Merseybeat is a pop music genre that evolved in the UK in the early 1960s. Beat groups characteristically had simple guitar-dominated line-ups, with vocal harmonies and catchy tunes. Beat music has little to do with the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s, and more to do with driving rhythms, which the bands had adopted from their R&B/soul influences.
The most popular line-up comprised lead, rhythm and bass guitars plus drums, as popularized by The Beatles and The Searchers. Merseybeat is typified by the synchronization of the bass guitar (usually playing only the root and fifth notes of the chords) and the bass drum, although often the bass guitar will play walking and boogie basslines. Unlike rock and roll hitherto, Merseybeat is more likely to incorporate secondary harmony, especially in the middle eight. Groups - even those with a separate lead singer - will often sing both verses and choruses in close harmony.
The vocal harmony style often resembles Doo Wop with nonsense syllables in the backing vocals. Unlike Doo Wop, falsetto and bass harmonies are extremely rare. The Liverpool accent has a role to play in the overall sound. Although there are instrumental breaks, the focus is on the presentation of the song rather than instrumental prowess. The sound is a fusion of rock and roll, Doo Wop, skiffle and R&B/Soul. Liverpool has a large Irish population and is located on the border between Wales and England, hence Celtic folk music also heavily influenced the Merseybeat groups.
Although rock and roll songs and Doo Wop were presented in this style, other styles of song - particularly songs from shows, like "You'll Never Walk Alone" and "Till There Was You", were also adapted. Adaptations were "pinched" by other groups, causing one group in particular - The Beatles - to write their own Merseybeat-styled songs. The British Invasion bands were heavily influenced by American bands of the era, such as Buddy Holly & the Crickets (whose name inspired the Beatles' name) and The Beach Boys. In turn, the British Invasion bands heavily influenced younger American musicians, especially the early punk rockers of the late 1960s.
The Merseybeat sound remained popular only locally until the breakthrough success of The Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers and Cilla Black, among others. In 1964, a British Invasion of acts led by The Beatles swept across the Atlantic Ocean and stormed the charts in North America, but most acts did not progress into the later Psychedelic era or 'rock' decade of the 1970s.
Of particular significance was the band Gerry & the Pacemakers, led by Gerry Marsden, who had success with "How Do You Do It?" and "I Like It", but is perhaps better known for popularising "You'll Never Walk Alone", subsequently the anthem for Liverpool Football Club and several other clubs. Another song that Marsden's band released, which became synonymous with the ‘Mersey Sound’, was "Ferry Cross the Mersey", covered in the mid-1980s by fellow Liverpudlians Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Although Merseybeat was all the rage in 1964, and still much in evidence in the British charts of 1965, by 1966 it was considered passé, and had given way to the psychedelic rock of the mid- to late 1960s.
Merseybeat bands came from Liverpool. One popular Mersey band was even called The Merseybeats. Other revered Liverpool bands included The Undertakers, The Big Three, Billy J Kramer with The Dakotas, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, The Swinging Blue Jeans and The Fourmost.
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