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Images of England through Popular Music: Class, Youth and Rock 'n' Roll, 1955-1976
What was the relationship between working-class youths and popular music between the years 1955 and 1976? Drawing on archival sources and oral testimony, Keith Gildart examines the ways in which popular music played an important role in reflecting and shaping social identities and working-class youth culture and - through a focus on rock 'n' roll, rhythm and blues, punk, the mod subculture and the many worlds of glam rock - created a shifting sense of continuity and change in English society.
Complemented by a critical reading of the songs, performances and impact of influential and emblematic musicians including George Fame, The Beatles, Pete Townshend, Ray Davies, David Bowie and the Sex Pistols, Gildart brings together an investigation of particular localities, scenes, genres and individual and collective experiences in presenting a critique of recent revisionist histories of popular music and youth culture.
Complemented by a critical reading of the songs, performances and impact of influential and emblematic musicians including George Fame, The Beatles, Pete Townshend, Ray Davies, David Bowie and the Sex Pistols, Gildart brings together an investigation of particular localities, scenes, genres and individual and collective experiences in presenting a critique of recent revisionist histories of popular music and youth culture.
290 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
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March 13, 2016
In Images of England through Popular Music, Keith Gildart convincingly argues that popular music generally, and rock music specifically, operated as a significant cultural phenomenon and crucial tool in the social and class identities of young working-class listeners’ lives. Sociological and cultural discussions of rock music have long suggested the impact of popular music, and Gildart applies those models and ideas to a historical perspective in which rock and roll factored (and adapted) within English class identity between 1955 and 1976. The images of specific performers in specific periods through those decades are rooted in cultural and sociological theories, including Marxist and Thompsonian definitions of “social experiences…expressed in cultural terms” (198–99). Gildart combines those models with the efforts of musicians to articulate working-class identities and the receptions enjoyed by audiences or endured by local and national leaders.
In his book, organized into three parts focused on American influences in the 1950s, Mods and “organic intellectuals” in the 1960s, and glam rock and punk rock in the 1970s, Gildart argues that musicians and audiences interacted and incorporated diverse interests against local and national backdrops. In particular, discussions about Ray Davies and punk rock provide critical evaluations of how popular music operated as a historical tool alongside its role as a model for sociological and cultural examinations. Each discussion is rooted in the local identities of the specific performers in their hometowns, but, as the national impact of those performers developed historically, Gildart superbly articulates the dynamics of English physical and political geography and shifting demographics with working-class experiences between 1955 and 1976.
Linked to his framing stories in Leigh and Wigan at the start and conclusion of this history, Gildart begins his discussions of English images by arguing how rock and roll offered an escape from work in the mines and mills. While navigating local fears about teddy boys or rebellious activities, musicians like Georgie Fame (Clive Powell) or “the Lemon Drop Kid” (Ronnie Carr) listened to American rock and roll through café jukeboxes, films, and local musicians playing covers and incorporating the style into their repertoire. Fame left Leigh in 1959 for London, where he confronted race and gender issues alongside class concerns and the capitalism of the music industry. While engaging with American rock and roll, these musicians interacted with American servicemen, recent immigrants from the Caribbean, homosexuals, and African-Americans playing rhythm and blues and jazz. At clubs like the Flamingo, these interactions “[provided] an image of England in which popular music was both reflecting and shaping the continuities and changes that defined aspects of its culture” (61). Identities were fluid in these environments, which led to targeting by authorities, but, as musicians like Fame transported local concerns across England, they commanded a national culture rooted in the working-class experiences of those young people.
The Beatles also transformed and transposed local concerns to national audiences, and the band’s young fans in Liverpool in the early 1960s indicated the impact of popular music across a large working-class population. The Beatles as individuals sought music as an escape from class, but their listeners identified with the group. Gildart’s discussion is rooted in those experiences as opposed to narratives about the Beatles and the successes they enjoyed in 1963 and 1964. When the Beatles left Liverpool for good in 1963, political and social leaders in the community attempted to harness the possibility “that popular music could transcend local peculiarities and tensions between nation states” (83), in this case with the Beatles’ old haunt Hamburg.
