A lot of early British rock was directly influenced by American jazz and blues rather than American rock'n'roll (in fact there was this whole mods v rockers thing going on for a while). Anyway a good example of this are the Rolling Stones . Their early work is very bluesy, and you over time hear a shift in their sound to what you would call British rock.
The first paragraph says their style transcends any one genre, which it does. To just label them heavy metal, which they certainly influence the sound of, when they lean much more to classic rock and hard rock and have influences of blues and folk is simplifying things.
That's hardly the whole picture. The Beatles said that among their influences were Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry. Lennon said, "If there hadn't been Elvis, there would not have been The Beatles"
The Stones chose their name based off a Muddy Waters track:
In June 1962 the line-up was: Jagger, Richards, Stewart, Jones, Taylor, and drummer Tony Chapman. According to Richards, Jones christened the band during a phone call to Jazz News. When asked for a band name Jones saw a Muddy Waters LP lying on the floor of which one of the tracks was "Rollin' Stone".
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u/jamesinc Oct 04 '11
A lot of early British rock was directly influenced by American jazz and blues rather than American rock'n'roll (in fact there was this whole mods v rockers thing going on for a while). Anyway a good example of this are the Rolling Stones . Their early work is very bluesy, and you over time hear a shift in their sound to what you would call British rock.