Early music of the British Isles
Early music of the British Isles, from the earliest recorded times until the Baroque and the rise of recognisably modern classical music, was a diverse and rich culture, including sacred and secular music and ranging from the popular to the elite. Each of the major nations of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales retained unique forms of music and of instrumentation, but British music was highly influenced by continental developments, while British composers made an important contribution to many of the major movements in early music in Europe, including the polyphony of the Ars Nova and laid some of the foundations of later national and international classical music. Musicians from the British Isles also developed some distinctive forms of music, including Celtic chant, the Contenance Angloise, the rota, polyphonic votive antiphons and the carol in the medieval era and English madrigals, lute ayres and masques in the Renaissance era, which led particularly to English language opera developed at the height of the Baroque in the later seventeenth century.
Folk music
There are four primary components of the United Kingdom, each with their own diverse and distinctive folk music forms - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In addition, there are numerous distinct and semi-distinct folk traditions from the Isle of Man, Cornwall and the Channel Islands, as well as immigrants from Jamaica, India, the Commonwealth and other parts of the world.
England has a long and diverse history of folk music dating back at least to the medieval period and including many forms of music, song and dance. Through two periods of revival from the late nineteenth century much of the tradition has been preserved and continues to be practiced. It led to the creation of a number of fusions with other forms of music that produced sub-genres such as electric folk, folk punk and folk metal and continues to thrive nationally and in regional scenes, particularly in areas such as Northumbria and Cornwall.
Of all the regions of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland (along with the Republic of Ireland) has the most vibrant folk traditions. The popularity of traditional instruments such as fiddles has remained throughout the centuries even as analogues on Great Britain died out. Perhaps the most famous musician influenced the folk tradition is Van Morrison.
Scottish folk music includes many kinds of songs, including ballads and laments, sung by a single singer with accompaniment by bagpipes, fiddles or harps. Traditional dances include waltzes, reels, strathspeys and jigs. Alongside the other areas of the United Kingdom, Scotland underwent a roots revival in the 1960s. Cathy-Ann McPhee and Jeannie Robertson were the heroes of this revival, which inspired some revolutions in band formats by groups like The Clutha, The Whistlebinkies, The Boys of the Lough and the Incredible String Band.
Wales is a Celtic country that features folk music played at twmpathau (communal dances) and gwyl werin (music festivals). Welsh music also includes male voice choirs and songs accompanied by a harp. Having long been subordinate to English culture, Welsh musicians in the late 20th century had to reconstruct traditional music when a roots revival began. This revival began in the late 1970s and achieved some mainstream success in the UK in the 80s with performers like Robin Huw Bowen, Moniars and Gwerinos.
Classical music
Classical music of the United Kingdom is taken in this article to mean classical music in the sense elsewhere defined, of formally composed and written music of chamber, concert and church type as distinct from popular, traditional, or folk music from the eighteenth century onwards, specifically from the creation of Great Britain by the Acts of Union in 1707 Classical music has been written and performed in what is now the United Kingdom for centuries. Key composers include Gustav Hoist, Edward Elgar and Benjamin Britten.
Early British popular music
Beginning in the 16th century, printed broadside ballads were the first genre of British popular music. These were lyrics transcribed and eventually printed (after the invention of the printing press) and meant to be sung to some well-known tune. They were popular until the early 20th century, when a combination of newspapers and recording technology made them obsolete.
After the industrial revolution, bars that provided musical entertainment arose, fuelling demand for popular songs and professional songwriters. These bars were called music halls. Music hall songs are characterized by a simple beat and a strong melody or tune which can be easily acquired by the audience. Leading music hall stars included: Marie Lloyd, Harry Champion, George Formby, Vesta Tilley, Gus Elen, Little Tich , Gracie Fields, Flanagan and Allen. Musical hall composers included Lionel Monckton, Felix Powell, Noel Gay, Fred W. Leigh. Music hall singers shared the stage with other kinds of performers - acrobats, animal imitators etc.
From about 1925 to 1946 the most popular form of music in the UK was Dance Bands. The British Bands never quite adopted the kind of "Swing" music that was generally associated American "Big Band" jazz. It was quite tame compared to American jazz and was generally more sweet. Billy Cotton had perhaps the longest fame, as he still had a prime-time TV programe until the late 60s. The fame of Ted Heath (bandleader) lasted until 1964. Fans tended to divide them into "Sweet" (Ambrose (bandleader), Geraldo and Victor Silvester) and "Hot" (Harry Roy, Nat Gonella). Jack Hylton's band was "hot" until 1933, then became sweeter as their success grew.
Some of the lead singers enjoyed fame on their own. Most famous was Al Bo wily and Leslie "Hutch" Hutchinson.
Stage and film musicals continue to be influenced by music hall.
