The History of the Birth of British Rock Music

Rock was born in the US where European cultural norms were not such important and this liberated and free country became a motherland to new cultural movements and subcultures. Such genres as jazz, blues, and rock’n’roll were born there. As the United Kingdom has always been known as a country with a traditionally high level of culture and intelligence, the appearance of rock was a phenomenon. Firstly rock was under lock – it was forbidden to be translated on radio and bands could only perform in underground clubs. Numerous bans only helped rock’n’roll to catch the interest of young generation.

People got inspired from American rock and established the classic rock as a new genre. It was a revolution in British music in genera as it was the first genre that succeeded in the UK. There were no outstanding composers, bands or solo singers before. It was British rock that made a huge influence on the worldview of young generation of that time all around the world.

This new genre was fraught with unlimited resources and the quality of work could stand any criticism. Some bands recorded songs even with symphonic orchestras. Till 1970s rock’n’roll had already become a self-sufficient genre and made a great impact into the culture.

It is commonly agreed to say that rock appeared in 1952. In post-war period while young generation at the both sides of Atlantic was passionate about rock’n’roll, skiffle was popular in Britain, especially Liverpool. Musicians were not able to buy musical instruments, so that, they made them themselves or used any improvised items(washboards, pots). Skiffle was a combination of American dixieland and British folk music. Every member of The Beatles had an experience of playing in skiffle bands. The key moment of the beginning of rock epoch was the meeting of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. As a result they established their band named The Quarrymen that became the beginning of The Beatles’ era.

The other ancestor of rock was rhythm’n’blues that was mostly played by afroamericans in the US and was created in the second half of 1940s. It appeared in London in the 1950s. Alexis Korner made a great impact in rock music. His Blues Incorporated was the first band playing blues where all members were white. A lot of musicians that later became famous(most of the members of The Rolling Stones, Jack Bruce from Cream, Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin, etc.)

The term British rock appeared when skiffle and blues merged together and a new genre was created.