Early British popular music

Early British popular music, in the sense of commercial music enjoyed by the people, can be seen to originate in the 16th and 17th 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 19th century. Further technological, economic and social changes led to new forms of music in the 19th 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, who provided a social and popular music that began to dominate social occasions and the radio airwaves.

Broadside ballads were arguably the first form of commercial popular music in Britain. They were a product of the development of cheap print from the 16th century. They were generally printed on one side of a large sheet of poor quality paper. This could also be cut in half lengthways to make ‘broadslips’, or folded to make chapbooks. They were produced in huge numbers, with over 400,000 being sold in England annually by the 1660s. Many were sold by travelling chapmen in city streets or at fairs. The subject matter varied from what has been defined as the traditional ballad, although many traditional ballads were printed as broadsides. Among the topics were love, religion, drinking-songs, legends and early journalism, which included disasters, political events and signs, wonders and prodigies.

Although the most of the instruments used by British brass bands had existed and had been used together for some time, they only became a mass activity in the 1840s and 1850s out of village, church and military bands. Brass bands were a response to the process of industrialisation, which produced a large working class population, technological advancements, including more efficient piston valve instruments, which were easier to play and more accurate, and mass production that could quickly produce and distribute the instruments. Arguably, brass bands were an expression of the local solidarity and aspirations of newly formed or rapidly growing communities. This was particularly expressed in the rapid growth and organisation of bands, clearly seen in the creation of brass band competitions by the late 1850s. Brass bands probably reached their peak of popularity in the early decades of the 20th century, when, it has been estimated, there were over 20,000 brass band instrumentalists in the country.

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