The greatest era of the UK pop music industry

An efficiency perspective

Abstract

As one of the biggest nations in the world in terms of music industry revenue, the UK prides itself as an industry leader in the sector, both commercially and artistically. Ever since the inception of the UK pop charts back in 1952, the UK music industry has seen several highs and lows although the sector remains as vibrant and innovative as ever. The height of the industry’s achievements undoubtedly came in the early 1960s and 1980s, which saw UK artists scaling the charts all over the world, most notably conquering even the US pop charts, resulting in the term British invasion. Employing data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology, this article compares the achievements of five decades in UK pop history and finds the 1980s to be the most efficient decade in terms of musical achievements. In addition, 1981 was the year that was benchmarked the most, hence becoming the ‘most efficient year’ in UK music history. From the results, the second British invasion, an era that was spearheaded by the New Romantics movement, is the most successful era in British music history, surpassing even the first invasion, which was led by The Beatles.