In the mid-1960s, the Mod subculture that emerged predominantly in London posed a “challenge to particular social boundaries” (90). Gildart looks at Pete Townsend of the Who and Ray Davies of the Kinks as “organic intellectuals” who sought to explore class identities and English culture. The Mod subculture furthered the crossings of class, race, and sexual boundaries, and in turn opened new ambiguities within everyday experiences. However, local and national authorities identified a “perceived link to delinquency, violence, drug abuse and social transgressions” (108) within Mod subculture, akin to 1950s perceptions of teddy boys. Rather than “national government and legislation” (120) directed at policing young working-class behavior, Gildart emphasizes local measures to combat drug abuse and violence.
Ray Davies exposed the failings of 1960s working-class culture and presented a less mythologized” (128) decade. Gildart links Davies and the Kinks to pre-war literature and authors like George Orwell, as well as the post-war politics of the Labour Party. Unlike other musicians, Davies reflected his class identity in his music, assessing race, gender, and history. Gildart’s discussion of Davies prevails as a major contribution to popular music as a historical motivator, as well as a
valuable consideration of a unique musician of the 1960s generation.
The final images of England traced are those of glam rock and punk rock, both suggesting consideration of “spatial changes” (152) in the 1970s as complementary to the working class. Slade and David Bowie serve as the prominent representatives of glam rock, both acting as models for young working-class listeners in dealing with concerns of the early 1970s. Their impact through glam rock stemmed from ideas of alienation in the workplace and the environment. Slade offered images that affirmed elements of masculinity and working-class attitudes and backgrounds; Bowie utilized otherworldly constructions that tapped into sexual ambiguities and gender inequalities. Glam rock attracted a broad audience, too, as regional and local communities across England witnessed fans wearing make-up and mimicking glam performers. Glam rock peaked in 1974–75 and was followed by the return to 1950s rock-and-roll-style confrontations with the advent of punk music, which entertained similar feelings of alienation among working-class youth yet offered direct appraisals of and assaults upon politics and culture.
Reactions to the Sex Pistols Anarchy Tour in December 1976 illustrated renewed cultural fears of youthful rebellion and violence assigned to punk rock, in part linked to film dystopias played out locally and nationally. Though rooted in socialist politics, the Sex Pistols aroused a negative reception before they performed based on perceptions about what they seemed to represent—”blasphemy,” “postwar decline,” etc. (183). Reactions to the Sex Pistols and their planned tour divided fans too, but the image of the band indicates how culture declined alongside economic affairs, pointing to a future where local and national divisions would become more pronounced. Punk rock served as a tool for working-class youth in 1976 just as rock and roll had in 1955, “where popular music retained its power as a form of social protest and a discourse of escape” (193).
As a history of notable popular musicians, the images are not unfamiliar, but Gildart’s thoughtful reconsiderations fulfill his historical argument that popular music reflected class identity. The final image of the Sex Pistols on the eve of political shifts in the late 1970s offers valuable room for further consideration of popular music as social history in the lives of working-class youth.
In his book, organized into three parts focused on American influences in the 1950s, Mods and “organic intellectuals” in the 1960s, and glam rock and punk rock in the 1970s, Gildart argues that musicians and audiences interacted and incorporated diverse interests against local and national backdrops. In particular, discussions about Ray Davies and punk rock provide critical evaluations of how popular music operated as a historical tool alongside its role as a model for sociological and cultural examinations. Each discussion is rooted in the local identities of the specific performers in their hometowns, but, as the national impact of those performers developed historically, Gildart superbly articulates the dynamics of English physical and political geography and shifting demographics with working-class experiences between 1955 and 1976.
Linked to his framing stories in Leigh and Wigan at the start and conclusion of this history, Gildart begins his discussions of English images by arguing how rock and roll offered an escape from work in the mines and mills. While navigating local fears about teddy boys or rebellious activities, musicians like Georgie Fame (Clive Powell) or “the Lemon Drop Kid” (Ronnie Carr) listened to American rock and roll through café jukeboxes, films, and local musicians playing covers and incorporating the style into their repertoire. Fame left Leigh in 1959 for London, where he confronted race and gender issues alongside class concerns and the capitalism of the music industry. While engaging with American rock and roll, these musicians interacted with American servicemen, recent immigrants from the Caribbean, homosexuals, and African-Americans playing rhythm and blues and jazz. At clubs like the Flamingo, these interactions “[provided] an image of England in which popular music was both reflecting and shaping the continuities and changes that defined aspects of its culture” (61). Identities were fluid in these environments, which led to targeting by authorities, but, as musicians like Fame transported local concerns across England, they commanded a national culture rooted in the working-class experiences of those young people.
