The British Invasion 196269. Origins and Causes

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The British Invasion 1962-69. Origins and Causes

• By
• Richard W. Benfield
• Associate Professor of Geography,
• Central Connecticut State University

pg 228-240
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• What was
• The British Invasion?

It was a predictable, powerful example of
inertia, contagious diffusion and some elements
of hearth/sources areas
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The Causes

• Demography
• Economic
• Political
• Social Movements
• Source Areas Ports
• Decline of the US industry (opportunity)
• Media
• Outlets

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DEMOGRAPHY

• The United Kingdom
• War Dead
• 1 million
• (1 in 20)
• Boomer Children
• 1963
• The first of the cohort
• 1969
• The beginning of the end

• United States
• 400,000
• (One man in 175)
• Lower immediacy in 1963

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U.S Population 1950
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ECONOMIC

• United States
• Surplus

• The United Kingdom
• Higher disposable incomes
• Rationing
• Electronics
• Sony and transistor (portable) radios and tape
  players
• Records (single, EP, LP) becoming more available
  and playable

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SOCIO/POLITICO MOVEMENTS

• United Kingdom
• Liberalization (labor)
• Socialism
• Permissiveness (Profumo)
• Social Democracy

• United States
• Civil Rights
• Vietnam
• Environmentalism

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Up to 1963 Broadcasters were not permitted to use
the word sex (used was intimate) nor
broadcast death
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GEOGRAPHICAL SOURCE AREAS

• Liverpool
• Newcastle
• Glasgow
• Birmingham
• (South and North) London
• Industrial north Manchester
• Hamburg
• All ports
• All Industrial
• All working class
• Predominantly on the west coast

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.and then 1961-63 we have a perfect example of
contagious diffusion emanating out from (port)
Hearth Areas
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Note also the contribution of the coloniesthe
Bee Gees, Olivia Newton-John, Seekers, Guess Who,
Paul Anka, Neil Youngmany coming to England to
get their start in London
Marmalade, Bay City Rollers
Animals
The Bachelors
Beatles, Searchers, Gerry and the P,
Hollies,, Herman Billy J. Kramer
Spencer Davis, Moody Blues, Honeycombs
Tom Jones
Kinks, Stones, Rod Stewart Faces, Peter
Gordon, Who, Dave Clark 5, Fleetwood Mac, Elton
John, Cat Stevens
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Decline in the US

• Elvis Presley is drafted into the Army
• Buddy Holly dies in plane crash
• Chuck Berry on a morals charge
• Jerry Lee Lewis discredited (and hence ALL of
  Country Music) for marrying his 13 year old niece
• Little Richard is just too weird
• The music in the US was not representative of UK
  (Blues, Civil rights, Jazz)

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THE MEDIA

• United Kingdom
• BBC Only
• No commercial radio
• Radio Luxembourg
• Pirate Radio stations
• Radio London
• Radio Caroline
• 1965 BBC Radio 1
• BBC 2 (34)
• 1967 Top of the Pops and BBC
• National Newspapers (14 million readership

• United States
• Commercial Radio
• Television
• (some 5 years later in U.K. beginning only in
  1965)

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OUTLETS

• United Kingdom
• Pubs
• Working Mens Clubs
• Universities

• United States
• Radio?

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OF WHAT DID THEY SING? (Apart from the standard-
love)

• Roots
• Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields Beatles
• Despair
• We gotta get out of this place The Animals
• Nostalgia
• Fog on the Tyne-
  Lindisfarne
• Demographics
• Julia Lennon
• My Generation Who

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Influence of the U.S begins to dilute 1966/7

• Surfers and Dick Dale
• San Franciscoand Free love
• Tamla Motown (and reception by UK blacks)
• and ongoing love affair with some (Roy Orbison,
  Gene Pitney, Jim Reeves, Everlys)

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Conclusions

• Economic/demographic/technologic improvement by
  1967
• End of cross over
• The era of the Jumbo Jet and integration
• Few artists were successful on both sides (57
  had only one hit and 1.4 had 20 or more
  hits-Presley, Stones, Beatles, Beach Boys,
  Everlys)