The British Invasion
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The British Invasion was a movement during the mid-1960s in which several bands in the UK were creating a sensation in the United States. The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Animals, and The Beatles were some of the most notable bands that defined this movement.
The Beatles quickly made a cultural impact with their lyrics and their tendency to experiment with different musical sounds. Even though they were thought to be “just a fad” following their Ed Sullivan Show appearance in 1964 , they are still constantly ranked as the #1 band on list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time poll done by Rolling Stone magazine.
Beatles also created a great deal of controversy while their popularity flourished.
John Lennon, one of the band’s leaders, made a statement at the height of their popularity, saying that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus. This set off a hailstorm of album burnings and boycotts of their albums, but their success did not suffer.
Elvis Presley even met with President Nixon and asked him to ban The Beatles from entering the United States because they had lifestyles that encouraged drug use and they were anti-war. To many people of this era, anti-war meant being anti-American. In the eyes of Elvis, The Beatles were no different. He also felt that they were a bad influence on the young people in the United States and their influence should be limited by inhibitinh them from performing in the country.
Bob Dylan was another influential artist during the 1960's . His success still continues and he has been cherished as a poet, musician, songwriter, activist, and a folk artist. He unofficially became the spokesperson for the counter-culture movement of the 1960s and many young people looked to him for their ideas concerning the social issues. He wrote and sung songs that became anti-war anthems as well as songs that promoted the celebration of civil rights. He did not wait to include lyrics in his songs that included obvious political and social commentary regarding the policies and procedures of the day that he disagreed with.
Article by Kayla Mueller