Welcome discerning listeners, to the Henley 75. To help Henley Business School celebrate its 75th anniversary, they asked The Song Sommelier for a soundtrack. So, we asked Bob Stanley to put the “7 Decades” series together and he did, with the usual genius touch of a guy who really knows music: British Music! All seven decades are here on this page for you to enjoy. Read Bob’s full essay on innovative British pop on the blog page.
THE 1950-s
At the dawn of the fifties, British pop was entirely in thrall to America: the British musical – pride of the nation fifty years earlier – barely existed; singers like Dickie Valentine and Lita Roza mostly recorded pre-made American hits. It was cosy, with a much-needed post-war gentility. Youthful restlessness led to the Teddy Boy fashion in the early fifties – their musical tastes tended towards big band ‘strollers’ (Ted Heath, Ken Mackintosh) that suited dancing in a line. Jazz was the music of outsiders: Dixieland, or Trad (Humphrey Lyttelton), continued to be popular with students and CND followers; modernists followed Don Rendell and Joe Harriott; while Chris Barber’s band, with banjo player Lonnie Donegan, introduced Skiffle (Nancy Whiskey, Johnny Duncan, Lea Valley Skiffle Group) to the UK, a DIY style music that anyone could make with a cheap guitar and a washboard. When rock’n’roll hit Britain in 1956 the Teds found new heroes, again mostly American, but Tommy Steele was the breakthrough act in Britain. He was discovered singing at the 2i’s coffee bar in Soho, which became a mecca for any kids with a guitar and a quiff. Cliff Richard, Vince Taylor and Adam Faith all sang there and were signed up by the svengali managers and executives of the labels that were by now, beginning to make music a true ‘industry’. Manager Larry Parnes put together a stable of British rockers with comic book names: Marty Wilde, Billy Fury, Vince Eager. At this stage, British rock was thoroughly localised.
THE 1960-S
The instrumental sounds of the Shadows and the Tornados (produced by the groundbreaking Joe Meek) dominated the early sixties’ charts (perhaps because the Beatles and other primitive beat groups from Liverpool were abroad, learning their trade in Hamburg where rock’n’roll was still a huge deal). But 1963 belonged to Merseybeat (the Searchers, the Merseybeats). Southern R&B groups burst through a year later, with the Rolling Stones and Kinks scoring UK number ones, while groups emerged from outposts like Belfast (Them) and Newcastle (The Animals); all were huge successes in America.
The sound became more jagged and aggressive with the Who in ’65, and the introduction of LSD into the social scene in ’66 created British psychedelia, both hard-edged (the Accent) and soft (Pink Floyd). The first inter-racial bands appeared, emerging from the soul scene, with the Equals and Foundations both scoring number ones. Female singers – some, like Lorraine Silver, barely into their teens - threw aside their ball gowns, wore Mary Quant gear, and struck out for independence, the most adventurous and successful being Dusty Springfield, Sandie Shaw and Petula Clark. The CND trad jazz scene morphed into the Soho folk world, with incredible young guitarists like Bert Jansch and singers like Sandy Denny; by the end of the decade they had formed groups like Pentangle and Fairport Convention, as psychedelia’s light touch was discarded for maximum heaviness. British acts like Led Zeppelin paved the way into the 70s.
the 1970-s
The early 70s were all about expecting the ‘new Beatles’ to turn up. T Rex appeared to be the real deal, and spearheaded the Glam Rock boom which David Bowie and Roxy Music (with Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno) took to new art-rock levels, while Slade and Sweet explored its tough-pop aspects. Singer-songwriters like Gilbert O’Sullivan and Elton John were initially a reaction to underground heaviness (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath) and the complexities of progressive rock (Yes, Caravan). It was a fallow period for women who didn’t want to compete on men’s terms – Lynsey De Paul and Mandy More were rare stand-outs before Kate Bush emerged as a new kind of role model at the end of the decade. Bush’s contribution to the role of women in British pop seems immeasurable.
The belt-tightening economic crises of the mid 70s were mirrored by the stripped back R&B of Pub Rock (Dr Feelgood, Eddie & the Hot Rods), but the underlying anger was more viscerally channelled into Punk Rock, the independence and immediacy of which threatened the traditional structures of the record industry and music press. Punk’s barrier breaking also helped to open the doors for the voiceless, with British reggae (Birmingham’s Steel Pulse) and lovers rock (Janet Kay). It also led to the first sizeable wave of all-female bands, like the Raincoats. Meanwhile, post punk turned against traditional rock’n’roll and records like Public Image Ltd’s Metal Box helped to uncover a blues-free sonic adventurousness for the four-piece rock group, while largely alienating the American fanbase for British bands.
the 1980-s
The post punk age’s lack of boundaries allowed the early eighties to become an open field for anyone from 60s soul enthusiasts (Dexys Midnight Runners) to the sex obsessed (Adam & the Ants) or the pioneering synthesiser acts (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Depeche Mode) to reach the top ten. Independent labels like Factory (New Order) and Rough Trade (Robert Wyatt) were musically a step ahead of the major labels. For the first time to since the early 60s, groups from as far away as Newcastle (Hurrah, on Kitchenware Records) and Scotland (Orange Juice and Josef K, both on Postcard) felt they didn’t have to move to London to ‘make it’.
