English Music

Led Zeppelin

​While England may have terrible food and be generally useless at sports, England has produced arguably the best music of the last century. There are many, many famous English bands and artists, but the coolest of all time are Led Zeppelin.
Led Zeppelin formed in 1968, but their music is still very popular today. Whenever a Led Zeppelin song comes on at a party or on the radio, everyone is happy. The members of Led Zeppelin were lead guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist John-Paul Jones and the drummer John Bonham, or “Bonzo”, as he liked to be called.
In addition to their awesome music, the band was famous for their wild partying, for example, riding a motorbike through a hotel lobby, or throwing five televisions out of a hotel window. Unfortunately, this lead to the death of the drummer, Bonzo, in 1980 after he drank 40 shots of vodka one morning.
The band was also famous for being involved with crazy black magic and devil-worshipping.
Led Zeppelin has many, many great songs, but their most famous is Stairway to Heaven, considered by many people to be the greatest rock-and-roll song of all time. Some other people think the song is long and boring, so here is a video of Whole Lotta Love instead...

Ed Sheeran

The best artist to come out of England for a long time is loveable ginger scamp, Ed Sheeran. Most students in Japan know Ed Sheeran from his super popular song, Shape of You.
He had a long road to success and travelled around England and the USA singing on the street and playing small concerts for many years before he became a big success.
A big chance for Ed Sheeran came when Taylor Swift asked him to support her on tour in 2012. Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift are good friends and Sheeran has written several songs for Swift. He has also written songs for One Direction and Rhianna.
On a 2015 tour of New Zealand, Ed Sheeran visited BH teacher Jordan’s elementary school to play a charity show. The school had been destroyed by an earthquake in 2011 and the students were very happy to have Ed Sheeran play for them. Everyone said he was “top bloke” (いい人).
Here's a video of the plucky youngster singing on the street...

Spice Girls

​One of the most popular English bands of the 1990’s was the Spice Girls, going to show that you don’t necessarily have to make good music in order to be successful.
The Spice Girls smashed their way straight to the top of the musical charts in 1996, with the super-hit “Wannabe”. The band was comprised of Posh, Sporty, Baby, Ginger and Scary Spice. They released two best-selling albums and a movie in addition to a successful world tour, before Ginger Spice left the group and they fell from popularity. Posh Spice, Victoria Beckham, is the most famous of the Spice Girls, because she married soccer player David Beckham.

Radiohead

The people in the photos above are members of a band called Radiohead. While the members may look very creepy, Radiohead is one of the best bands to have come out of England in the last few decades.
Their music has changed from rock-and-roll to more experimental music over the years.
Their 1997 album, OK Computer, and 2000 album, Kid-A, are two of the best albums of all time.
The lead singer and main songwriter is the guy in the middle photo, Thom Yorke. Mr. Yorke is a horrible dancer, but he doesn’t let that stop him, as can be seen in the music video for their song Lotus Flower below.
British Hills teacher, Brendan, loves Radiohead. Be careful if a Radiohead song is playing while you are in the pub because you may become trapped in a boring conversation listening to Brendan talking about how great Radiohead is. Some useful phrases to help you escape from the conversation are “I need to go to the bathroom”, “My teacher says I must go back to my room now”, or “I think the building is on fire”.