Description
Book SynopsisFrom Mummers to Madness considers developments in the production and consumption of popular music in England over a period of some two hundred years, which saw dramatic changes in the socio-economic, demographic and cultural life of the country. Popular music, it is argued, was not simply a response to the wider developments that were taking place but contributed to the ongoing process of adaptation and change.
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction: How can I keep from singing … and dancing? Part 1: popular music in england in the acoustic age, c.1770s to c.1900s Section 1: Nymphs and Shepherds?
Popular music c.1770s – c.1840s Chapter 2 ‘Aive down your prong and stamp along’: Festivals, feasts, and fairs Chapter 3 ‘Between the jigs and the reels’: Popular dance and dancing Chapter 4 ‘I’ll sing you a song and a very pretty one’: Broadsides, ballads and more Chapter 5 ‘Come all you bold heroes, give ear to my Song’: Sport, drink and sex Chapter 6 ‘In Maidstone gaol, I am lamenting’: Crime, punishment and socio-political comment Section 2: Music-hall and its rivals, c.1840s – c.1900s Chapter 7 ‘Sing, sing! Why shouldn’t we sing?’ Popular music in the age of the music hall Chapter 8 ‘Dancing to the organ (in the Mile End Road)’: Dance and Dancing Saloons Chapter 9 ‘Champagne Charlie is my name’:
The swell, the Irish and the cockney Chapter 10 ‘A little of what you fancy’: Love, marriage
and other social problems Chapter 11 ‘The Boers have got my daddy’: Politics domestic and foreign Chapter 12 ‘The Minstrels Parade’: Blackface minstrelsy and the music hall Part 2: english popular music in the age of technology, c.1900s to c.1970s Section 3: Variety and its rivals, c.1890s – c.1950s Chapter 13 ‘Fings ain’t what they used to be’: The strange and lingering death of variety theatre Chapter 14 ‘I wish I could shimmy like my sister Kate’: Dance halls and dancing between the wars Chapter 15 ‘Let’s have a song upon the gramophone’: Manufactured music - records, radio and the cinema Chapter 16 ‘I like bananas’: Popular songs of the 1920s
and 1930s Chapter 17 ‘Music while you work’ ... and play:Popular music c.1940-1955 Section 4: The empires strike back, c.1950s – c.1970s Chapter 18 ‘Don’t You Rock Me, Daddy-O’: Skiffle and rock ‘n’ roll Chapter 19 ‘Twist and shout’: Illusion and disillusion in the 1960s and 1970s Chapter 20 ‘Woke Up This Morning:’ How we got the(rhythm and) blues – and found some soul Chapter 21 ‘Islands in the Sun’: Calypso to reggae Chapter 22 Conclusion: Mummers to Madness-
the broader picture Appendix
Late-eighteenth/early-nineteenthcentury tunes General Index Song and Tune Index