The American influence was minimised, but led to the Britfunk boom (Level 42, Linx). The major labels had reasserted control of the industry by the mid-eighties, leading to smoother sounds (Sade) dominating the chart, as well as the underground guitar-led C86 scene (the Pastels) named after an NME cassette. Then, imported house and techno records from America inspired a homegrown scene that led to bedroom music makers like Bomb The Bass and A Guy Called Gerald scoring major hits. Aided by ecstasy (as in the 60s, sometimes creative genius came close to the edge), this blurred with the indie scene to create the Manchester or ‘baggy’ sound (Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets). The club scene, and outdoor raves, took over from the gig circuit.
the 1990-s
Raves and the advent of sampling led to the DIY sounds of East London that began with the Shut Up And Dance label (Ragga Twins) and led to ever-faster beats that ended up mutating into Jungle and Drum & Bass (Omni Trio, 4 Hero) and happy hardcore (N-Trance). As a reaction (so many music scenes seemed to either bounce off each other or react to one another in a call and response fashion) came the 98 beats-per-minute Balearic sound that dominated 1990 and ’91 (Primal Scream, Massive Attack), which was mirrored in guitar music by the slowed-down shoegaze scene, exemplified by Slowdive.
Meanwhile, rave split into darker sounds (4 Hero) and album-oriented dance music (Underworld, Orbital), while outside of London, rave pop (Baby D, Strike, Nightcrawlers) continued to dominate clubs and radio. The sludgy rise of grunge in America led to a reaction yet again, with crisply dressed, retro-futurist groups like Denim, Pulp and Earl Brutus citing the influence of 70s Glam, and paving the way for the more obviously regressive, sixties-inspired Britpop sound (Blur, Oasis, Supergrass) in the mid 90s. The Union Jack waving of Britpop was cranked up a notch by the Spice Girls who led to a late decade boom in innocent bubblegum pop (B*witched) as well as paving the way for the acceptance of more all women or female-led acts in the next decade.
the 2000-s
The clean two-step sound of UK Garage was a reaction to the more masculine club sounds of the late 90s and had a commercial peak in 2000 (Artful Dodger, Sweet Female Attitude, DJ Luck & MC Neat). Its smoothness was countered mid-decade by the rise of Grime (Lady Sovereign, Wiley) - the first genuinely British-sounding response to hip hop, though only Dizzee Rascal had sustained commercial success – and the bass-heavy Dubstep (Burial, Digital Mystikz). TV talent shows led to many of the biggest acts of the decade, the most successful being Girls Aloud whose records were produced by the Xenomania collective; The X Factor led to some high quality pop (Shayne Ward, Leona Lewis) as well as many more low-grade cover versions. Britpop’s decimation of the indie guitar scene in the late nineties led more adventurous acts like Broadcast and Radiohead to explore less clichéd, textural guitar sounds and electronica; there were also the faint final ripples of rock star antics (Libertines, Arctic Monkeys), before a wave of identikit ‘landfill indie’ acts (honourable exceptions: Doves, Zutons) brought about the onset of the death of the guitar band.
the 2010-s
The sparse beats and sub-bass sound of Dubstep had emerged from the unlikely birthplace of Croydon; it peaked commercially with ‘stadium dubstep’ (Nero, Chase & Status), briefly huge at the turn of the decade before it was subsumed by a rockier US variant. The less-acclaimed suburbs of London also hosted a massive return to Grime mid-decade, which was now both more personal (Dave) and political (Stormzy). Post Xenomania, there was a wave of Hyperpop – self-aware, experimental and super-melodic - led by the Peckham-based PC Music stable (Sophie, Danny L Harle, QT) and most successfully, by Charli XCX. The X Factor continued to produce female stars (Alexandra Burke, Cher Lloyd, Little Mix) early in the decade, while other independent, individual female acts (Marina & the Diamonds, FKA Twigs) gradually and finally, found more room to breathe in the music industry.
Meanwhile, the neo-folk revival, that had been brewing since the early 2000s, produced a group of acts from the north-east - the Unthanks, Cornshed Sisters and the more vocally extreme Richard Dawson. Traditional male-led guitar acts were thin on the ground for the first time since the fifties: older names like Paul Weller (who came to embody the spirit of reinvention) branched out into electronica; some groups became more intrigued by arcane technology, which led to the ‘hauntology’ sound of the Ghost Box label (Bellbury Poly, Focus Group); while guitar-led outliers like Black Midi verged on performance art and, along with some emerging guitar-led acts in the indie-rock and post-punk vein, seemed to rekindle the flames for guitar bands once again.
