 Bands like the Animals from Newcastle and Them from Belfast, and particularly those from London like the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds, were much more directly influenced by rhythm and blues and later blues music.Soon these groups were composing their own material, combining US forms of music and infusing it with a high energy beat.Beat bands tended towards "bouncy, irresistible melodies", while early British blues acts tended towards less sexually innocent, more aggressive songs, often adopting an anti-establishment stance.