True innovators of the punk era, Coventry's finest the Specials began the British ska revival craze, combining the highly danceable Ska and rocksteady beat with punk's energy and attitude, and taking on a more focused and informed political and social stance than their predecessors and peers.
Their anthem Ghost Town topped the charts in 1981 at the time of mass civil unrest on the streets of the UK.
The cliché about David Bowie says he's a musical chameleon, adapting himself according to fashion and trends. While such a criticism is too glib, there's no denying that Bowie demonstrated remarkable skill for perceiving musical trends at his peak in the '70s. After spending several years in the late '60s as a mod and as an all-around music-hall entertainer, Bowie reinvented himself as a hippie singer/songwriter. Prior to his breakthrough in 1972, he recorded a proto-metal record and a pop/rock album, eventually redefining glam rock with his ambiguously sexy Ziggy Stardust persona.
Formed in the wake of the punk explosion in England, Joy Division became the first band in the post-punk movement by later emphasizing not anger and energy but mood and expression, pointing ahead to the rise of melancholy alternative music in the '80s. Though the group's raw initial sides fit the bill for any punk band, Joy Division later incorporated synthesizers (taboo in the low-tech world of '70s punk) and more haunting melodies, emphasized by the isolated, tortured lyrics of its lead vocalist, Ian Curtis.
The acerbic post-punk outfit Half Man Half Biscuit was formed in Birkenhead, England in 1984 by singer/guitarist Nigel Blackwell, his guitarist brother Si, bassist
Neil Crossley and drummer Paul Wright. While still languishing in relative obscurity, in 1985 they entered the studio to record their debut LP, Back in the D.H.S.S.; upon its release, the album became a favorite of DJ John Peel, and seemingly overnight Half Man Half Biscuit became stars of the British independent music scene.
To this day, Half Man Half Biscuit are still going strong.
The Smiths were the definitive British indie rock band of the '80s, marking the end of synth-driven new wave and the beginning of the guitar rock that dominated English rock into the '90s.
Sonically, the group was indebted to the British Invasion, crafting ringing, melodic three-minute pop singles, even for their album tracks. But their scope was far broader than that of a revivalist band.
The Sex Pistols may have been the first British punk rock band, but the Clash were the definitive British punk rockers. Where the Pistols were nihilistic, the Clash were fiery and idealistic, charged with righteousness and a leftist political ideology. From the outset, the band was more musically adventurous, expanding its hard rock & roll with reggae, dub, and rockabilly among other roots musics. Furthermore, they were blessed with two exceptional songwriters in Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, each with a distinctive voice and style.
Along with the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays were the leaders of the late-'80s/early-'90s dance club-influenced Manchester scene, experiencing a brief moment in the spotlight before collapsing in 1992.
While the Stone Roses were based in '60s pop, adding only a slight hint of dance music, Happy Mondays immersed themselves in the club and rave culture, eventually becoming the most recognizable band of that drug-fueled scene. The Mondays' music relied heavily on the sound and rhythm of house music, spiked with '70s soul licks and swirling '60s psychedelia.
Meshing '60s-styled guitar pop with an understated '80s dance beat, the Stone Roses defined the British guitar pop scene of the late '80s and early '90s. After their eponymous 1989 debut album became an English sensation, countless other groups in the same vein became popular, including the Charlatans UK, Inspiral Carpets, and Happy Mondays. However, the band was never able to capitalize on the promise of their first album, waiting five years before they released their second record and slowly disintegrating in the year and half after its release.
Along with the Specials, Madness were one of the leading bands of the ska revival of the late '70s and early '80s. As their career progressed, Madness branched away from their trademark "nutty sound" and incorporated large elements of Motown, soul, and British pop. Although the band managed one crossover American hit in 1983, the band remained a British phenomenon, influencing several successive generations of musicians and becoming one of the most beloved groups the country produced during the '80s.
The Jam were the most popular band to emerge from the initial wave of British punk rock in 1977 along with the Sex Pistols, and the Clash, the Jam had the most impact on pop music. While they could barely get noticed in America, the trio became genuine superstars in Britain, with an impressive string of Top Ten singles in the late '70s and early '80s. The Jam could never have a hit in America because they were thoroughly and defiantly British. Under the direction of Paul Weller, the trio spearheaded a revival of mid-'60s mod groups, in the style of the Who and the Small Faces. Like the mod bands, the group dressed stylishly, worshipped American R&B, and played it loud and rough.
