British popular music

Not to be confused with British pop music, an article about the pop music genre of popular music.

Spice Girls the best-selling female group of all time, one of the best-selling pop groups of all time,[1][2] and the biggest British pop phenomenon since Beatlemania.[3][4][5] Among the highest profile acts in 1990s British popular culture, Time called them "arguably the most recognisable face" of Cool Britannia, the mid-1990s celebration of youth culture in the UK.[6]
Pink Floyd were an English rock band formed in London. They achieved international acclaim with their progressive and psychedelic music. Distinguished by their use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, extended compositions, and elaborate live shows, they are one of the most commercially successful and influential groups of popular music history.

British popular music and popular music in general, can be defined in a number of ways, but is used here to describe music which is not part of the art/classical music or Church music traditions, including folk music, jazz, pop and rock music.[7] These forms of music have particularly flourished in Britain, which, it has been argued, has influenced popular music disproportionately to its size, partly due to its linguistic and cultural links with many countries, particularly the former areas of British control such as United States, Canada, and Australia, but also a capacity for invention, innovation and fusion, which has led to the development of, or participation in, many of the major trends in popular music.[8] This is particularly true since the early 1960s when the British Invasion led by The Beatles, helped to secure British performers a major place in development of pop and rock music, which has been revisited at various times, with genres originating in or being radically developed by British musicians, including: blues rock, heavy metal music, progressive rock, punk rock, British folk rock, folk punk, acid jazz, drum and bass, grime, afroswing, dubstep and Britpop.

  1. ^ Jones, Alice (5 December 2012). "Will Spice Girls inspired musical Viva Forever! spice up my life again?". The Independent. London. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  2. ^ Thomas, Rebecca (25 April 2012). "TLC's Left Eye Remembered: 10 Years Later". MTV News. Archived from the original on 27 April 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  3. ^ "New Spice Girls documentary on BBC One". BBC. 19 October 2007. Retrieved 25 August 2008.
  4. ^ "1998: Ginger leaves the Spice Girls". BBC. 31 May 1998. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  5. ^ Dawson, Ryan. "Beatlemania and Girl Power: An Anatomy of Fame". Bigger Than Jesus: Essays on Popular Music. University of Cambridge. Archived from original on 28 April 2005. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  6. ^ Waxman, Olivia B. (8 July 2016). "An Important Lesson in British History From the Spice Girls". Time. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  7. ^ R. Shuker, Understanding popular music (London: Routledge, 2nd edn., 2001), pp. 8-10.
  8. ^ P. Childs, M. Storry, Encyclopedia of contemporary British culture (London: Taylor & Francis, 1999), p. 412.