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Music

Five British Dance Acts Who Broke America

Here's a bunch of artists who made the Brit Invasion a reality.

Ever since Elvis Presley appeared on the black and white screens of our dismal shores and sent a nation of now-great-grandparents into apoplexies of sexual excitement/jealousy, every British act worth it's salt has dreamed of doing what four lads from Liverpool did all those decades ago — break America.

Breaking America isn't easy. In fact, it's actually exceptionally difficult. Going from the nicely hemmed in environs of the British Isles, with it's relatively small amount of influential media outlets, and relatively fucking tiny population, to vast open skies of one of the biggest countries in the world and making a success of yourself seems about as achievable for most of us as mastering the Rubik's cube or reading all of Karl Ove Knausgard's novels in Norwegian or correctly bundling socks after a big wash.

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It can be done, though. Honestly, you can sort your socks out in a satisfactory manner. Just kidding! But really though, breaking America is wholly doable. Here's five acts who left little old Blighty to smash it in Minnestoa and beyond.

Calvin Harris

HOW: Calvin Harris, that nerdy little prawn with the terrible taste in clothes and the even worse haircut was destined for third-stage-at-a-low-attendence-festival mediocrity for what seemed like years. He was an embarrassment. Then he got his hair cut, stopped trying to sound like a Scottish James Murphy, swapped is-it-actually-arch-arch-pop for stadium ready EDM crowd friendly enormor-bangers and now he's richer than Bill Gates or something. Harris was proof that every dog has his day.

LEVEL OF BREAKAGE: Fucking decimated it, mate. America is his.

Disclosure

HOW: Two nice babyfaced brothers from the UK decided to make poppy deep house with a vocialist who went on to be massive and, well, yep, you guessed it — they became huge too. Disclosure are undeniably gargantuan. Teenage girls probably cry at their shows. I have no proof of that but I imagine they do. They're like the Beatles for the generation that's viewed life through a filtered lens. Their way with hooks, their unabashed pop sensibilities, and the fact that they seems like really nice lads all add up to a group who appeal to both Strawberita chugging Chads and cooler-than-thou Chris'.

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LEVEL OF BREAKAGE: Aw, look at 'em — whatever the brothers broke I'm sure they'll have fixed up nice and promptly and they'll probably leave an apology note and some chocolate too.

Jamie xx

HOW: Jamie xx is that quiet dude at school who does infuriatingly well at everything but because he's so innofensive and polite you can't quite bring yourself to hate him. He's humble with it, seems appreciative to not have his head dunked down the toilet lunchtime and breaktime. Americans love polite, nice English men. Jamie xx, then: the Hugh Grant of the dance world.

LEVEL OF BREAKAGE: See: Disclosure. Except Jamie probably left them some really cool chocolate that everyone'll be talking about in a few years.

The Prodigy

HOW: Remember 1997? Vaguely? Blair was knocking about and our dads probably wore bucket hats and laughed uproariously at TFI Friday. In many ways, those Union Jack clad moments were halcyon days. Blair went on to betray a nation, bucket hats came back and immediately became a beacon of cunt-dom, and Chris Evans is now one of the most annoying men in the whole world. Back in 1997 though, The Prodigy were doing more than just smoking rollies and slavering over shell toe trainers: they were breaking America. That year they sold a tonne of records, won a tonne of awards, and probably had a tonne of stateside fun. The Essex boys came good in the land of the free.

LEVEL OF BREAKAGE: Comfortably smashed it like a Romford lad with a baseball bat and a few Bacardi breezers in a china shop.

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Paul Oakenfold

HOW: Oakey, as he wants us to call him, like the weird uncle of dance he kind of us, is an odd figure. He basically kickstarted the Balearic revolution which bred acid house which bred pretty much the entire future of club culture and dance music, but oddly, he's irredeemably naff. In a fun way. But still definitely naff. After we'd grown a bit tired of the prog-house he started to peddle us here in the UK he packed himself off to America to start again. In 2000 Oaky played to 80,000 people at Cyberfest, so he's basically to blame for EDM. Thanks Oakey! Thanks!

LEVEL OF BREAKAGE: There's breaking the US and then there's breaking the US so hard that the US breaks dance music for everyone.

To find out more about Brits taking over the US, why not watch our brand new documentary Brit Invasion? Check it out in full right here.