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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

When Paul McCartney was joined on stage in London by Ringo Starr for the final concert of his Got Back tour last week, they were quickly carried away by songs, including “Helter Skelter” and “Sgt. The Lonely Hearts Club Band’s pepper”. They’ve had time to practice: it’s been 64 years since they first started playing as The Beatles with John Lennon and George Harrison.

McCartney is 82 years old, more than four times the age of the then 18-year-old. Yet the remaining members of The Beatles played on, long after the deaths of Harrison and Lennon. They formed one half of the best-selling music act of all time and the one that took rock and roll from its American roots to unleash the modern British music business.

The latter also continues to be strong, putting to shame other domestic industries that have disappeared since the 1960s. Growth in UK recorded music exports slowly last year but it still reached record levels and the industry is estimated to contribute £7.6bn to the economy by 2023. Singers such as Adele and Ed Sheeran have followed The Beatles’ path to worldwide fame.

There is plenty of competition, with South Korean bands such as Stray Kids becoming globally successful, but the distinct advantages 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 draws to a close, it is worth reflecting on this achievement.

The English language always helps, of course. The fact that The Beatles wrote and sang songs in English not only helped them invade the US, but was part of the marketing. It would have been much more difficult to impress the Ed Sullivan Show audience in 1964 if they needed an interpreter.

But behind language lies creativity. Rock and roll was American but The Beatles and the bands that followed took the genre and gave it a British twist. Lennon and McCartney were as well versed in musical forms and conventions as the Rolling Stones were with the blues. They add a native playfulness and wit.

Distance is also beneficial. Ian Leslie, author of John and Paula forthcoming biography of Lennon and McCartney, argues that their mutual devotion to, and separation from, the US allowed them creative freedom. “They took American music and sold it back to Americans . . . They like to reverse it, to change it, to destroy it,” he said.

They come from a tradition of wordplay and humor that goes back to Shakespeare. It is also a product of education, especially the art schools where many songwriters have passed, from Lennon to Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd, David Bowie and Joe Strummer of the Clash. Adele and Amy Winehouse both attended the industry-supported Brit School for the performing arts in Croydon.

The UK music business immediately benefited from an agglomeration effect: when it became clear that an exceptionally bright quartet of working-class Liverpudlians could take to the world stage, others naturally aspired which follows. When a sustainable set of performers became the core of the industry, the UK became a music cluster.

That cluster was aided by postwar immigration. Ska originated in Jamaica but was revived by bands such as The Specials in the 1970s while grime, a London amalgam of various forms, produced artists including Stormzy. Immigration was also an important element in the British jazz revival, and helped to maintain a salutary degree of social mobility in the industry.

UK music has its challenges today. The careers of top music artists have had unusual longevity during global tours and extended residencies, such as Adele’s stint in Las Vegas that ended last November. But McCartney is old and so are the Stones and Elton John, whose farewell tour grossed $939 million. The UK has a good back catalog but needs to keep updating it.

The competition in the world is fierce. America’s Taylor Swift is the highest grossing artist in the world and no UK band is included in the 2023 top 10 compiled by the IFPI trade group. The new musical invasion comes from South Korea, with Seventeen, Stray Kids, Tomorrow X Together and NewJeans all on that chart. There are other difficulties, including post-Brexit obstacles to European tours.

But the UK remains the third largest music market in the world and the fact that others are effectively competing for the attention of fans (now in their own languages) is no proof of failure. It just means that they have learned what can be achieved. The Beatles and others showed that music is not an art school distraction: it is a global business.

Britain still has that spirit of creativity and musical invention, although its economic future is less clear than it was in the early 1960s. If the government values ​​this creative asset and helps it develop, the band will play.

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