British popular music
The 1950s saw most of the world that had access to records listening to American artists. In the early years the ballads and novelty numbers from the main US recording companies dominated and Britain was reduced to copying - at times note for note and phrase for phrase - the American original. If there is any doubt of this practice, the listener should refer to the US Coral arrangement by Dick Jacobs for Teresa Brewer of 'Ricochet' and then listen to the UK version from Joan Regan. As new companies started to influence the US market - Cadence, Dot, Sun, Abbott and others - music began to change and with the emergence of heavy off-beat music - to be named rock and roll - together with the country music | country-rock hybrid rockabilly, exemplified by superstars like Elvis Presley and Bill Haley the mid and late 50's saw the 'real' music struggle. Presley, Haley and Pat Boone replaced Guy Mitchell, Frankie Laine, Kay Starr and Doris Day in the charts and new young singers were exploited to the full to become overnight sensations (Fabian, Avalon - ref Stan Freberg's 'Old Payola Roll Blues'). Though most countries soon developed their own rock traditions, it was the United Kingdom that evolved its own distinctive scene, making American traditions into distinctively British ones such as skiffle and trad jazz, and eventually adding influences from English, Scottish and Irish folk music. By the middle of the 1960s, British artists had grown so adept at British-style rock, R&B and blues that the British Invasion occurred, led by the Beatles, the Who, the Rolling Stones and the Kinks, among others. Artists began to popularize more authentic forms of American roots music in the States than had previously found mainstream success there, while highly-evolved forms of rock like heavy metal and progressive rock were developing into full-fledged genres of British popular music. British music in the 60s also saw a roots revival of folk music, beginning with England and Northern Ireland before spreading to Scotland, Wales and, eventually, even smaller cultural regions like Cornwall, the Isle of Man and Northumbria.
In the 1970s, the United Kingdom saw intense diversification in both popular and folk music. Some of the many great bands were T. Rex, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Queen. Heavy metal evolved from pioneers like T. Rex, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath into the hard-edged, complex music of bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Progressive rock grew extremely popular, with ever-increasingly "progressive" elements added in the form of obtuse lyrics, classical-tinged music and long-playing suites in multiple parts. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Queen, Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant and Genesis are notable examples of this movement. The reaction against progressive rock was swift, as the genre came to be perceived as needlessly obscure and inaccessible; a new generation of British youth hated progressive rock and the bombastic, indulgent sounds of heavy metal, disco and glam. They were called punks, and their music was loud, angry, rebellious punk rock. Punk became well-known after the coming of the Sex Pistols and their anarchistic, incendiary lyrics which attacked the pillars of British society, such as the monarchy. In its purest form, however, it was short-lived; the energy could not be sustained, especially after anti-pop bands like the Clash found mainstream success and became unwilling pop stars. Despite the great decrease in size and popularity, there is still a small punk scene in the UK, and the genre has had a big impact across the musical spectrum. Punk also spawned many subgenres, such as 2 tone, psychobilly, and goth. The 1970s saw tremendous changes in folk music as well, which saw the development of folk rock fusions and powerful singer-songwriter traditions and the evolution of popular forms of folk-based music from the United Kingdom's Jamaican and Indian immigrant communities.
In the 1980s, the spirit of punk rock fuelled a gaggle of new genres that took stylistic elements of punk and added new approaches and influences. The first of these developments was New Wave music, which featured atmospheric accompaniment to dreamy, otherworldly vocals. New Wave was very popular in the early 1980s, while other, less mainstream outgrowths of punk developed underground. These included an ever-increasing number of alternative rock subgenres, including Siouxsie and the Banshees, Vardis, The Cure and Joy Division's Gothic rock and psychedelic-influenced bands like The Smiths and The Jesus and Mary Chain. The latter was the primary impetus behind the growth of new genres late in the decade, including Madchester and shoegazing, both of which incorporated more pop structures into alternative rock and led to the next decade's Britpop explosion. The 1980s also saw tremendous diversification and modernisation of the sounds of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, especially bhangra, which fused traditional Punjabi music with the burgeoning house music scene. House and allied genres like techno music evolved out of a complex electronic music scene in 1970s United States, but began to grow popular as part of club culture in 80s Britain, where it spawned numerous subgenres like drum n bass.
Two genres that remained mostly underground throughout the 80s burst into the mainstream around the middle of the decade. Britpop was a fusion of all the alternative rock stylings of the previous two decades, with a special focus on neo-psychedelia and it began to dominate the charts. In late 80s/early 90s, American acid-house and Detroit techno music made it to the UK. In the early 21st century, the British pop scene revealed a number of pop groups to have combined both the stylings of Britpop along with synthetic qualities of British experimental electronic music (Depeche Mode). The 2000s also saw the emergence of grime, a unique type of garage/hiphop also influenced by drum and bass and other genres, from the garage scene in urban areas of London. "Indie rock" has become very popular in recent years, but there is no overall dominant genre of music, with young people listening to a wide range of styles. Underground artists and scenes have achieved much greater success with the internet recently.