By the early 1970s, rock & roll had been around long enough to begin to examine its own past In Great Britain, where the popular culture of the young was more complex and coded, the Who's QUADROPHENIA was the most powerful example of this nostalgic view. Reviews at the time focused primarily on the obscure psychological aspect of the story--supposedly, the four sides of the original double-album set are meant to examine the four sides of the main character's personality, each one represented by a different member of the Who. However, the most interesting aspect of QUADROPHENIA is its seamy but poetic depiction of London's early-'60s Mod subculture, from which The Who originally sprang.
One of the stranger overnight success stories in pop history, the chameleon-like Farm was formed in Liverpool, England in 1983 by singer Peter Hooton, a onetime youth worker searching for a musical outlet to voice his political concerns. Rounded out by guitarist Stevie Grimes, bassist Phil Strongman and drummer Andy McVann, the first incarnation of the Farm recalled both the leftist identity and horn-powered sound of the Redskins, dubbed "the Soul of Socialism," the group promoted its music not only through live appearances but also via The End, a soccer fanzine published by Hooton.
By the time the Rolling Stones began calling themselves the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the late '60s, they had already staked out an impressive claim on the title.
As the self-consciously dangerous alternative to the bouncy Merseybeat of the Beatles in the British Invasion, the Stones had pioneered the gritty, hard-driving blues-based rock & roll that came to define hard rock. they began experimenting musically, incorporating the British pop of contemporaries like the Beatles, Kinks, and Who into their sound. After a brief dalliance with psychedelia, the Stones re-emerged in the late '60s as a jaded, blues-soaked hard rock quintet. The Stones always flirted with the seedy side of rock & roll, but as the hippie dream began to break apart, they exposed and reveled in the new rock culture. Exile on Main Street is often lauded as their masterpiece.
Few rock groups can claim to have broken so much new territory, and maintain such consistent brilliance on record, as the Velvet Underground during their brief lifespan. It was the group's lot to be ahead of, or at least out of step with, their time. The mid- to late '60s was an era of explosive growth and experimentation in rock, but the Velvets' innovations -- which blended the energy of rock with the sonic adventurism of the avant-garde, and introduced a new degree of social realism and sexual kinkiness into rock lyrics -- were too abrasive for the mainstream to handle.During their time, the group experienced little commercial success; though they were hugely appreciated by a cult audience and some critics.
At the start of their career, Talking Heads were all nervous energy, detached emotion, and subdued minimalism. When they released their last album about 12 years later, the band had recorded everything from art-funk to polyrhythmic worldbeat explorations and simple, melodic guitar pop. Between their first album in 1977 and their last in 1988, Talking Heads became one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the '80s, while managing to earn several pop hits. While some of their music can seem too self-consciously experimental, clever, and intellectual for its own good, at their best Talking Heads represent everything good about art-school punks.
Pink Floyd is the premier space rock band. Since the mid-'60s, their music relentlessly tinkered with electronics and all manner of special effects to push pop formats to their outer limits. At the same time they wrestled with lyrical themes and concepts of such massive scale that their music has taken on almost classical, operatic quality, in both sound and words. Despite their astral image, the group was brought down to earth in the 1980s by decidedly mundane power struggles over leadership and, ultimately, ownership of the band's very name. After that time, they were little more than a dinosaur act, capable of filling stadiums and topping the charts, but offering little more than a spectacular recreation of their most successful formulas.
Shack are a Liverpool band who, due to one problem or another never achieved the success they deserved. Before founding Shack, Michael and John Head were in cult 1980s band The Pale Fountains, and released two albums, Pacific Street in March 1984 and ...From Across The Kitchen Table in March 1985. However, though critically acclaimed, the albums only reached Numbers 84 and 95 in the UK album charts and so the band failed to recoup the £150,000 that the band had signed to Virgin Records for.
Shack's first album Zilch was released in 1988, but was neither critically nor commercially successful. The follow-up, Waterpistol, was recorded in 1991 at London's Star Street Studio. Shortly after the recording of Waterpistol was complete, the studio burnt down and most of the tapes were destroyed.
