Please Please Me Sixties British Pop, Inside Out

by Thompson, Gordon

• ISBN13: 9780195333183
• ISBN10: 0195333187
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-09-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Who, and numerous other groups put Britain at the center of the modern musical map. Please Please Me offers an insider's view of the British pop-music recording industry during the seminal period of 1956 to 1968, based on personal recollections,contemporary accounts, and all relevant data that situate this scene in the economic, political, and social context of postwar Britain. Author Gordon Thompson weaves issues of class, age, professional status, gender, and ethnicity into his narrative, beginning with the rise of British beat groupsand the emergence of teenagers as consumers in postwar Britain, and moving into the competition between performers and the recording industry for control over the music. He interviews musicians, songwriters, music directors, and producers and engineers who worked with the best-known performers ofthe era. Drawing his interpretation of the processes at work during this musical revolution into a wider context, Thompson unravels the musical change and innovation of the time with an eye on understanding what traces individuals leave in the musical and recording process.

Author Biography

Gordon Thompson is Professor of Music at Skidmore College.

Table of Contents

Credits	p. xi
Introduction: Approaches and Material	p. 3
The Velvet Glove: The Art of Production	p. 47
A Question of Balance: Engineering Art	p. 105
Mediating Change: Setting Musical Directions	p. 131
The Write Stuff: Songwriting and the Articulation of Change	p. 167
Red-Light Fever: The Musician's Life	p. 233
Please Please Me	p. 269
Sixties London Recording Studios	p. 279
Selected Discography	p. 281
Bibliography	p. 307
Song Index	p. 315
General Index	p. 319
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.