LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
beside the
River MerseyThe River Mersey is a river in North West England. It is around long, stretching from Stockport, Greater Manchester, and ending at Liverpool Bay, Merseyside. For centuries, it formed part of the ancient county divide between Lancashire and Cheshire....
), is a
pop musicPop music is a music genre that developed from the mid-1950s as a softer alternative to rock 'n' roll and later to rock music. It has a focus on commercial recording, often orientated towards a youth market, usually through the medium of relatively short and simple love songs...
genre that developed in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
in the early 1960s. Beat music is a fusion of
rock and rollRock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States after World War II in the late 1940s, from a combination of the rhythms of the blues, from the African American culture, and from America's country music and gospel music scenes...
, doo wop,
skiffleSkiffle is a type of popular music with jazz, blues, folk and country influences, usually using homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a term in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, it became popular again in Britain in the 1950s, where it was associated with...
,
R&BRhythm and blues is the name given to a wide-ranging genre of popular music created by African Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s...
and
soulSoul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
. The beat movement provided most of the bands responsible for the
British invasionThe British Invasion is used to describe rock and roll, beat and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States from 1964 to 1966. The Second British Invasion refers to MTV and New Wave acts of the 1980s...
of the American pop charts in the period after 1964, and provided the model for many important developments in pop and rock music.
Beat groups characteristically had simple
guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
-dominated line-ups, with
vocalThe human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary sound source...
harmonies and catchy tunes. The most common instrumentation of beat groups featured lead, rhythm and bass guitars plus drums, as popularized by
The BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music...
,
The SearchersThe Searchers are an English rock band who emerged as part of the 1960s Merseybeat scene along with The Beatles, The Swinging Blue Jeans, and Gerry & The Pacemakers....
,
Gerry & The PacemakersGerry & The Pacemakers were a British rock and roll group prominent during the 1960s. In common with The Beatles, they came from Liverpool and were managed by Brian Epstein. They are most remembered for being the first act to reach number one in the UK Singles Chart with their first three single...
and others. Beat groups - even those with a separate lead singer - often sang both verses and choruses in close harmony, resembling doo wop, with nonsense syllables in the backing vocals. The most distinctive characteristic of the music was the strong beat, using the
backbeatBackbeat is a term applied to a rhythmic accentuation on even beats.Backbeat may also refer to:*Backbeat , of pioneer rock and roll drummer Earl Palmer...
common to
rock and rollRock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States after World War II in the late 1940s, from a combination of the rhythms of the blues, from the African American culture, and from America's country music and gospel music scenes...
and
rhythm and bluesRhythm and blues is the name given to a wide-ranging genre of popular music created by African Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s...
, but often with a driving emphasis on all the beats of 4/4 bar.
Use of the term
The exact origins of the terms Beat music and Merseybeat are uncertain. Beat music seems to have had little to do with the
Beat GenerationThe Beat Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, and the cultural phenomena that they wrote about and inspired...
literary movement of the 1950s, and more to do with driving
rhythmRhythm is the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events.-Rhythm in linguistics:...
s, which the bands had adopted from their rock and roll, rhythm and blues and soul music influences. As rock and roll declined in the later 1950s "big beat" music, later shortened to "beat", became a live dance alternative to the balladeers like
Tommy SteeleTommy Steele OBE is an English entertainer. Steele is widely regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock 'n' roll star...
,
Marty WildeMarty Wilde is an English singer and songwriter. He was among the first generation of British pop stars to emulate American rock and roll, and is the father of pop singer Kim Wilde....
and
Cliff RichardSir Cliff Richard OBE is a British singer-songwriter and entrepreneur.With his backing group The Shadows, Richard dominated the British popular music scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s, before and during The Beatles' first year in the charts...
who were dominating the charts. The term
Mersey Beat was used for a Liverpool magazine of that name found in 1961 by
Bill HarryBill Harry is the creator of Mersey Beat, an important newspaper of the early 1960s, which focused on the Liverpool music scene, and is best known for being the first to feature a new band called The Beatles in the early 1960s .Harry started...
. Harry claims to have coined the term "based on a policeman's beat and not that of the music". The band The Pacifics were re-named The Mersey Beats in February 1962 by
Bob WoolerBob Wooler was most notable for being instrumental in introducing The Beatles to their manager, Brian Epstein, and as the DJ at The Cavern Club.-Career:...
