1960s Music Analysis

UK rock 1960s: The Beatles from Merseybeat onwards.
The essay will describe the key musical and stylistic features of the Rock genre during the 1960s with the ‘Merseybeat’ genre as the foundation of 60s rock. The essay will set out why the Beatles and the social phenomenon of the “British invasion” are crucial to development of the emergence and reception of Anglo-American Rock music during the 1960s.
By the early 1960s, new upcoming artists started combing various British and American pop and rock styles in places such as Liverpool. Liverpool in particular had a youth movement that created and popularised a genre called 'Merseybeat' by 1962.
The Beat genre, featured
The Beatles first single “Love Me Do” released on 5th October 1962 became the first single and managed to hit the UK charts. The song peaked at No. 17 and arguable allowed a number of Liverpool performers able to follow them into the charts, including Gerry & The Pacemakers and The Searchers. Love me Do is in the musical key of G major with a Mixolydian modal inflection. The song has a common time signature in AABA form with partial reprise. The arrangement of the composition featured vocals, harmonica, acoustic rhythm guitar, tambourine, and drums. The use of a Harmonic as a lead instrument played by John Lennon is a prominent feature of the composition that creates melody against the open chords played on the acoustic guitar by George Harrison. John Lennon oddly plays the F natural as the first note of the opening motif on the harmonica, which adds an Mixolydian modal inflection. George Harrison plays the chords G major and C major before moving the chords to D major, C major and G major for the middle eight. The motifs and instrumental solo of the Harmonica played by John Lennon has a bluesy feel along with the Shuffle drum beat complimented with the Tambourine. The song was completely co-written by Paul McCartney and
‘Beatlemania’ encouraged other British rock artists such as the Hollies, the Animals, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Zombies and the Who to begin to touring outside the UK and creating tours across the US. This phenomenon was known as The British Invasion. The concept of British artists touring the US was once never heard. This generation of British rock bands were youth from different parts of the UK that grew up listening to American rock and roll, Blues and Jazz that brought their own interpretation of these genres to the American youth