To serve the British nation in World War II, the BBC charged itself
with mobilizing popular music in support of Britain's war effort.
Radio music, British broadcasters and administrators argued, could
maintain civilian and military morale, increase industrial
production, and even promote a sense of Anglo-American cooperation.
Because of their widespread popularity, dance music and popular
song were seen as ideal for these tasks; along with jazz, with its
American associations and small but youthful audience, these genres
suddenly gained new legitimacy at the traditionally more
conservative BBC. In Victory through Harmony, author Christina
Baade both tells the fascinating story of the BBC's musical
participation in wartime events and explores how popular music and
jazz broadcasting helped redefine notions of war, gender, race,
class, and nationality in wartime Britain. Baade looks in
particular at the BBC's pioneering Listener Research Department,
which tracked the tastes of select demographic groups including
servicemen stationed overseas and young female factory workers in
order to further the goal of entertaining, cheering, and even
calming the public during wartime. The book also tells how the
wartime BBC programmed popular music to an unprecedented degree
with the goal of building national unity and morale, promoting new
roles for women, virile representations of masculinity,
Anglo-American friendship, and pride in a common British culture.
In the process, though, the BBC came into uneasy contact with
threats of Americanization, sentimentality, and the creativity of
non-white "others," which prompted it to regulate and even censor
popular music and performers. Rather than provide the soundtrack
for a unified "People's War," Baade argues, the BBC's broadcasting
efforts exposed the divergent ideologies, tastes, and perspectives
of the nation. This illuminating book will interest all readers in
popular music, jazz, and radio, as well as British cultural history
and gender studies.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