,
MCA master of ceremonies, microphone controller or MC , sometimes called a compère or an MJ for "microphone jockey," is the host of an official public or private staged event or other performance. The MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving...
at the Cavern Club and in April that year they became
The MerseybeatsThe Merseybeats are a Merseybeat band that emerged from the Liverpool scene in the early 1960s, performing at The Cavern Club along with The Beatles, Gerry & The Pacemakers and other similar artists....
. The equivalent scenes in Birmingham and London would be described as
Brum beatBrum Beat is the name of a magazine about the music within Birmingham, England. It started as Midlands Beat, by Jim Simpson, who sold it to its latter editor, Steve Morris, who in turn converted it into a website....
and the Tottenham Sound respectively.
History
In the late 1950s, a flourishing culture of groups began to emerge, often out of the declining
skiffleSkiffle is a type of popular music with jazz, blues, folk and country influences, usually using homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a term in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, it became popular again in Britain in the 1950s, where it was associated with...
scene, in major urban centres in the UK like Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and London. This was particularly true in Liverpool, where it has been estimated that there were around 350 different bands active, often playing ballrooms, concert halls and clubs. Liverpool was perhaps uniquely placed within Britain to be the point of origin of a new form of music. Commentators have pointed to a combination of local solidarity, industrial decline, social deprivation, and the existence of a large population of Irish origin, the influence of which has been detected in Beat music. It was also a major port with links to America, which made for much greater access to American records and instruments like guitars, which could not easily be imported due to trade restrictions. As a result Beat bands were heavily influenced by American groups of the era, such as
Buddy Holly and the CricketsThe Crickets are a rock & roll band from Lubbock, Texas, formed by singer/songwriter Buddy Holly in the 1950s.Their first hit record was "That'll Be the Day," released in 1957....
(from which group
The BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music...
gained the model for their name, combining it with a pun on the beat in their music), and to a lesser extent by
British rock and rollBritish rock and roll, or sometimes British rock 'n' roll, is a style of popular music based on American rock and roll, which emerged in the late 1950s and was popular until the arrival of beat music in 1962. It has generally been considered inferior to the American version of the genre, and made...
groups such as
The ShadowsThe Shadows are Britain's most successful instrumental and vocal group with a grand total of 69 UK hit singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and The Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s...
.
After the national success of the Beatles in Britain from 1962, a number of Liverpool performers were able to follow them into the charts, including
Gerry & The PacemakersGerry & The Pacemakers were a British rock and roll group prominent during the 1960s. In common with The Beatles, they came from Liverpool and were managed by Brian Epstein. They are most remembered for being the first act to reach number one in the UK Singles Chart with their first three single...
,
The SearchersThe Searchers may refer to:*The Searchers , a 1954 novel by Alan Le May*The Searchers , a 1956 epic Western film based on Le May's novel*The Searchers , a 1960s British rock band...
, and
Cilla BlackCilla Black OBE is a British singer, actress and television performer who has been successful as an entertainer from 1963 through the present day. She is most famous worldwide for her successful singles "Anyone Who Had A Heart", "You're My World", and "Alfie"...
. The first act who were not from Liverpool or managed by
Brian EpsteinBrian Samuel Epstein was a British music entrepreneur, and the manager of The Beatles. He also managed several other musical artists such as Gerry & The Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Cilla Black and The Remo Four...
to break through in the UK were
Freddie and the DreamersFreddie and the Dreamers were a British musical band who had a number of hit records between May 1963 and November 1965. Their act was based around the comic antics of the 5-foot-3-inch-tall Freddie Garrity, who was famous for bouncing around the stage with arms and legs flying.-UK history:The...
, who were based in Manchester, as were
Herman's HermitsHerman's Hermits were an English pop band, formed in Manchester in 1963 as Herman & The Hermits. The group's management and producer, Mickie Most , emphasized a simple, non-threatening and clean-cut image, although the band originally played R&B numbers...
and
The HolliesThe Hollies are an English rock group from Manchester formed in the early 1960s. Known for their distinctive vocal harmony style they became one of the leading British groups of the era, and they enjoyed considerable popularity in many other countries although they did not achieve major US chart...
.
Outside of Liverpool many local scenes were less influenced by rock and roll and more by the
BluesBlues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre created within the African-American communities in the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
. These included bands from Birmingham who were often grouped with the beat movement, the most successful being The Spencer Davis Group and the
The Moody BluesThe Moody Blues are an English band originally from Erdington in the city of Birmingham. Founding members Michael Pinder and Ray Thomas performed an initially rhythm and blues-based sound in Birmingham in 1964 along with Graeme Edge and others, and were later joined by John Lodge and Justin...
