The British Invasion of the Music (Was it real?)

 

When we talk about British Invasion you could remember the time when United Kingdom invaded Africa, enslaved black people, used pirates or those called “corsairs” to steal some goods from spaniards, or even when they invaded India in the XVI century. The thing is there was another British Invasion, one which was very unusual.

Among those invasions I already mentioned which led to slavery and fed the bellies of British monarchs over the years, there was one which wasn´t an invasion. Actually, it was a fake invasion. How ironic! Isn´t it? Many real British invasions and suddenly, in the XX century another one which was unreal.

The invasion I’m talking about is that one which U.S media created when British music bands became famous in the United States, after the Beatles achieved a #1 song in U.S charts.

You should be aware that U.S has this thing "the use of euphemisms" to validate or to hide its own crap, and obviously it's not the only country which does that. The thing is, Americans do it more than others. For example when they send troops to fight guerrillas which want to establish a government system for the people, which americans call "comunism or anticapitalist" but they use these words "it's for the liberty of all people, god bless America". And in music, it's the same. Nothing can attempt to overshadow this so called american pride.

U.S media suddenly said “what’s happening? We have Elvis, we have Chuck Berry, we have Jerry Lee Lewis, we have Little Richard, but why those bands across the Atlantic are taking over our country?, then we need to label them just to make British musicians less than they are, let’s call it an invasion, it can´t be something natural” and… Can it be indeed? Of course not and I will tell you the reasons.

History Facts

Let’s talk about the history of how Rock N’ Roll or Rock was created. Before this music genre appeared there were many black musicians (men and women) in the United States who used to play Jazz and Blues in many clubs, many of them near the Mississipi river.

These black people really struggled to survive because they only had two options: being a servant, harvesting cotton, serving food at a manor owned by a white rich man, or escape and became a musician.

Many black people decided that being a servant or a “modern slave” wasn´t for them, so they picked up musical instruments and tried to live differently. They created what later would became the pilars of Rock, and these were Blues and Jazz.

Black musicians like Robert Johnson, Sister Rossetta Tharpe, Bessie Smith, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, worked as performers in many clubs, earning a few dollars but knowing that even they weren’t going to become famous and rich, they wouldn´t be slaves anymore.

And why these people wouldn´t become famous and rich even they were so talented in Blues and Jazz? The answer is “racism”. Even slavery was abolished or was intended to be abolished by Abraham Lincoln, racism was still present in the United States in the middle of the XX century. The proof is that at this time, there were still places only for black people, and better places for white ones.

As you can see, black musicians, who spend the time playing Blues and Jazz in dirty clubs or playing for amusing white people, wouldn´t have the chances that Elvis or the others had later. And at this point you may wonder what do British bands have to do with the old Blues and Jazz musicians? A lot indeed, it’s just because British musicianas were fans of these black american and rejected people and they as big fans of the black musician people, decided to buy and consume the music of them.

If you don´t believe me I can tell you that Eric Clapton was inspired by Robert Johnson and the Rolling Stones by Muddy Waters. Also The Doors were inspired by Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, and you name it. There were such incredible Blues and Jazz artists before the Rock N’ Roll era, and they were ignored in their own country just because they were black.

And why did British consider Blues and Jazz music made by black people in the U.S so great? It’s just that it was such an incredible music, and Americans didn´t realize about it because they were busy making distinctions between white and black skin.

In the late fifties many British bands inspired by black American black people created a new music style by combining American Blues and Jazz into a mix that was also inspired by the early songs of Elvis, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis among others. This was a sort of new Rock N’ Roll that took the high numbers in the music charts, both in the UK and then in the US.

Meanwhile, in America Chuck Berrry was a hell of a performer, Little Richard too and Elvis became a sex symbol, but why then when The Beatles had a #1 in the US charts, media decided to call this a British Invasion?

It’s easy to answer, they didn´t have the guts and they didn´t want to admit that they were so stupid. They didn´t care about their own musicians just because they were black. And suddenly British bands took over United States and Elvis, Chuck, Little Richard were fading little by little, even though British bands were enormous fans of these american artists.

Why shame was heavier than music?

Media was ashamed of this situation, they had to accept The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Cream were better than american Rock N’ Roll artists but they had to avoid the topic about black Jazz and Blues musicians who inspired British bands. Racism was still alive, so they invented this stupid term “British Invasion” and that’s how they were able to say “yeah, you British are good but it’s just a temporary thing, this will end soon, Elvis will live longer”.

The thing is this so called “British Invasion” continued and it’s still in progress. Along the Beatles, we can name The Kinks, The Who, The Animals, Roy Orbison, Marianne Faithfull, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Queen, Iron Maiden, Radiohead, and let me tell you, the list is endless.

Skin Colour matters

This is not a matter of who is better, this a matter of accepting that Americans made a terrible mistake that could make their own Blues and Jazz  artists such a worldwide phenomenon. And the reason was “Racism” this stupid thing that is still present and can´t be eliminated.

As you can see in this term “British Invasion” there is a lot of hypocrisy and many euphemistic words are used in the U.S media, just to hide shame of what they did because they were and they are still idiots.

As a conclusion I can say that I like old Blues and Jazz, but I don´t like this new style of Rythm and Blues that suckers like Mtv executives and fans prefer. You can listen to what you want, but remember that music is not only chords or sounds, it is also history, sometimes it can be disturbing, sometimes it may be a sort of an epic.

Written by: Bruno Armando de la Cruz Chuzeville

Decidí escribir este totalmente en Inglés como parte de un reto personal pero viendo que le cale a algún chauvinista extranjero de origen anglo o norteamericano. Y desde luego para demostrarle al mundo que cuando me dicen que no sirvo para las letras o para enseñar a escribir, bueno, a la hora que quieran pueden decirme porque no, utilizando todo lo que hay en esta y otras redes mías.

This is my last entry, bye everyone.