The Pale Fountains were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1980, Inspired by 1960s music such as Love, Burt Bacharach and The Beatles they failed to make any commercial headway, despite garnering much critical praise for the two albums they released on Virgin, 1984's Pacific Street and 1985's ...From Across the Kitchen Table, produced by Ian Broudie, who later found fame with his band The Lightning Seeds. Their sole UK Singles Chart Top 50 single was the lavish "Thank You", whichreached #48 in 1982. They split up shortly after, with Mick Head forming Shack and Andy Diagram joining James. Bassist Chris McCaffery died in 1986 of a brain tumour. In November 2007, Mick Head announced that he was reforming The Pale Fountains for two gigs to take place in February of 2008.
The The are an English musical and multimedia group that have been active in various forms since 1979, with singer/songwriter/frontman Matt Johnson being the only constant band member. Releases are fairly few and far between for the band, but over the years The The have sold several million albums internationally and achieved critical acclaim — their 1983 album Soul Mining was voted the third best album of the year by British music magazine Melody Maker. This album featured the song "Uncertain Smile", which at one point was voted the third greatest song ever by Australian Triple J radio listeners.Recently, The The have enjoyed a small surge of attention in the United States thanks to an M&M's advertising campaign!
New Order are an English rock group formed in 1980, The band was formed in the wake of the demise of their previous band, Joy Division, following the suicide of singer Ian Curtis.
New Order melded post-punk and electronic dance, and became one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the 1980s. Though the band were shadowed by the legacy of Joy Division in their first years, their immersion in the New York City club scene of the early 1980s introduced them to dance music. The band's 1983 hit "Blue Monday" saw them fully embrace dance music and synthesized instruments, and is the best-selling 12-inch single of all time. New Order were the flagship band for Factory Records, and their minimalist album sleeves and non-image reflected the label's aesthetic of doing whatever they wanted to do.
The The Who are an English rock band that formed in 1964. The primary lineup consisted of guitarist Pete Townshend, vocalist Roger Daltrey, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. The band reached international success, became known for their energetic live performances, are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and '70s, and recognized as one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time.The Who rose to fame in the United Kingdom with a pioneering instrument destruction stage show, as well as a series of top ten hit singles including the celebrated My Generation and top five albums.The Who are one of the most influential groups in rock music. Their progressive approach to the writing of albums and their exciting live shows are matched by few. Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend are still touring to this day.
Kraftwerk German for "power plant" or "power station" are an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany.The signature Kraftwerk sound combines driving, repetitive rhythms with catchy melodies; mainly following a Western classical style of harmony, in a minimalistic arrangement. The group's simplified lyrics are at times sung through a vocoder or generated by computer-speech software. In the mid to late 1970s and the early 1980s, Kraftwerk's distinctive sound was revolutionary for its time, and it has had a lasting impact across nearly all genres of modern popular music
Parklife is the third studio album by the English alternative rock band Blur, released on 25 April 1994 on Food Ltd. After disappointing sales for their previous album Modern Life is Rubbish, Parklife returned Blur to prominence in the UK, helped by its four hit singles: "Girls & Boys", "End of a Century", "Parklife" and "To the End". The album was certified quadruple platinum in the United Kingdom.
the second album by English rock band Oasis it was released in October 1995. The album was Oasis' most enduring commercial success, charting at number one in the UK  and number four in the U.S. The album sold 346,000 copies in its first week in the UK and has sold 22 million copies worldwide. It is the third biggest-selling album in UK chart history (with 4.4 million copies sold) "Roll With It", was issued on August 14.
The single had a tentative release date of October 1995,  but its move to August 1995 led to the key moment of the Britpop movement, the chart showdown, dubbed "The Battle of Britpop". Oasis' Britpop rivals Blur.
the soundtrack
to our lives.
The third album by English rock band The Verve, released on 29 September, 1997. It earned nearly unanimous critical praise upon its release and went on to become the band's best-selling release and one of the biggest selling albums of the year.The Verve had previously released two albums, A Storm in Heaven in 1993 and A Northern Soul in 1995. Neither album had achieved mainstream success and the band split shortly after their second album due to internal conflicts. Vocalist Richard Ashcroft quickly reformed the group, but without guitarist Nick McCabe, who was replaced by Simon Tong, an old friend of the band.