. Similar blues influenced bands who broke out from local scenes to national prominence were
The AnimalsThe Animals were an English music group of the 1960s known in the United States as part of the British Invasion. Known for their gritty, bluesy sound and deep-voiced frontman Eric Burdon, as exemplified by their signature songs "The House of the Rising Sun" and "We Gotta Get Out of This Place", the...
from
NewcastleNewcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England...
and
ThemThem was a Northern Irish band formed in Belfast in April 1964, most prominently known for the garage rock standard "Gloria" and launching singer Van Morrison's musical career...
from
BelfastBelfast is the capital of and the largest city in Northern Ireland, a constituent country of the United Kingdom. It is the seat of devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly. It is the largest urban area in the province of Ulster, and the second largest city on the island of...
. From London, the term
Tottenham Sound was largely based around
The Dave Clark FiveThe Dave Clark Five were an English pop rock group. It was the second group of the British Invasion, after The Beatles, to have a chart hit in the United States ....
, but other London bands more based in the blues, but who benefited from the beat boom of this era, included the Rolling Stones and
The YardbirdsThe Yardbirds are an English rock band, notable for starting the careers of three of rock's more famous guitarists: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, all of whom were in the top fifteen of Rolling Stones' 100 Top Guitarists list...
.
By 1966 beat music was beginning to sound out of date, particularly compared with "harder edged" blues rock and was beginning to emerge. Most of the groups that had not already disbanded moved, like the Beatles, into different forms of
rock musicRock music is a genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1960s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music....
and
pop musicPop music is a music genre that developed from the mid-1950s as a softer alternative to rock 'n' roll and later to rock music. It has a focus on commercial recording, often orientated towards a youth market, usually through the medium of relatively short and simple love songs...
, including
psychedelic rockPsychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among garage and folk rock bands in Britain and the United States...
and eventually
progressive rockProgressive rock is a form of rock music that evolved in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility."...
.
British Invasion
The term
British Invasion was coined by T.V. reporter
Walter CronkiteWalter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
to describe The Beatles' arrival in the United States and the outbreak of
BeatlemaniaBeatlemania was a term used during the 1960s to describe the intense fan frenzy particularly demonstrated by young teen girls directed toward The Beatles during the early years of their success. The word is a portmanteau of "Beatles" and "mania"...
in 1964. Their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show soon after led to chart success. During the next two years, Peter and Gordon,
The AnimalsThe Animals were an English music group of the 1960s known in the United States as part of the British Invasion. Known for their gritty, bluesy sound and deep-voiced frontman Eric Burdon, as exemplified by their signature songs "The House of the Rising Sun" and "We Gotta Get Out of This Place", the...
,
Manfred MannManfred Mann were a British beat, rhythm and blues and pop band of the 1960s, named after their South African keyboard player and founder, who later led the successful 1970s follow-on group Manfred Mann's Earth Band.-Beginnings :...
,
Petula ClarkPetula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
, Freddie and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, Herman’s Hermits, The Rolling Stones,
The TroggsThe Troggs are an English rock band from the 1960s that had a number of hits in Britain and the USA, including their most famous song, "Wild Thing". The Troggs were from the town of Andover in southern England...
, and
DonovanDonovan , is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
would have one or more number one singles in America. The emergence of relatively homogenous worldwide
rock musicRock music is a genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1960s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music....
styles around 1967 marked the end of the British Invasion. However, the British Invasion bands had a big influence on subsequent American
folk rockFolk rock is a musical genre, combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
,
garage rockGarage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name. In the early 1970s, some rock critics retroactively labelled it as punk rock...
and
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
bands.
Notable acts
- The Applejacks
- The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music...
- Billy J Kramer
- The Big Three
The Big Three were a Merseybeat group from Liverpool. They are best known for their 1963 recording of "Some Other Guy".-Career:They evolved from a group called Cass & The Cassanovas which were formed in the late 1950s by Brian Casser...
- Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers
Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers were a 1960s beat group, who had two Top 10 hits with "One Way Love" , and "Got to Get You into My Life" .-Career:...
