A glimpse of British music

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The relation of England to the higher art of music has been peculiar. In the sixteenth century and earlier it was one of the most musical countries in Europe. The music of the United Kingdom refers to all forms of music associated with the United Kingdom since its creation. Since its earliest days, English music has been particularly diverse and culturally relevant. It was made up of religious music, folk music, classical music and many other styles. There were styles designed for the wealthy and elite and others for the working class and the poor. English music was particularly influenced by European movements. However, there are also many trends and styles that originated from within the country itself. Notable examples are the Celtic chants and the medieval carols.

The music in England has its historical framework. It divides into early music, baroque, classical, folk and modern music. I start with early British popular music. It can be seen to originate in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the arrival of the broadside ballad as a result of the print revolution, which were sold cheaply and in great numbers until the nineteenth century. Further technological, economic and social changes led to new forms of music in the nineteenth century, including the brass band, which produced a popular and communal form of classical music. Similarly, the Music hall sprang up to cater for the entertainment of new urban societies, adapting existing forms of music to produce popular songs and acts. In the 1930s, the influence of American Jazz led to the creation of British dance bands, which provided a social and popular music that began to dominate social occasions and the radio airwaves.

Classical music. Musical composition, performance and training in the United Kingdom inherited the European classical traditions of the eighteenth century (above all, in Britain, from the example of Handel) and saw a great expansion during the nineteenth century. Romantic nationalism encouraged clear national identities and sensibilities within the countries of the United Kingdom towards the end of the nineteenth century, producing many composers and musicians of note and drawing on the folk tradition. These traditions, including the cultural strands drawn from the United Kingdom's constituent nations and provinces, have continued to evolve in distinctive ways through the work of such composers as Arthur Sullivan, Gustav Holst, Edward Elgar, Hubert Parry, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten.

Folk music. Each of the four countries of the United Kingdom has its own diverse and distinctive folk music forms. The folk music was performed in the clubs and gatherings during the fifties, it was most often a revivalist interpretation of indigenous traditional English folk music that was still to be found surviving within the villages of rural England, as well as the industrial working class areas of the country, including fishing and mining communities. In addition, there are numerous distinct and semi-distinct folk traditions brought by immigrants from Jamaica, India, the Commonwealth and other parts of the world. Folk music flourished until the era of industrialization when it began to be replaced by new forms of popular music, including music hall and brass bands. Realization of this led to two folk revivals, one in the late-19th century and the other in the mid-20th century, which kept folk music as an important sub-culture within society. 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 North Umbria and Cornwall. Ireland, including Northern Ireland, has vibrant folk traditions. The popularity of traditional instruments such as fiddles has remained throughout the centuries even as analogues in Great Britain died out. Perhaps the most famous modern musician from Northern Ireland influenced by 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 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 Whistle binkies, The Boys of the Lough and the Incredible String Band. 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.

Throughout its history, the United Kingdom has been a major exporter and source of musical innovation in the modern and contemporary eras, drawing its cultural basis from the history of the United Kingdom, from church music, from Western culture and from the ancient and traditional folk music and instrumentation of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. In the 20th century, influences from the music of the United States became most dominant in popular music. This led to the explosion of the British Invasion, while subsequent notable movements in British music include the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and Britpop. musical classical folk revivalist

The United Kingdom has one of the world's largest music industries today, with many British musicians having had an impact on modern music. Forms of popular music, including folk music, jazz, rapping or hip hop, pop and rock music, have particularly flourished in Britain since the twentieth century. Britain has had an impact on popular music disproportionate to its size, due to its linguistic and cultural links with many countries, particularly the United States and many of its former colonies like Australia, South Africa, and Canada, and its capacity for invention, innovation and fusion, which has led to the development of, or participation in, many of the major trends in popular music. In the early-20th century, influences from the United States became most dominant in popular music, with young performers producing their own versions of American music, including rock n' roll from the late 1950s and developing a parallel music scene. 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. Since then, rock music and popular music contributed to a British-American collaboration, with trans-Atlantic genres being exchanged and exported to one another, where they tended to be adapted and turned into new movements, only to be exported back again. Genres originating in or radically developed by British musicians include blues rock, heavy metal, progressive rock, hard rock, punk rock, electric folk, folk punk, acid jazz, trip hop, shoe gaze, drum and bass, grime, Britpop and dubstep.

England has produced some of the world's best music throughout history. In fact, as a country, England has spearheaded some of the world's most significant musical movements and trends.

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