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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newspaper.
When Paul McCartney was joined on stage in London by Ringo Starr for the final concert of his Got Back tour last week, they easily belted out songs, including “Helter Skelter” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club.” .They’ve had time to practice: it’s been 64 years since they first played as The Beatles with John Lennon and George Harrison.
McCartney is 82 years old, more than four times the age of 18 at the time. Yet the remaining members of The Beatles are still playing, long after the deaths of Harrison and Lennon. They formed one half of the best-selling music act of all time and took rock and roll from its American roots to free the modern British music business.
The latter is also going strong, putting to shame some local industries that have disappeared since the 1960s. Record growth in UK music exports reduced last year but it still reached record levels and the industry is estimated to have contributed £7.6bn to the economy by 2023. Singers such as Adele and Ed Sheeran have followed The Beatles’ path to global fame.
There is plenty of competition, with South Korean bands such as Stray Kids achieving worldwide success, but the unique merits of British music have been passed down through the generations, from The Beatles to the Arctic Monkeys, Dua Lipa and Lewis Capaldi. As the year ends, it is important to reflect on this achievement.
The English language always helped, of course. The fact that The Beatles wrote and sang songs in English not only helped them conquer the US, but was part of the promotion. It would have been much more difficult to impress the audience on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 if they had needed an interpreter.
But behind the speech lies creativity. Rock and roll was American but The Beatles and subsequent bands took the genre and gave it a British twist. Lennon and McCartney were well versed in musical genres and conventions, such as the Rolling Stones and the blues. They have added natural play and intelligence.
The location was also good. Ian Leslie, author of John and Paulthe upcoming biography of Lennon and McCartney, argues that their simultaneous dedication to, and separation from, the US allowed them creative freedom. “They took American music and sold it to Americans. . . They wanted to distort it, change it, destroy it,” he says.
They came from a tradition of wordplay and comedy going back to Shakespeare. It was also a product of education, especially the art schools that many songwriters went through, from Lennon to Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd, David Bowie and Joe Strummer of the Clash. Adele and Amy Winehouse both attended the industry-funded Brit School for the Performing Arts in Croydon.
The UK music business found the effect of agglomeration: when it is clear that one bright group of Liverpudlians can go on the world stage, others naturally want to follow. Once the established players had established the center of the industry, the UK became a music club.
The group was helped by post-war immigrants. Ska originated in Jamaica but was revived by groups such as The Specials in the 1970s while grime, a London fusion of various genres, produced artists including Stormzy. Immigration is also an important part of the renaissance of British jazz, and has helped to maintain the industry’s good reputation in public transport.
UK music is in trouble today. The careers of top music stars have been surprisingly long during world tours and extended stays, such as Adele’s Las Vegas which ended in November. But McCartney is getting old and so are the Stones and Elton John, whose tour is going their separate ways grossed $939 million. The UK has a good current list but needs to keep updating it.
Global competition is fierce. America’s Taylor Swift is the world’s top singer and no UK band has been included in the 2023 ranking by trade body IFPI. A new musical attack is coming from South Korea, with Seventeen, Stray Kids, Tomorrow X Together and NewJeans all on the chart. There are other problems, including post-Brexit disruptions to European travel.
But the UK is still the third largest music market in the world and the fact that some are successfully competing for the attention of fans (now in their own languages) is not proof of failure. It just means that they have learned what can be achieved. The Beatles and others showed that music was not an art school distraction: it was a global business.
Britain still has that creative and inventive spirit, although its economic future is less clear than it was in the early 1960s. If the government appreciates this creative asset and helps it thrive, the team will play.
