Adult Responses to Popular Music and Intergenerational Relations in Britain, c. 19551975

Gillian A.M. Mitchell

Description

An examination of the impact of music on inter-generational relations.

‘Adult Reactions to Popular Music and Inter-generational Relations in Britain, 1955–1975’ challenges the often unquestioned assumption that ‘the older generation’ largely reacted in a negative or hostile fashion to forms of music popular with young people in Britain from the 1950s to the mid-1970s (including rock ’n’ roll, skiffle, ‘beat’ and rock music), and that the music invariably exacerbated inter-generational tensions. Utilizing extensive primary evidence, from first-person accounts to newspapers, television programmes, surveys and archive collections, the book demonstrates the considerable variety which frequently characterized adult responses to the music, whilst also highlighting that the impact of the music on inter-generational relations was more complex than is often assumed. There has been a growing recognition among scholars of the need to reassess the alleged ‘generation gap’ of this era, but this theme has yet to be examined in depth via the prism of popular music. [NP] The book is also distinctive in the thematic approach it adopts. Rather than attempting a chronological survey, it identifies three key arenas of British society in which adult responses to popular music, and the impact of such reactions upon relations between generations, seem particularly revealing and significant, and explores them in considerable depth. The first chapter examines the place of popular music within family life, the second focuses on the Christian churches and their engagement with popular music, particularly within youth clubs, and the third explores ‘encounters’ between the worlds of traditional Variety entertainment and popular music. The work offers detailed appraisals of each of these areas, while also providing fresh perspectives on this most dynamic and turbulent of periods.

While each chapter possesses a certain cohesion in its own right, illuminating and adding fresh perspectives on key topics within post-war British history, certain key ideas reappear throughout the work. The nature and significance of ‘everyday’ multi-generational consumption of popular music constitutes one such theme, as does the manner in which the highly varied, and ever-evolving, character of ‘pop’ in this era frequently, and in various ways, rendered it more accessible to older people and more capable of traversing generational boundaries. The final unifying theme concerns the distinctive way in which ‘old’ and ‘new’ cultural forces continued to interact in the lives of young and old during this transitional era.

Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. ‘You Go Halfway, Don’t You?’ Family Life, Generational Identity and Popular Music; 2. ‘To Have Done Something’: The Christian Churches, Youth Clubs and Popular Music; 3. ‘You’ve Got to Be Able to Entertain People’: The Encounter between Popular Music and the Worlds of Variety and ‘Light Entertainment’; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Sujets

• HISTORY
• MUSIC
• Multiple signal classification
• Modern history
• Obermodern-Zutzendorf

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 28 février 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783089024
• Langue: English

Extrait

Adult Responses to Popular Music and Intergenerational Relations in Britain, c. 1955–1975
ANTHEM STUDIES IN BRITISH HISTORY
The Anthem Studies in British History publishes a range of studies in British history including social, political, gender, migration, cultural, visual, economic, environmental and war history, as well as the history of the English language and literary history. This series offers a wide perspective on British history studies from all periods and covers compelling and coherent aspects of the topic. Innovative and challenging approaches, as well as studies grounded on emerging research, are welcome.
Series Editor
Marie-José Ruiz – Université de Picardie Jules Verne, France
Editorial Board
Hilary Carey – University of Bristol, UK
Jeremy Crang – University of Edinburgh, UK
Robert Crowcroft – University of Edinburgh, UK
Fara Dabhoiwala – Princeton University, USA
Kent Fedorowich – University of the West of England, UK
June Hannam – University of the West of England, UK
Edward Higgs – University of Essex, UK
Kathrin Levitan – College of William and Mary, USA
John MacKenzie – Lancaster University, UK
Jennifer McNabb – Western Illinois University, USA
Benedicte Miyamoto – Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, France
Jude Piesse – Liverpool John Moores University, UK
Eric Richards – Flinders University, Australia
Ophélie Siméon – Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, France
Marie Terrier – Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, France
Adult Responses to Popular Music and Intergenerational Relations in Britain, c. 1955–1975
Gillian A. M. Mitchell
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2019
by ANTHEM PRESS
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Copyright © Gillian A. M. Mitchell 2019
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13: 978-1-78308-900-0 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78308-900-8 (Hbk)
This title is also available as an e-book.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Methodology
Defining Terms: ‘Popular Music’ and ‘Generations’
Sources
Chapter One
‘You Go Half Way, Don’t You?’ Family Life, Generational Identity and Popular Music
Introduction
‘You Play That Again and I’ll Break the Record!’: Parental Objections to Popular Music
‘Half-Teddy Boy’: Old and New in Postwar Youth Culture
‘I Ain’t No Nellie-Lover and I Ain’t No Square!’: The Efforts of Parents to Approve of Pop
A New Career? Parents, Children and Popular Music-Making
‘Enacting the Role of the Hep-Cat Parent’: Adult Approval of Popular Music and Intergenerational Tensions
Whose ‘Kind of Music’? Generations, the Charts and the Audience for Pop Music
How Much Did It Matter? Questioning the Importance of Popular Music as a Symbol of Youth Identity
Conclusion
Chapter Two
‘To Have Done Something’: The Christian Churches, Youth Clubs and Popular Music
Introduction
The Albemarle Report and the ‘Golden Age’ of Youth Clubs
‘The Gospel Youth Wants to Hear’: The Churches and Youth Work
‘A Means of Expressing Religious Impulses Which Have No Other Outlet’: Popular Music in Church Youth Clubs
Popular Music, Youth Culture and the Modernization of Church Music
A Man Dies : Youth Club Drama, Spirituality and the ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Passion Play’
The End of a ‘Golden Age’?: The Decline of Youth Clubs
Conclusion
Chapter Three
‘You’ve Got to Be Able to Entertain People’: The Encounter between Popular Music and the Worlds of Variety and ‘Light Entertainment’
Introduction
Variety Entertainment in Twentieth-Century Britain: Decline, Resurgence and Reinvention
Variety’s ‘Middle Generation’, Television and Theatre Closures
‘Foreign to What Our Profession Was’: Popular Music Enters the Variety Theatres
Laughing in the Face of Change: The Responses of Variety Veterans to Popular Music
Mocking the Rock: Exploring the Humorous Side of Popular Music
Popular Music and ‘The Spirit of Variety’
Artistic Dilemmas and Stylistic Evolution: Popular Musicians as ‘All-Round Entertainers’
‘Surviving Together’: Popular Music and Variety Culture in the Contemporary Era
Conclusion

Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to all who have assisted me in the preparation of this book. I am grateful to the editorial and publishing staff at Anthem Press for their help and guidance, and to the reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments. The research for this book was completed with the assistance of Small Grants from the Carnegie Trust (ref. SHIO-XCC129) and the British Academy/Leverhulme (ref. SG152256); I am indebted to these organizations for their generosity.
I am also grateful to all those colleagues from the School of History at the University of St Andrews and to those associates who offered assistance and guidance during the completion of the work. I wish to thank, in particular, Prof. Gerard DeGroot, Dr James Koranyi and Dr B. Lee Cooper for writing references for my grant applications, and Prof. Aileen Fyfe for her advice on research funding, grant application and publication. I am particularly indebted to Prof. Colin Kidd for his advice and encouragement, and his supportive, detailed and constructive comments on my work.
Particular thanks must also be expressed to Reverend Prof. Ian Bradley for his myriad helpful suggestions and comments regarding the postwar churches and their attitudes towards popular music. Dr Mark Johnson also provided many helpful ideas on this topic during the early stages of research, and Reverend Edward McGhee offered some illuminating thoughts on the role of folk music within the church during the 1960s. Prof. Simon Frith helpfully shared his recent work on the role of live music within cinemas in postwar Britain.
I also wish to thank those who consented to be interviewed, or who provided vital information, for the project, both in person and via email. Reverend Dr Douglas Galbraith, Chris Charlesworth, John Lockley, Dr Anthony Simons and a former member of a Carnoustie church youth club (who wished to remain anonymous) all gave generously of their time, providing detailed and insightful comments which have greatly enriched the work.
In addition, I wish to express my gratitude to Massimo Moretti of CANALPLUS, to Robert Pirie of St Andrews and to David Reed of the British Music Hall Society for their assistance in obtaining archival materials and sources, and to Tony Jasper for his helpful email correspondence regarding the role of popular music within the church.
I am extremely grateful to all the archivists and librarians who have helped me during the research for this project. Particular thanks must be expressed to the Methodist Church, the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church and the organization Churches Together in Britain and Ireland for permitting access to archival materials; Kate O’Brien and Samantha Blake of the BBC Written Archives for their extensive assistance throughout the project; and Dr Sam Riches of the Regional Heritage Centre at Lancaster University, Charlie Morgan of the Oral History Archive at the British Library and the staff at the IBA/ITA Archive of Bournemouth University for their help and advice during the final stages of the preparation of the manuscript.
Finally, I owe a special debt of gratitude to my family and friends for their generosity, love and support. I wish particularly to thank my parents, John and Rose Ann Mitchell, for all that they have done to help and support me; my sisters, Hilary and Roslyn; my brothers-in-law John and Tom; and my nephews, Fergal, Patrick and Dougal. It is to all of them, and to the memory of my grandmother, Hannah Kirk, my great aunt, Margaret McAteer, my uncle, Thomas Kirk, and our dear family friend Bernadette Doyle that this book is dedicated, with much love and appreciation.
BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
‘ Call it music? This is TNT!’ declared the Daily Mail correspondent Don Iddon in September 1956. He was referring to rock ‘n’ roll, the American musical trend which had suddenly begun to feature prominently in British headlines. As Rock Around the Clock , an otherwise innocuous film-vehicle for American musician Bill Haley , was screened in cinemas in the autumn of that year, press reports of youngsters ‘jiving in the aisles’, vandalizing cinemas and generally participating in ‘riots’ which were, frequently, spearheaded by ‘Teddy Boys ’ proliferated. For almost two weeks, readers encountered stories of rowdy ‘teenagers’ aiming fire extinguishers at outraged ushers, of widespread disruption in the streets of Manchester and South London and of Alsatian dogs and plain clothes police officers patrolling cinemas. The incidents petered out