Your way in
Beat / British Invasion 1963
The British took American rock and roll, added vocal harmony and shipped it back across the Atlantic. Both hard rock and pop-rock start here.
- Heaviness
- 2
- Speed
- 5
- Melody
- 10
- Where from
- Liverpool, UK
- Tempo
- 120-160 bpm
- Song length
- 2-3 min
- Written about
- Romance, Youth, Class and place, on the Kinks' side, Almost nothing, deliberately
- Vocals
- Sung
Why this one
| You said | Beat / British Invasion | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| No words at all When someone is singing, what should come out? | clean | 80% | ×3 |
| Light How much weight do you want behind it? | 2 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| A steady walk What pace? | 5 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| Anger at something real What should the words be about? | Romance, Youth, Class and place, on the Kinks' side, Almost nothing, deliberately | 50% | ×1 |
| Short. Say it and stop. How long should a song be? | up to 3 min | 92% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 87% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 5 answers you gave, weighted vocals 3, heaviness 2, pace 2, about 1, length 1 out of 9. Beat / British Invasion leads the next by 1 point. Where two genres score the same the broader one wins, because a genre with subgenres under it is somewhere to carry on from and a leaf is a full stop.
Five records, in this order
- 1Start one step outside
Chuck Berry, Chuck 2017
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode. That opening riff is the DNA of the entire tree.
- 2The one to put on first
The Kinks, Kinks 1964
The Kinks - You Really Got Me. The first genuinely distorted riff on record.
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5Then
The first is the entry point for Rock and roll, one step outside, so the second record has something to be heard against. After it come Beat / British Invasion's essential records in the order the encyclopedia lists them. Every one of these has a page here with links out to somewhere it can be played.
If that is not it
-
Britpop 83%
Britain answers grunge with Beatles-and-Kinks melody and lyrics about ordinary English life.
4 steps from Beat / British Invasion, meeting it only at Rock.
The way into Britpop -
Post-punk revival 83%
The same basslines and the same chill, revived every ten years with contemporary production.
5 steps from Beat / British Invasion, meeting it only at Rock.
The way into Post-punk revival
Not simply the second and third of the ranking: those are almost always near neighbours of the first, which is three names for one suggestion. An alternate has to sit at least 4 steps through the tree from the headline and from the other alternate, which is the same floor the "sounds like this, but isn't" panel uses.
What your answers ruled out
- No words at all put 33 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Black metal, Death metal, Grindcore. Worth 3 of 9.
- Light put 12 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Death metal, Brutal death metal, Sludge metal. Worth 2 of 9.
- Anger at something real put 108 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Alternative rock, Black metal, Blues rock. Worth 1 of 9.
- Short. Say it and stop. put 18 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Doom metal, Progressive rock, Progressive metal. Worth 1 of 9.
Counted as genres scoring 20% or less on that answer alone. A recommendation that only shows what it chose is hiding half of what it did.