Why Britain Rocked

The story goes that under the influence of blues and rock and roll, Britain suddenly started making spectacularly great music in the 1960s like someclever, quick learning cultural satellite of America. But Britains mid twentieth-century pop music explosion didnt happen from a standing start. The reasons something so dazzling and multifaceted appeared lie deeper than those legendary deliveries of blues records to Liverpools port and the legacy of music halls. Featuring new discoveries and original insights, Why Britain Rocked: How Rock became Roll and Took over the World argues the Beatles arrival, which stunned the world, really shouldnt have been surprising at all. From theCelts, Henry VIII, and the Quakers to Ira Aldridge and Paul Robeson,Why Britain Rocked uncovers the unique events and unexpected influences thatencouraged British popto be glorious, crazy, luminous, joyous, profound, melancholic, ferocious, anarchic, witty, smart and wonderful in all its ways.