Second British Invasion

The Second British Invasion refers to music acts from the United Kingdom that became popular in the United States from the middle of 1982 into late 1986, primarily due to the cable music channel MTV. The term derives from the similar British Invasion of the U.S. in the 1960s. While acts with a wide variety of styles were part of the invasion, it was mainly synthpop and new wave influenced acts that predominated. During the late 1980s, glam metal and dance music replaced Second Invasion acts atop the U.S. charts.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, music from the United Kingdom was informed by the after effects of the "punk/new wave" revolution. In early 1979 "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits and "Roxanne" by The Police cracked the American Top 40, followed by the more modest chart successes of Elvis Costello,Sniff 'n' the Tears,The Pretenders, Gary Numan, and Squeeze. Scripps-Howard news service described this success as an early stage of the invasion.

Music videos, having been a staple of British music television programmes for half a decade, had evolved into image conscious short films. At the same time, pop and rock music in the United States was undergoing a creative slump due to several factors, including audience fragmentation and the effects of the anti-disco backlash. Videos did not exist for most hits by American acts, and those that did were usually taped concert performances. When the cable music channel MTV launched on August 1, 1981, it had little choice but to play a large number of music videos from British new wave acts.The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" was the first music video shown on MTV in the U.S. At first, MTV was only available in small towns and suburbs. To the surprise of the music industry, when MTV became available in a local market, record sales by acts played solely on the channel increased immediately and listeners phoned radio stations requesting to hear them. Also in 1981, Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM began the Rock of the '80s format, which would make it the most popular station in that city.

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