The Beatles also transformed and transposed local concerns to national audiences, and the band’s young fans in Liverpool in the early 1960s indicated the impact of popular music across a large working-class population. The Beatles as individuals sought music as an escape from class, but their listeners identified with the group. Gildart’s discussion is rooted in those experiences as opposed to narratives about the Beatles and the successes they enjoyed in 1963 and 1964. When the Beatles left Liverpool for good in 1963, political and social leaders in the community attempted to harness the possibility “that popular music could transcend local peculiarities and tensions between nation states” (83), in this case with the Beatles’ old haunt Hamburg.
In the mid-1960s, the Mod subculture that emerged predominantly in London posed a “challenge to particular social boundaries” (90). Gildart looks at Pete Townsend of the Who and Ray Davies of the Kinks as “organic intellectuals” who sought to explore class identities and English culture. The Mod subculture furthered the crossings of class, race, and sexual boundaries, and in turn opened new ambiguities within everyday experiences. However, local and national authorities identified a “perceived link to delinquency, violence, drug abuse and social transgressions” (108) within Mod subculture, akin to 1950s perceptions of teddy boys. Rather than “national government and legislation” (120) directed at policing young working-class behavior, Gildart emphasizes local measures to combat drug abuse and violence.
Ray Davies exposed the failings of 1960s working-class culture and presented a less mythologized” (128) decade. Gildart links Davies and the Kinks to pre-war literature and authors like George Orwell, as well as the post-war politics of the Labour Party. Unlike other musicians, Davies reflected his class identity in his music, assessing race, gender, and history. Gildart’s discussion of Davies prevails as a major contribution to popular music as a historical motivator, as well as a
valuable consideration of a unique musician of the 1960s generation.
The final images of England traced are those of glam rock and punk rock, both suggesting consideration of “spatial changes” (152) in the 1970s as complementary to the working class. Slade and David Bowie serve as the prominent representatives of glam rock, both acting as models for young working-class listeners in dealing with concerns of the early 1970s. Their impact through glam rock stemmed from ideas of alienation in the workplace and the environment. Slade offered images that affirmed elements of masculinity and working-class attitudes and backgrounds; Bowie utilized otherworldly constructions that tapped into sexual ambiguities and gender inequalities. Glam rock attracted a broad audience, too, as regional and local communities across England witnessed fans wearing make-up and mimicking glam performers. Glam rock peaked in 1974–75 and was followed by the return to 1950s rock-and-roll-style confrontations with the advent of punk music, which entertained similar feelings of alienation among working-class youth yet offered direct appraisals of and assaults upon politics and culture.
Reactions to the Sex Pistols Anarchy Tour in December 1976 illustrated renewed cultural fears of youthful rebellion and violence assigned to punk rock, in part linked to film dystopias played out locally and nationally. Though rooted in socialist politics, the Sex Pistols aroused a negative reception before they performed based on perceptions about what they seemed to represent—”blasphemy,” “postwar decline,” etc. (183). Reactions to the Sex Pistols and their planned tour divided fans too, but the image of the band indicates how culture declined alongside economic affairs, pointing to a future where local and national divisions would become more pronounced. Punk rock served as a tool for working-class youth in 1976 just as rock and roll had in 1955, “where popular music retained its power as a form of social protest and a discourse of escape” (193).
As a history of notable popular musicians, the images are not unfamiliar, but Gildart’s thoughtful reconsiderations fulfill his historical argument that popular music reflected class identity. The final image of the Sex Pistols on the eve of political shifts in the late 1970s offers valuable room for further consideration of popular music as social history in the lives of working-class youth.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 17, 2020
Gildart presents in relatively readable style (once one gets past the introduction) a compelling argument for using popular music as a means of examining society and class tensions historically - something that, regrettably, historians often overlook doing. His arguments are solid, his evidence is laid out nearly and succinctly, and he chose his focus well.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews