Digging into the detailed beginnings of popular music's relationship with the British national daily press, Mitchell's book invites a reappraisal of press reactions to popular music from the mid-1950s to 1970s. Drawn from broader research into ‘the responses of adults and authorities to rock ‘n’ roll and its musical successors’ (p. 3), the author states that this work is intended to challenge conventional histories in which British newspapers of the post-war period have often been attributed with generating negative societal attitudes and ‘moral panic’ in response to the arrival of rock ‘n’ roll; histories which arguably laid the foundations for certain subsequent evaluations of associated youth and popular music cultures such as those associated with the work of Stanley Cohen. Further still, Mitchell aims to challenge pre-existing notions of a collective press stance on popular music during this period by mapping out variations in coverage.
Following a comprehensive Introduction, the author embarks upon an in-depth survey of initial press reactions to the arrival of rock ‘n’ roll, largely focussing upon the 1956 cinema disturbances in the wake of Bill Haley's musical film Rock Around the Clock. The rich textual illustration found in the opening chapter is compelling and the evidence presented is discussed in relation to relevant contextual materials and existing scholarship. Mitchell aptly concludes here that ‘the assertions of commentators like Pete Fame, that the newspapers played a key collective role in generating negative attitudes towards rock ‘n’ roll, were certainly not groundless’ (p. 29).
The central chapters then set about tracing and observing nuances associated with individual writers, particularly those from the tabloids, including Patrick Doncaster and Noel Whitcomb of the Daily Mirror, Anne Leslie and pioneering female music writer Judith Simons of the Express and Kenneth Allsop of the Daily Mail. Mitchell touches upon the approaches, critical vocabulary and likely motives of some such writers whilst also setting their work against a backdrop of shifting pressures in the post-war newspaper industry. There's evidence of the tabloid press attempting to connect with readers through other popular music related coverage, such as the instigation of a ‘pop club’ for readers of The Mirror by veteran television critic Clifford Davis, which Mitchell points out earned the Mirror some £250,000 in extra advertising revenue from concert promoters, record companies and related businesses after its first year alone. A number of subtleties across various sections of the British press are teased out to depict attempts to move away from one-dimensional approaches to coverage, often on a simple linear spectrum with outrage and conservatism at each end, whilst also fleshing-out the evolution of different ‘strands’ of content, such as those focussing on audience behaviours, the artists or music itself. Echoing pre-existing scholarship, Beatlemania is positioned as a notable turning point in press coverage and the analysis here demonstrates how it spurred a desire within some publications to engage with the social function of popular music, for example through the introduction of reader competitions and pop columns.
The book's title suggests significant breadth, but as a short-form work the relative brevity of its five chapters, comprising only 80 pages collectively, creates inevitable limitations in scope, which Mitchell acknowledges. Significant Sunday titles such as the News of the World, the Sunday Times and the Observer are excluded, along with provincial, local and regional editions of certain national titles. The lion's share of evidence is drawn primarily from only two ‘serious’ and three ‘popular’ news titles, which perhaps explains the seemingly more frequent reference to the tabloid press. Mitchell sets the end-date of her focus at 1975, although the book's core barely extends to 1970 and by the author's own admission ‘the era between the rock ‘n’ roll heyday of the mid-to-late 1950s and rise of the Beatles in the early 1960s is afforded the closest scrutiny’ (p. 3). The final, and notably shortest, chapter offers some exploratory and broader discussion of changing attitudes towards newspaper coverage of popular music from the late 1960s to mid-1970s, drawing together existing scholarship and various noteworthy sources but with less emphasis upon evidence from the kind of in-depth survey of press articles seen earlier in the volume.
Whilst addressing popular music ‘coverage’ in the broadest sense, the book's contents would likely be of interest to those interested more specifically in ‘music journalism’ as well as those attentive to the reactions to the arrival of rock ‘n’ roll. The book highlights how press coverage of popular music in the aftermath of 1956 ‘proved more multi-tonal and deceptive than superficial impressions might suggest’ (p. 60), partly as a result of newspapers adapting to suit the changing tastes of their readers but also simply due to the varying motives of individual commentators. Mitchell doesn't attempt to over-state the significance of the music coverage scrutinised here; rather the work invites reflection upon the mechanisms by which certain early press reactions may have both mirrored and influenced social attitudes to popular music whilst simultaneously, and sometimes subtly, laying foundations for elements of the subsequent tones adopted by the British press in their varied approaches to such music. The snapshots and analysis offered here provide insights into the context for popular music coverage in particular quarters of the British national press around the middle of the 20th century. The work therefore complements and supplements existing scholarship relating to societal and written responses to the arrival of rock ‘n’ roll. A final bonus comes in the form of the extensive bibliography and comprehensive 28 pages of notes which follow Mitchell's conclusion, both of which might serve as particularly helpful reference points for future related studies.
