British rock: list of bands, popular singers, hits and rock legends

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

British rock has long ceased to be just music, having managed to become a legendary and somewhat household name on the music scene in a fairly short period of time.

The very fact that the group was created in Foggy Albion already speaks for itself, providing the team with a special reputation.

From the late 60s to the late 80s, the UK was the forge of world rock music, giving rise to more and more unique rock bands that still have no analogues in the world.

Britain and rock and roll

Britain may not be credited with pioneering rock as a genre, but the best of British rock has been created for generations in this northern country. It is rightfully considered the reference music of this style. British rock is incredibly diverse both in terms of musical component and philosophical and cultural concepts. Surprisingly, it has come a long way in its development in just two decades. Starting from light blues and lyrical ballads, UK rock music has evolved into a unique multi-genre system that continues to evolve to this day.

The birth of style

It is known that the forerunner of the emergence of rock music in the UK was the appearance in this country of records of blues music brought from the USA, where the "rock and roll boom" began with might and main. Britain, as a conservative country, first studied the new phenomenon, but English musicians did not want to copy the novelty exactly, as musicians in many other countries did. Through experiments, impromptu and work with music theory, their own rock bands with a unique sound began to appear in Britain, and each of the teams considered it their duty to bring something new, unusual, hitherto not used by colleagues in the genre, to their sound, thereby ensuring a special concept for your creativity.

Legendary bands

Britain has long been the maker of the finest rock in the history of music. After the first wave of rock 'n' roll, which originated in the US, England takes over the palm and gives rise to the second and third wave of rock music, thanks to which the genre itself becomes incredibly popular.

The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Sex Pistols and many other legendary bands were formed in the UK. Whatever rock band you name, there is an 80% chance that it originated in England, Scotland or Ireland.

A lot of solo rock music artists also came out of Foggy Albion, and some of them either left or re-formed various teams that became super popular.

TheBeatles

The Beatles, ever since their founding in 1960 in Liverpool, have never been "just a group" or "one of a group". The famous four not only influenced the development of rock music and music in general, they influenced the development of recording technologies and methods, as well as the development of the audio equipment industry. The constant striving for perfection while maintaining the chosen style is one of the foundations of the existence of the group.

All of the band's albums have been recognized as cult albums and are still being reissued to this day, as are rarities, rehearsal tapes and trial sessions.

The Beatles have long ceased to be a musical group, having become a global cultural heritage, a unique multi-genre phenomenon and the national pride of Great Britain, which showed the whole world that British rock is the benchmark in the musical field.

Three whales of rock

Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath are the legends of British rock. Any music lover who understands music calls these three bands "the three whales of rock."

It was these bands, like no other, that influenced the formation of rock music as a genre, and also contributed to its spread around the globe, at the same time giving rise to several musical trends created on the basis of the synthesis of rock music with blues music, symphonic music as well as heavy metal music.

Deep Purple originated in Hartford in February 1968 and immediately headed for a melodicsymphonic rock, releasing three long-playing records in this genre. In the early 1970s, the band changed style drastically, recording several rock classics one after the other: In Rock, Machine Head, Fireball - these albums sold millions of copies, received numerous awards and became cult ones just a few years after their release.

Deep Purple is a textbook example of classic English rock music, which cannot be said about Black Sabbath, which appeared 2 years later and immediately headed towards a heavier and slower blues sound. The albums Black Sabbath, Vol.4 and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath instantly gained popularity among the radical youth, becoming a platform for the development of such genres as heavy metal and hard and heavy, influencing the development of doom metal along the way.

Led Zeppelin, which appeared in 1968, stand apart in this list, because throughout the entire period of the band's existence they did not change the style of the music they performed, creating melodic and heavy blues-rock. The Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin III albums have been hailed as classic examples of heavy British blues.

Pink Floyd

It's hard to name a band that would have influenced the development of experimental music more than Pink Floyd. The legendary rock opera The Wall and the cult album The Dark Side Of the Moon are not just music, they are the voices of a generation immortalized on tape. These albums have withstood more than one reissue, survived more than one era and are still among the mostin-demand rock albums.

It was Pink Floyd who introduced the hitherto unused concept of "conceptual work" into music, and also gave impetus to the development of social motives in the lyrics of rock musicians.

Solo artists

UK rock artists are in no way inferior in popularity to the so-called team rock. British rock musician Sir Elton John, who was awarded an honorary knighthood, has sold about 60 million records worldwide during his career.

No less successful is Rick Wakeman, who has repeatedly been recognized as the best keyboard player in the world, who in the mid-seventies staged a technical revolution in the world of keyboard music and significantly influenced the development of electronic music.

Legendary percussionist, conductor and artist Alan Parsons was not only one of the first in the history of music to come up with the concept of rock opera, but also the first in the world to implement it, recording the album I Robot in 1977, which became the first synthesis of rock music and electronic parties.

UK solo rock music has also been made famous by 'lyrical rock' artists such as Rod Stewart, whose ballads have gained worldwide popularity and become classics of romantic song.

Musical legacy

It is difficult to adequately assess the rich legacy that British rock bands have left for future generations. They are still being listened to today.

British rock has managed to become a special phenomenon in world music, a standard and an example to follow for hundreds of musical groups around the world.the globe.

Many, even now super-popular bands from various countries, admit in their interviews that in the early stages of the formation of bands as creative units, it was British hard rock that had an invaluable influence on them.

Many bands play melodies of various British rock bands for a long time before starting their creative activity, adopting the experience of past generations and learning to correctly build a musical line and give the composition a special atmosphere.

Selected UK Rock Bands

British rock bands listed below are considered legendary bands, listening to songs of which is not just a leisure activity, but also an incredible experience:

• Deep Purple;
• Black Sabbath;
• Led Zeppelin;
• Queen;
• Dire Straits;
• Sex Pistols;
• Pink Floyd;
• Nazareth;
• Rainbow;
• Elf;
• The Beatles;
• Procol Harum;
• Led Zeppelin;
• Jethro Tall;
• Depeche Mode;
• Sky.