Historical approaches to Merseybeat
delivery, affinity and diversity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v4i1.39Keywords:
Beatles, Liverpool, MerseybeatAbstract
This article examines the connections between place and sound with a particular concentration upon Liverpool and ‘Merseybeat’. The article examines the ways in which accounts of the city’s musical sound in the early 1960s have been presented in journalistic and critical reception of Liverpool’s popular music. It considers the assumptions behind those accounts, assesses the validity of the explanations they offer and traces the evolution of academic, journalistic and populist discourses about Merseybeat. The contributions can be organized into three categories (delivery, affinity and diversity) which are broadly distinctive perspectives that usefully indicate the different ways in which the sound of Merseybeat has been approached.
References
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Sawyers, June Skinner, ed. 2006. Read the Beatles. London: Penguin.
Shaw, Greg. 1992. ‘The Teen Idols’. In The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, eds Anthony DeCurtis and James Henke, 107–12. London: Plexus.
Shuker, Roy. 1998. Key Concepts in Popular Music. London: Routledge.
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Streissguth, Michael. 1997. Eddy Arnold: Pioneer of the Nashville Sound. London: Music Sales Ltd.
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Beatles, The. 2000. The Beatles Anthology. London: Cassell.
Boland S. R., and Marilyn Bond. 2002. Birth of the Detroit Sound 1940–1964. Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia.
Bradley, Dick. 1992. Understanding Rock’n’Roll. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Carson, David. 1999. Rockin’ Down the Dial: The Detroit Sound of Radio. Royal Oak, MI: Momentum Books.
Clayson, Alan. 1997. Hamburg: The Cradle of British Rock. London: Sanctuary.
Cohen, Sara. 1991. Rock Culture in Liverpool. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
—1995. ‘Sounding out the City: Music and the Sensuous Production of Place’. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 20: 434–6. doi:10.2307/622974
Cohn, Nik. 1969. Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson.
Coleman, Ray. 1984. John Lennon. London: Sidgwick & Jackson.
Davies, Hunter. 1968. The Beatles. London: Heinemann.
DeCurtis, Anthony, and James Henke, eds. 1992. The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll. London: Plexus.
Epstein, Brian. 1964. A Cellarful of Noise. London: Souvenir Press.
Everett, Walter. 2001. The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Friedlander, Paul. 1996. Rock and Roll: A Social History. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Frith, Simon. 1988. Music for Pleasure. Cambridge: Polity.
Gillett, Charlie. 1971. The Sound of the City. London: Sphere Books.
Giuliano, Geoffrey, and Brenda Giuliano. 1995. The Lost Beatles Interviews. London: Virgin.
Gould, Jonathan. 2007. Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America. New York: Harmony Books.
Harker, Dave. 1980. One for the Money. London: Hutchinson.
Hemphill, Paul. 1975. The Nashville Sound. New York: Ballantine.
Hoskyns, Barney. 1996. Waiting for the Sun: Strange Days, Weird Scenes, and the Sound of Los Angeles. New York: St Martin’s Press.
Jensen, Joli. 1998. The Nashville Sound: Authenticity, Commercialisation and Country Music. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.
Kozinn, Allan. 1995. The Beatles. London: Phaidon.
Kruger, Ulf. 2006. ‘Rock’n’roll + Skiffle = Beat’. In The Hamburg Sound, eds Ulf Kruger and Ortwin Pelc, 76–85. Hamburg: Ellert & Richter.
Leach, Sam. 1999. The Rocking City. Gwynned: Pharoah Press.
Leigh, Spencer. 2004. Twist and Shout: Merseybeat, the Cavern, the Star Club and the Beatles. Liverpool: Nirvana.
Leslie, Peter. 1965. Fab: The Anatomy of a Phenomenon. London: MacGibbon & Kee.
Mann, William. 1963. ‘What Songs the Beatles Sang’. The Times, 27 December: 4.
Marcus, Greil. 1992. ‘The Beatles’. In The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, eds Anthony DeCurtis and James Henke, 209–22. London: Plexus.
Martin, George. 1983. Making Music. London: Pan.
McKeen, William. 1989. The Beatles: A Bio-Bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press.
Mellers, Wilfrid. 1973. Twilight of the Gods: The Beatles in Retrospect. London: Faber.
Melly, George. 1970. Revolt into Style. London: Allen Lane.
Morrell, Brad. 1993. Nirvana and the Sound of Seattle. London: Omnibus.
Norman, Philip. 1981. Shout! The True Story of the Beatles. London: Hamish Hamilton.
O’Grady, Terence J. 1983. The Beatles: A Musical Evolution. Boston: Twayne.
Paraire, Philippe. 1990. 50 Years of Rock Music. Paris: Bordas.
Sawyers, June Skinner, ed. 2006. Read the Beatles. London: Penguin.
Shaw, Greg. 1992. ‘The Teen Idols’. In The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, eds Anthony DeCurtis and James Henke, 107–12. London: Plexus.
Shuker, Roy. 1998. Key Concepts in Popular Music. London: Routledge.
Spitz, Bob. 2005. The Beatles. New York: Little Brown & Co.
Streissguth, Michael. 1997. Eddy Arnold: Pioneer of the Nashville Sound. London: Music Sales Ltd.
True, Everett. 2004. The White Stripes and the Detroit Sound. London: Music Sales Ltd.
Weinstein, Donna. 1998. ‘The History of Rock’s Past through Rock Covers’. In Mapping the Beat: Popular Music and Contemporary Theory, eds Thomas Swiss, John Sloop and Andrew Herman, 137–51. London: Blackwell.
Williams, Allan, and William Marshall. 1975. The Man Who Gave the Beatles Away. London: Elm Tree Books.
Published
2010-04-07
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Inglis, I. (2010). Historical approaches to Merseybeat: delivery, affinity and diversity. Popular Music History, 4(1), 39-55. https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v4i1.39