- The Cryin' Shames
The Cryin' Shames were a mid 1960s pop/beat group, produced by Joe Meek. They had one UK hit single in 1966 with a cover of The Drifters' 1961 "Please Stay", written by Burt Bacharach and Bob Hilliard.-Career:...
- The Dakotas
The Dakotas is a group of British musicians, which initially convened as a backing band in Manchester, England. However, they are most closely associated with the singer Billy J. Kramer, a Liverpudlian who was the lead vocalist for the group during the 1960s...
- The Dave Clark Five
The Dave Clark Five were an English pop rock group. It was the second group of the British Invasion, after The Beatles, to have a chart hit in the United States ....
- The Fourmost
The Fourmost were an English Merseybeat band that recorded in the 1960s. Their biggest UK hit single was 1964's "A Little Loving".-Biography:...
- Freddie and the Dreamers
Freddie and the Dreamers were a British musical band who had a number of hit records between May 1963 and November 1965. Their act was based around the comic antics of the 5-foot-3-inch-tall Freddie Garrity, who was famous for bouncing around the stage with arms and legs flying.-UK history:The...
- Gerry & The Pacemakers
Gerry & The Pacemakers were a British rock and roll group prominent during the 1960s. In common with The Beatles, they came from Liverpool and were managed by Brian Epstein. They are most remembered for being the first act to reach number one in the UK Singles Chart with their first three single...
- Herman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits were an English pop band, formed in Manchester in 1963 as Herman & The Hermits. The group's management and producer, Mickie Most , emphasized a simple, non-threatening and clean-cut image, although the band originally played R&B numbers...
- The Hollies
The Hollies are an English rock group from Manchester formed in the early 1960s. Known for their distinctive vocal harmony style they became one of the leading British groups of the era, and they enjoyed considerable popularity in many other countries although they did not achieve major US chart...
- The Liverbirds
- Manfred Mann
Manfred Mann were a British beat, rhythm and blues and pop band of the 1960s, named after their South African keyboard player and founder, who later led the successful 1970s follow-on group Manfred Mann's Earth Band.-Beginnings :...
- The Merseybeats
The Merseybeats are a Merseybeat band that emerged from the Liverpool scene in the early 1960s, performing at The Cavern Club along with The Beatles, Gerry & The Pacemakers and other similar artists....
- The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues are an English band originally from Erdington in the city of Birmingham. Founding members Michael Pinder and Ray Thomas performed an initially rhythm and blues-based sound in Birmingham in 1964 along with Graeme Edge and others, and were later joined by John Lodge and Justin...
- Rory Storm and the Hurricanes
- Brian Poole and the Tremeloes
The Tremeloes are an English rock and roll band, founded in 1958 in Dagenham, Essex. The Tremeloes are one of the longest surviving, still playing regularly more than 50 years after the group's founding. They had fourteen UK and two U.S. Top 20 hit singles...
- The Searchers
The Searchers are an English rock band who emerged as part of the 1960s Merseybeat scene along with The Beatles, The Swinging Blue Jeans, and Gerry & The Pacemakers....
- Spencer Davis Group
The Spencer Davis Group was a mid-1960s British beat group from Birmingham, England. In its heyday the group consisted of Spencer Davis, Steve Winwood, Muff Winwood and Pete York; Jimmy Miller was their producer...
- The Swinging Blue Jeans
The Swinging Blue Jeans are a four piece 1960s British Merseybeat band, best known for their hit singles with the HMV label; the solid rock-n-roller "Hippy Hippy Shake" , the follow up, Little Richard's "Good Golly Miss Molly", and "You're No Good", a Clint Ballard song that provided a change of...
- The Undertakers
The Undertakers were a British beat group, contemporaries of The Beatles and a leading group in the Merseybeat music scene of the early 1960s.-Band members:Their best known line-up was:*Jackie Lomax *Chris Huston...
- The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964. The primary lineup consisted of guitarist Pete Townshend, vocalist Roger Daltrey, bassist John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They became known for energetic live performances including the pioneering spectacle of instrument destruction...
- The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds are an English rock band, notable for starting the careers of three of rock's more famous guitarists: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, all of whom were in the top fifteen of Rolling Stones' 100 Top Guitarists list...
- The Zombies
The Zombies are an English rock band. Formed in 1959 in St Albans and led by Rod Argent on piano and Colin Blunstone on vocals, the band scored US hits in the mid- and late-1960s with "She's Not There", "Tell Her No", and "Time of the Season"...
External links