Images of England Through Popular Music - by K Gildart (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

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 cultures and - through a focus on rock 'n' roll, rhythm & blues, punk, mod subculture, and glam rock - created a sense of crisis in English society.

Review Quotes

"The book's nuanced treatment of the relationship between currents of race, sexuality, gender and class identity in popular music, and the combination of a reading of the music/ians of the period and music as lived experience make this book an important piece of cultural history. ... this book is recommended reading for those working on contemporary class and youth cultures as well as music historians." (Emma Jackson, Popular Music, Vol. 34 (2), May, 2015)

"Images of England is a significant contribution to research into popular music and youth culture between 1955 and 1976. ... Images of England lends a cultural voice to young people previously overlooked and adds to the body of academic literature that seeks to explain the importance of popular music in the everyday life of young people." (Adrian Horn, Social and Cultural History, Vol. 12 (2), 2015)

About the Author

Keith Gildart is Reader in Labour and Social History at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. He has published widely in the field of labour and working-class history. He is the author of North Wales Miners: A Fragile Unity, 1945-1996 (2001) and an editor of the Dictionary of Labour Biography.