1986 album by The Fall, released on Beggars Banquet Records. It shares its title with Vladimir Nabokov's novel Bend Sinister (1947), and reached number 36 in the UK charts. The US version of the album was titled The Domesday Pay-Off Triad Plus. It was the third and last Fall album to be produced by John Leckie. When recording began, they were without a drummer, Karl Burns having quit shortly before sessions began. Ex-member Paul Hanley stepped in at first before permanent replacement Simon Wolstencroft was found. However, Leckie and Mark E. Smith argued during the recording, Smith complaining that "he'd always swamp everything, y'know, put the psychedelic sounds over it". Leckie, for his part, drew the line at Smith's insistence that some tracks be mastered from a standard audio cassette which Smith had been carrying around and listening to on a Walkman.
The eighth album by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in December 1969 by Decca Records/ABKCOoften thought to be a response to Let It Be by The Beatles; though the Beatles would not release either the song or the album of that name until 1970, the major recording sessions had taken place in January 1969, prior to the majority of the Let It Bleed sessions, and it was generally known that the project existed. Theories vary as to whether the title was making fun of the Beatles' misplaced optimism and inability to complete their own album, or was an expression of solidarity with a recording process that had been just as taxing as the Stones'.
The seventh album by The Beatles, released on 5 August 1966. Many of the tracks on Revolver are marked by an electric guitar-rock sound, in contrast with their previous, folk rock inspired Rubber Soul. It reached #1 on both the UK chart and U.S. chart and stayed at the top spot for seven weeks and six weeks, respectively.
The album is often regarded as one of the Beatles greatest studio achievements. It was released before their last tour in August 1966, but they did not perform songs from the album live. Their reasoning for this was that many of the tracks on the album, for example "Tomorrow Never Knows", were too complex to perform with live instruments.
EP by Seattle-based band Fleet Foxes, released on April 8, 2008, on Bella Union and Sub Pop. The EP was named the #1 album of the year by Pitchfork in conjunction with their debut LP, Fleet Foxes.
While the EP was released prior to their debut album, Fleet Foxes, the songs on Sun Giant were recorded after those that feature on their full-length album. The band stated that the EP was pressed so that they had something to sell on tour, and clarified that the music was not indicative of their ambitions. Sun Giant was in fact originally intended to be a tour only release, but demand from fans led to its official release.
After being  introduced to the acid house scene in 1988 they were at first skeptical, Bobby Gillespie said
"I always remember being quite fascinated by it but not quite getting it. The band did, however, quickly develop a taste for it and began attending raves and taking ecstasy. The band met up with DJ Andrew Weatherall at a rave, and he was given a copy of "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have", a track from Primal Scream, to remix for one of his shows. Weatherall added a drum loop from an Italian bootleg mix of Edie Brickell's "What I Am", a sample of Gillespie singing a line from Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues" and the central introductory sample from the Peter Fonda B-movie The Wild Angels. The resulting track, "Loaded", became the band's first major hit, reaching number 16 on the UK Singles Chart.
The second album by Doves, released in April 2002. It went to #1 in the UK Albums Chart. The album was produced by Doves themselves, with additional production from Max Heyes.  Guest musician Sean O'Hagan also arranged the strings, brass and woodwind instruments for "Friday's Dust" and "The Sulphur Man."
The first single from the album, "There Goes the Fear," entered the UK Singles Chart at #3."M62 Song" is credited to the band and Robert Fripp, Michael Giles, Greg Lake, Ian McDonald, and Peter Sinfield because, as stated in the album sleeve, the song is an adaptation of "Moonchild" by King Crimson. Similarly, the B-side "Hit the Ground Running" is an adaptation of "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon.
Inspiral Carpets had been honing their skills in their native Manchester, England, when the replacement of their original singer with Too Much Texas's Tom Hingley--and an increased reliance on the Farfisa organ--soon put them at the forefront of that northern city's burgeoning Madchester scene. Their debut album, LIFE, finds the group expanding their sound beyond the poignant hit "This Is How It Feels", which is included here. The Elektra-released U.S. edition of LIFE adds tracks from their ISLAND HEAD EP, released contemporaneously with the album.
The second album by Manchester band New Order, released in May 1983. The album achieved more widespread popularity than any of the band's previous releases, including those of previous band Joy Division. The music is more electronic-based than previous albums, with heavy use of synthesizers. In 1989, it was ranked #94 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s.