British rock and roll, or Brit rock, was born out of the influence of rock and roll and rhythm and blues from the United States, but added a new drive and urgency, exporting the music back and widening the audience for black R & B in the U.S. as well as spreading the gospel world wide. Much of what has made rock music unique, in its ability to unite audiences and adapt new influences, came from British bands in the late 50s and rock groups in the early 60s.

The genre gathers several other rock wings, as Great Britain was and still is one of the countries with indefinite resource for music, especially rock music. Therefore rock&roll, canterbury sound, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, heavy metal, folk rock found their success in the UK in the '60, but with a different beat and sound, adapted to the local prefferences and styles. The glm rock in the '70s and punk rock in the '80s represents brit rock in the post-hippie era.

Many of the more recent successful forms, subgenres, and artists of rock and pop music have originated or found their greatest success in the UK. Major stars of the 1960s and '70s ranging from Eric Clapton to Peter Gabriel moved on from rock bands to great success as solo performers. In the early 1980s, the sound of synth pop typified much British rock music ranging from chart hits to off the radar works. Alternative rock played an important role in the UK in the development of the british music apart from the influences from USA.

In Britain today, the terms of "pop" and "rock" are still more closely associated with each other than in the United States, where due to prejudice and musical history "pop" usually denotes only a solo artist, often female, seen to represent a tradition outside the province of guitar based music or with a very wide popularity. Thus, in the UK a band such as Radiohead might be characterized as pop, to denote their synth based sound and often populist appeal, while in the United States they might be categorized as rock, most likely as "alternative rock", for their "authentic," sometimes dark lyrics, perhaps for being white and male, and certainly for appealing to the type of people seen to listen to critic-sanctioned indie rock bands, rather than "superficial pop" music.

This is Radiohead with the hit "You"

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