Have you ever noticed how British musicians have dominated worldwide music charts as collaborative bands while successful American musicians are nearly always solo artists? The further you go through the list of the world’s top-selling musical artists the clearer this distinction becomes, with very few exceptions.
The top-selling musical artists ever with claimed sales figures supported by at least 20% in certified units are the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Rihannah, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, AC/DC, Whitney Houston, Queen, the Rolling Stones and Abba. Even today British boy band One Direction and soloists Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus maintain this Atlantic divide.
Britain Stole Rock’n’Roll
No one should forget that rock music is the direct descendant of African-American rhythm and blues which developed into rock’n’roll around the mid-20th Century. Chuck Berry is credited with putting aggressive guitar play at the forefront of the sound while Little Richard is also hailed as one of the first “rock” musicians.
Not only did this change occur at the time of technological innovations like the electric guitar and amplifier but also the time of changes in the popularisation of music as smaller record labels sprang up with the new 45 rpm “single” record.
The US monopoly on the new and evolving style continued with rockabilly solo stars like Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Johnny Cash until the early 1960’s when Joe Meek’s “Telstar” instrumental reached number one in US charts.
However, the real British Invasion was sealed in December 1963 when The Beatles’ track “I want to hold your hand” brought Beatlemania to the US in the form of four identically-dressed performers with matching haircuts. Until then the lead singer held much of the attention with bands names things like “Bill Haley and The Comets”.
From then on the American market was flooded with British bands such as the Kinks, the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds with no member noted above the others. On May 8, 1965, British and Commonwealth acts held all of the US’s Hot 100 top 10 rankings apart from number two, “Count Me In” by Gary Lewis & the Playboys. These UK acts redefined rock as an art form best spread across multiple players while soloists were better suited to pop music, which partly explains why top US artists tend to be pop as well as solo.
British Education and Collaboration
Just as the “old boys network” of public schools creates a business and political elite, British art schools have produced many top rock bands. Three of the world’s top 10 art schools are British, although that figure was larger 50 years ago as schools such as the famous Central St Martin’s are now grouped under the single banner of University of the Arts London.
Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker said of his time at St Martin’s that “the experience of just being at art school gave me a lot to draw on. Pulp’s most famous song [Common People] is about something that happened there but on a deeper level I was taught to think about things in a non-lateral way.”
The Who guitarist Pete Townshend has a similar view of his time at Ealing College of Art. “The art schools from my time specialised in old-school teaching methods of brutalising your students with some wild thinking that was off the map,” he says.
The importance of the art schools is confirmed by a list of some of the early rock pioneers they produced.
John Lennon (Beatles) Liverpool College of Art, 1957-1960
Keith Richards (Rolling Stones) Sidcup Art School, 1959-1962
Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) Sutton Art College, 1960-1964
Ray Davies (The Kinks) Hornsey College of Art, 1962-1963
This suggests a kind of golden epoch when the visual qualities of stagecraft, costume and theatrics mattered as much as the music and all of those elements were created through artistic collaboration. That would also explain the decline in British music in recent years as art schools and students have come under more financial pressure.
The US Individual
The US has its own top art schools so there are other differences at play. Aspiring British musicians have a direct association with the Beatles built into their cultural identity, so forming a band of friends may be more natural to them, while Americans dream of becoming the next Elvis or Madonna.
The US obsession with individualism runs deep. The nation was founded by people fleeing religious and social oppression in England, and the cult of the individual shows up today in everything from the individual’s right to bear arms to a general resentment of taxes and other forms of government “intrusion”.
Colonial Effect?
How do other English-speaking nations fare? Ireland’s folk heritage fuelled the melodic and intricate riffs of Thin Lizzy but U2 are a chart-topping sensation at number 20 in the best-selling musical artists. Cranberries blew the world away for many years.
The Irish share the British preference for bands, with stars like Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats, Van Morrison and U2’s Bono all achieving their fame through collaborations.
Canada is closer to the US model, with big-hitting soloists like Leonard Cohen, Bryan Adams, Drake, Justin Bieber and the top-selling Canadian musical artist overall Celine Dion. Immediately after her in the list is Australia’s best-selling rock band AC/DC but the next Aussie is Olivia Newton-John much further down. INXS, Savage Garden and Silverchair all made it globally for the lucky country.
The Atlantic does seem to divide the nature of contemporary music for reasons that go beyond the recording industry to deeper matters of culture.
By Stewart Vickers @VickHellfire
The post UK: Why are the Top Bands British and Soloists American? appeared first on Felix Magazine.
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