The British Invasion, Take 2

I have a bad tendency to forget that this is a music blog, too. So this is an article I wrote for my school paper. It's a bit long, but I think it's not bad. You may enjoy it.

Any musically-minded person has heard of the British Invasion. During this period in the mid-1960’s, many bands hailing from the great land of Prince Harry and fish and chips migrated to America, providing both a sensation and a turning point in music. The Beatles started the Invasion with their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9^th, 1964. They were then followed by bands including the Who, the Rolling Stones, and the Kinks.

Recently, I have been noticing a new wave of bands imported from the UK, not necessarily just England, however. I have so eloquently dubbed this growing trend “The British Invasion, Take 2.”

The effect of websites like Myspace on this trend can not be denied. Bands no longer have to appear playing live on a television show to be introduced to the general public. Instead, someone comes across the band’s page online, listens to their music, sends the website to his or her friends, and—voila!—the band’s fan base has instantly multiplied. An artist’s song being featured in a song or television can introduce the artist to a whole new audience, and makes the transition from British stardom to general American obscurity easier and smoother.

Here are some bands and artists at the forefront of this Take Two of the British Invasion.

Hailing from a Northern England suburban wasteland, the Arctic Monkeys were the most-hyped band of 2006. One English newspaper called them “Our Generation’s Most Important Band” and declared their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, the fifth-greatest British album ever in the same week it was released. The band tried to keep their cool, starting each show they performed with the line, “Don’t believe the hype.” The British public, however, did believe the hype, and made Whatever People... the United Kingdom’s fastest-selling debut album of all time. Critics responded with raving reviews, saying that the band combined the best elements of all the great British bands that came before them. The music of the Arctic Monkeys is that of no frills; it is stripped-down punk, in which loud, fast guitar riffs mix with racing drums. The songs are sung with thick Yorkshire accents and are full of British slang. But it is the band’s lyrics which set them apart. Lead singer Alex Turner writes all of the bands lyrics, and has been hailed as the voice of his generation. On the band’s debut album, Turner paints a bleak picture of clubbing in a boring suburban town, making it easy for many of the band’s fans to relate. Stand-out songs on the album are “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor,” “Fake Tales of San Francisco,” and “When the Sun Goes Down.” The true test will be whether or not the band can avoid a sophomore slump with their second album Favourite Worst Nightmare, which is to be released this April.

Keane is known as “the band with no guitars.” Piano is the main instrument of the band, known for its soft, melodic pop-rock. Lead singer Tom Chaplin’s high-pitched vocals are also an integral part of the band’s style. The band has been compared to fellow British acts Radiohead and Coldplay, and some critics accuse Keane of being too much like these bands. However, some critics defend the band, saying that they combine the best traits of all of these groups. They were made popular on both sides of the Atlantic with their hit, “Somewhere Only We Know,” and their album Hopes and Fears earned them both a Grammy nomination and sold-out world tours. Though the members of Keane are a bit older than many members of other popular bands, they benefit from their maturity. The band refreshingly lacks the irony and sarcasm which many younger bands feel necessary to lace throughout their music. Keane is honest, with no gimmicks.

You know you’re hot when your debut album appeared on many American critics’ best-of-2006 lists—and your album doesn’t come out in America until the end of January, 2007. This is precisely what happened to British singer Lily Allen. In the summer of 2005, she recorded some demos and posted them on her Myspace page. People came across her songs, her name was spread by the kind of word-of-mouth buzz that money just can’t buy, and Allen was dubbed the “Queen of Myspace.” Her record label rushed to release her album, Alright, Still, and the rest is history. Her music is ska-inflected pop, cheeky and smart, chock-full of British slang. It is sparkling and happy at first notice, but a bit dark and sarcastic at its core. Take, for example, her debut single, “Smile.” While the beat and vocals are bouncy and light, the song is actually a bitter kiss-off to a cheating ex, with lyrics such as, “When I see you cry/ it makes me smile,” and “At first when I feel bad for a while/ then I just smile.” Allen is being hailed as the woman who will save pop music. Alright, Still is the perfect summer album to cheer you up in the dreary dead of winter.

The Kooks are 20-year-old dreams who nicked their band name from a David Bowie song. What more could you ask for? Add on top of that their eclectic indie-pop with a dash of reggae, and you’ve got a recipe for success. The Kooks emerged last year with their debut Inside In/ Inside Out, an album eagerly welcomed by the British and one that provided five Top 5 singles. Music doesn’t get much more fun then the Kooks’; it’s fast and a bit bouncy, with sing-along worthy choruses aplenty. The lead singer, Luke Pritchard, sings in such a thick Brighton accent that some lyrics are indistinguishable, but this just adds to the fun. While some critics complain that the band’s lyrics are overtly simple, I encourage you not to look for any deep meanings to the music of this band. While the Kooks may not be changing the face of music, they sure have a whole lot of fun playing the music they have made. They are young, enthusiastic, and have a strange knack of putting together crazily catchy hooks into a perfect rock-pop song.

