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BRITISH MUSIC

British popular music and popular music in general, can be defined in a number

of ways, but is used here to describe music which is not part of the art/classical

music or  Church music traditions, including folk music, jazz, pop and rock music. 

These forms of music have particularly flourished in Britain, which, it has been

argued, has had an impact on popular music disproportionate to its size, partly due

to its linguistic and cultural links with many countries, particularly the former areas

of British control such as United States, Canada, and Australia, but also a capacity

for invention, innovation and fusion, which has led to the development of, or

 participation in, many of the major trends in popular music. This is particularly

true since the early 1960s when the British Invasion led by The Beatles, helped to

secure British performers a major place in development of pop and rock music,

which has been revisited at various times, with genres originating in or being

radically developed by British musicians, including: blues rock, heavy metal

music, progressive rock, punk rock, electric folk, folk punk ,acid jazz, drum and

 bass, grime and Britpop. 

Although it is rarely heard outside of the U.K. and Europe, British Rap has its owntraditions and is a style onto itself. Though it doesn't have quite the heritage of

American hip-hop, many British rappers grew up within the fertile Caribbean

ragga tradition and introduced patois into hip-hop styles. British rap began in the

late '80s, and it used the sonic collage of Public Enemy as a launching pad. Soon,

many U.K. rappers were adding acid-house flourishes to their sound, resulting in a

music style that was darker than its American counter part. There were poor

facsimiles of American rappers, but the best British hip-hop fell into three different

camps. There were groups like the Prodigy, which fused hip-hop with rave. Therewere groups like Leftfield that went for a dance-club style of hip-hop. And there

was Massive Attack, who slowed hip-hop beats down and added acid-jazz textures,

resulting in trip-hop. By the end of the '90s, a generation of rap fans had assumed

control of the scene, resulting in excellent work from the Herbaliser, Roots

Manuva, New Flesh, and many others.

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Of all the important rock bands to grace the stage, British bands are by far and

away the most important and most influential. Though they weren't first, the best

British rock bands planted their in the 1960s with catchy melodies, delicious hooksand music that influenced multiple generations of bands and music fans. Not to be

outdone, every decade thereafter, British bands were mostly ahead of their

contemporaries across the globe, bringing all variations of rock music to the

masses. The most successful British bands remain staples on rock radio, and

though some are old and way over the hill, they manage to tour to arenas and

stadiums all over the world.

There are plenty of amazing British bands to pick from like the Beatles, the Rolling

Stones, the Who, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Clash, Oasis, Blur, Queen and we

could go on forever. The thing that the best British rock bands have in common is

that they're known all over the world for widely influencing a musical genre, and in

some cases, creating their own musical genre. However, it's up to you to determine

which of these British rock bands is that best.

British jazz is a form of music derived from American jazz. It reached Britain

through recordings and performers who visited the country while it was a relatively

new genre, soon after the end of  World War I. Jazz began to be played by British

musicians from the 1930s and on a widespread basis in the 1940s, often

within dance bands. From the late 1940s British "modern jazz", highly influenced

 by American bebop, began to emerge and was led by figures such as John

Dankworth and Ronnie Scott, while Ken Colyer, George Webb and Humphrey

Lyttelton emphasised New Orleans, Trad jazz. From the 1960s British jazz began

to develop more individual characteristics and absorb a variety of influences,including British blues, as well as European and World music influences. A

number of British musicians have gained international reputations, although this

form of music has remained a minority interest within the UK itself.