Understanding Rock 'N' Roll: Popular Music in Britain, 1955-1964 (Popular Music in Britain Series)

Rock'n'roll in Britain has been written about many times, but the question of what it has meant to its young fans and imitators has usually taken second place to the description of the records and artists themselves. In this book Dick Bradley argues that to fully understand the history of rock'n'roll and related styles like skiffle, Beat music and British R'n'B, it is not enough merely to praise or criticize records. We must consider how the music was used, and what made many listeners take up singing and playing themselves. He suggests music-use formed a central practice of the emerging youth culture. Young listeners found articulations of "resistance" and "communality" in American rock'n'roll, which many of them then tried to reproduce in their own music-making. Dr. Bradley also provides a speculative theoretical framework for understanding these meanings in their wider social and historical context.