Ever since the Swinging Sixties, through the Glam Rock seventies, the New Wave eighties and the Britpop nineties, London has led the way in popular music: Abbey Road, Waterloo Sunset, Warwick Avenue, Baker Street, Electric Avenue, Up The Junction and countless other records ruled the airwaves at a time when a three minute song on the radio could change the world and new music trends seemed to spawn with each weekly chart rundown. Add to the mix the numerous locations that have provided images for iconic album covers, such as David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, Pink Floyd’s Animals and Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, or music videos and venues that have hosted historic gigs, and London can justifiably claim to be the world capital of rock and pop.
So what is it about London that has inspired singers and songwriters across different genres and generations – from Noel Coward’s London Pride to The Clash’s London Calling, from Kirsty MacColl’s Soho Square to Smiley Culture’s Cockney Translation, and through a range of artists as varied as Jethro Tull, The Pogues, Bucks Fizz, Ranking Dread, The Jam and The Wombles – to immortalise it in song?
London is an enigma – a city of contradictions. It’s homely yet heartless; vibrant yet violent; prosperous yet poverty stricken; delightful but deviant; sociable yet solitary. It manages to be historic while also being futuristic, mixing wild new trends with centuries-old traditions. It’s a melting pot infused with diverse cultural influences that readily accepts new ideas in art and music despite its reputation for cold aloofness.
But it’s these contradictions that provide musicians and songwriters with a constant stream of new ideas. Music has an inherent power to inspire and excite, comfort and console, divide or unite, and London’s ability to do the same is evident in its history, its streets, its sounds and its people.
That’s why wherever you are in London, you simply can’t escape the music. It’s in the very heart and soul of the city, pumping life through every street, road, avenue, park and passageway. This boundless soundscape is rooted deep within the DNA of the capital.
It sets the urgent tempo of city life that’s present in the bass drone of all that traffic noise; it’s in the percussive clatter of building machinery and steely clank of train on track; it’s in the melody of a busker’s chorus and the constant background chatter from passers-by that can be lyrically brilliant or loudly incoherent; and this streetlife serenade is artfully depicted in the images around you that are as vivid as any video on MTV.
And depending on your mood you’ll hear a medley of pop, punk, funk, hip-hop, heavy metal, ballad, blues or soul, all of which could quickly change from a bright and breezy major key to a dark, discordant minor at the turning of a street corner.
Great music stimulates and delights; it undulates to express emotion, ebbing and flowing with tension and release. Modern London has that same effect. It’s diverse as it is perverse, moving you spiritually, intellectually and viscerally. Its streets can be cruel – they can try your patience and they will certainly test your faith. But it will also entertain, educate and amuse you in a way few other cities can. And it’s this rhythmic blend of mixed emotions that echoes around Elvis Costello’s London’s Brilliant Parade, beats throughout Adele’s Hometown Glory and inspired Ralph McTell to lead you through the Streets of London.
(photographs taken by Jon Askew)