Corrine Bailey Rae’s self-titled debut album falls directly into the “music-will-sooth-your-soul” category. She has been compared to Macy Gray and called “Billie Holiday’s cooler granddaughter,” a nod to the African-American female singer from the 1940’s whose voice is so soothing, you almost believe it could heal a wound. Rae is part of the “neo-soul” movement, of which John Legend and India.Arie. are also a part. Her first single, “Put Your Records On,” was a breath of fresh air to the music industry, which was being bogged down by far too many hip-hop divas who crooned along to a computer-generated beat (Rhianna and Cassie are sickenly perfect examples of this). The song is breezy and light, a song you can imagine playing as you ride a vintage bike through a tree-lined path in the summer (which is exactly the premise chosen for the music video, in fact), with more soul is a measure than most other “soul” songs have in all of theirs. Rae was even nominated for three Grammys, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. Her song “Like a Star” is a perfect foreshadowing of what she will become.

Picture the most popular band in the country right now. Now, multiply their popularity by about six. Only now are you beginning to approach how massively popular the pop-rock band McFly is in their native England. For their most recent, 24-location tour in England, all tickets sold out in two, count ‘em, two, hours. They also hold the Guinness Book of World Records record for being the youngest band to have their debut album enter the charts at number one—a record they took from none other than the Beatles. For some really hardcore McFly fans, it’s no longer about John, Paul, Ringo, and George, but rather about Tom, Danny, Dougie, and Harry. McFly made their American debut in the movie Just My Luck, playing themselves—a British band struggling to make it big in America. This movie exposed the band to a whole new legion of fans, and McFly now has a steadily growing fan base in America (one that includes myself). The bands take obvious influences from the Beatles and the Beach Boys. Their first single, “Five Colours In Her Hair,” is so Beach Boys-influenced that you can practically see the surfers in the background as the “do-do-do-do-do”s of the opening bars fill your ears. The band has a very pop-based sound, prompting some critics to call the band “a boy band that happens to play its own instruments.” I disagree with this, however; the band writes all their own music, there is absolutely no choreographed dance numbers during their concerts a la Backstreet Boys, and while their earlier sound was indeed very “pop-y”, their newer sound is edging more toward pop-punk. The band has two lead singers, Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones, which is an asset; two singers provide a variety that many other bands don’t have. McFly has so many catchy songs (“Obviously”, “That Girl”, “Friday Night”, “Star Girl”, “Transylvania”, “I Wanna Hold You”, “I’ve Got You’…) that are huge hits in Britain, it’s hard to believe the band is not bigger here in America.

The Subways are young, and proud of it. They named their debut album Young for Eternity, write lyrics such as “These teenage years, well they don’t last,” and have a combined age of just 21. They are also a true family affair; the band consists of lead singer and guitarist Billy Lunn, his fiancée bassist Charlotte Cooper, and Lunn’s brother Josh Morgan on drums (Lunn uses his mother’s maiden name). The Subways first started playing music because, as Cooper says, “we lived in a really boring suburban town, and the only thing to do was make music.” Their popularity really grew when they appeared live on The OC playing their hit, “Rock and Roll Queen”, a song Lunn wrote about Cooper. They then went on to play at two influential music festivals—Coachella, which is held in the desert of California, and South by Southwest, held in Texas. The musical style of the Subways is pure, raw garage rock. Young for Eternity is full of indie anthems and ranges from Strokes-style garage guitar riffs to Brit-pop-style melodies. The lyrics are straightforward and honest, the very definition of teen angst.

There are so many British and Scottish bands and artists gaining attention that they cannot all be written about in one article. But I can try. Bloc Party is being praised for their ambient rock, drawing comparisons to U2. Scottish brothers The Fratellis are recently being featured in an iTunes commercial with their song “Flathead”, an insanely catchy tune full of loud guitars and lead singer Jon Fratelli’s rough singing that breaks into a bouncy chorus. The Horrors are reviving the goth-rock scene, with each band member having an on-stage alter ego such as Coffin Joe and Spider Webb. KT Tunstall exploded onto the scene with her blues/folk/pop hit “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree”, and her song “Suddenly I See” was featured in the opening scene of The Devil Wears Prada. And Scottish neo-folkie Alexi Murdoch makes songs of such acoustic beauty they could make you cry.

Who knows where the next wave of bands will come from. Every now and then, the music scene in America needs new life breathed into it. The Icelandic Invasion, anyone?

Thoughts?


We should get jerseys, cuz we make a good team,
A.