Rock and roll has been a part of the music scene for all time, whether its Australian, British or American. Each culture has influenced the music scene one way or another, but some have had more of an impact than others. The British have had a heavy influence on the music scene, particularly in heavy rock, surf and psychedelic rock and roots rock. Overtime these genres have changed, especially when over the ‘British Invasion’ period during the 1960s.
The British Invasion period was a time when British musicians had found success in mainstream genres such as rock and roll and were topping most charts worldwide. Most artists started their journey to victory by doing covers of existing American songs. They became recognised worldwide and then started to create their own, unique sound. A prime example of a British band who have found success through this process are The Beatles. The Beatles formed in 1960 in Liverpool, England. They were introduced to the music scene in 1963 but didn’t really become known until 1964. Some of their most famous songs such as ‘Hey Jude’ (1968), ‘Let It Be’ (1970) and ‘Something’ (1969) have made them become popular worldwide as The Beatles had ‘a Liverpool sound’ according to worldwide population, which seemed to be a main attraction about them. More and more bands such as The Who and The Kinks became popular alongside The Beatles and ‘the Liverpool sound’.
Psychedelic and surf rock were popular genres in America and Australia until the mid-late 1960s when the British Invasion occurred. This caused other rock and roll genres (hard rock, roots rock, and heavy metal) to overtake psychedelic and surf rock. Surf rock bands based their music around teenage interests (love, money, surfing and cars) whereas psychedelic rock bands would create music more about the experience on illicit drugs, like LSD as this was a common thing to do through the 60s. Through the British Invasion, bands such as The Beach Boys (surf rock) and Pink Floyd (psychedelic rock) were able to sustain their fame and keep playing music however all the smaller bands had been taken over by bigger, British artists. The Beach Boys and Pink Floyd are still popular in today’s society in America and Australia as they brought fame to their music and influenced more and more bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Hockey Dad (who are popular today) to create similar music.
British artists and musicians have been successfully touring Australia since the British Invasion. Help from record produced and music/band management have been able to make a lot of bands and musicians tour. For example, the source of the poster promoting a number of band’s first ever tour in Australia was in 1957. Since then, those bands have toured Australia over 5 times in the following 10-15 years.
Without the influence of British rock and roll Australia and America would never have had the experience and sound of music that we have had and still have today. In Australia, artists are becoming confident in creating music with the influence of rock and roll cultures from the 50s and 60s. Music is a growing industry and with the help of professional music labels, a lot more bands can produce their music. Rock and roll bands out there today (Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Kooks, Hockey Dad, Metallica and Slipknot – just to name a few) have a similar sound to rock and roll from the 50s and 60s as culture has been passed through generation to generation. In particular, the influence of British musicians through the British Invasion and other time periods have made genres expand and bands/musicians have been able to discover new sound.
Rock Music - Then and Now 