British Invasion Influence

The British Invasion in American music would not have been as prominent without The Beatles, who paved the way for other British groups to come to America and be successful. The 1950’s rock and roll artist like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and others, influenced many British groups during the early 1960’s, but in America in the early 1960’s folk music was the popular choice of music. The popularity of folk music was due in large part to what was going on in American society with the civil rights movement, JFK assassination and the Vietnam War and folk music spoke to what was going on in America. The British Invasion ended the popularity of folk music in 1964 with The Beatles and other British groups.

The folk scene was affected by the British invasion in the many ways first; it changed folk music to more of a rock sounding music called folk rock, because most of the British groups songs were similarly sounding to 1950’s rock in America. British groups became popular by “resurrecting music we had ignored, forgotten or discarded” (Bangs, 199). Folk artist such as Bob Dylan and The Byrds (who were one of the first folk rock band to form in 1964) were influenced by the British Invasion groups like The Beatles and had a different sound compared to older folk groups in the past. The electric guitar was used in most folk music after 1963. Bob

The reason that the British Invasion became so popular was because the British bands brought a different style and sound never heard before. In a time with no Internet and mobile music devices, bands were able to become even more popular than bands are today which shows how important they are in music history. The British Invasion happened during a time in America were everything was not great. JFK was assassinated, America was at war, and civil rights were at its