Roots, Radicals and Rockers - How Skiffle Changed the World (Hardcover, Main)


Emerging from the jazz clubs of the early '50s, skiffle - a uniquely British take on American folk and blues - caused a sensation among a generation of kids who had grown up during the dreary post-war years. These were Britain's first teenagers, looking for a music of their own in a culture dominated by crooners and mediated by a stuffy BBC. Sales of guitars rocketed from 5,000 to 250,000 a year, and - as with the punk rock that would flourish two decades later - all you needed to know were three chords to form your own group, with your mates accompanying on tea-chest bass and washboard. Against a backdrop of Cold War politics, rock and roll riots and a newly assertive working-class youth, Billy Bragg charts - for the first time in depth - the history, impact and legacy of Britain's original pop movement. It's a story of jazz pilgrims and blues blowers, Teddy Boys and beatnik girls, coffee-bar bohemians and refugees from the McCarthyite witch-hunts, who between them sparked a revolution that shaped pop culture as we have come to know it.

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Product Description

Emerging from the jazz clubs of the early '50s, skiffle - a uniquely British take on American folk and blues - caused a sensation among a generation of kids who had grown up during the dreary post-war years. These were Britain's first teenagers, looking for a music of their own in a culture dominated by crooners and mediated by a stuffy BBC. Sales of guitars rocketed from 5,000 to 250,000 a year, and - as with the punk rock that would flourish two decades later - all you needed to know were three chords to form your own group, with your mates accompanying on tea-chest bass and washboard. Against a backdrop of Cold War politics, rock and roll riots and a newly assertive working-class youth, Billy Bragg charts - for the first time in depth - the history, impact and legacy of Britain's original pop movement. It's a story of jazz pilgrims and blues blowers, Teddy Boys and beatnik girls, coffee-bar bohemians and refugees from the McCarthyite witch-hunts, who between them sparked a revolution that shaped pop culture as we have come to know it.

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Product Details

General

Imprint

Faber and Faber

Country of origin

United Kingdom

Release date

June 2017

Availability

Supplier out of stock. If you add this item to your wish list we will let you know when it becomes available.

Authors

Dimensions

234 x 153 x 31mm (L x W x T)

Format

Hardcover

Pages

448

Edition

Main

ISBN-13

978-0-571-32774-4

Barcode

9780571327744

Categories

LSN

0-571-32774-5



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