BBC rock music programming on radio and television and the progressive rock audience, 1967–1973
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v2i1.95Keywords:
BBC, progressive rock, radio, television, popular musicAbstract
A little more than forty years into its existence, the British Broadcasting Corporation replaced its original popular music radio show, the Light Programme, with its first popular music radio services, Radio One and Radio Two. The creation of two radio stations that broadcast popular music with no overt aim to educate the public’s taste appeared to be a major reversal of everything the BBC had stood for throughout its existence. Nevertheless, this accommodation of the public taste was received with opprobrium in some quarters, namely from the burgeoning ‘underground’ press and a small but very vocal and influential section of the audience whose tastes were defined by what they called ‘progressive’ rock music; music that they heard only in select and not very popular listening hours on Radio One. Criticism of the corporation’s broadcast and programming policies had rarely been so public, or so widespread.
References
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Blake, Andrew. 1997. The Land Without Music: Music, Culture and Society in Twentieth Century Britain. New York: Manchester University Press.
Briggs, Asa. 1995. The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, vol. V: Competition 1955–1974. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cannon, Geoffrey, ed. 1970. ‘Pop and Light Music: A New Plan for Radio’. Radio Times, March 19, 10–12.
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Crisell, Andrew. 1997. An Introductory History of British Broadcasting. New York: Routledge.
French, Peter. 1970. ‘Big Brother at the BBC: An IT Enquiry into the Extent of Censorship’. International Times, December 3-17, 10–13.
Frith, Simon. 1981a. ‘1967’. The History of Rock 1: 4–10.
—1981b. Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure and the Politics of Rock ‘n’ Roll. New York: Pantheon Books.
—1988. Music for Pleasure: Essays in the Sociology of Pop. New York: Routledge.
Hopper, Hugh. 1983. ‘Work in Progress’. The History of Rock 7: 1562–63.
Knight, Peter. 1964. ‘Light Music Composer Accuses BBC’. Daily Telegraph, June 19, 1964 (n.p.).
Laing, Dave. 1996. ‘Roll Over Lonnie (Tell George Formby the News)’. In The Beat Goes On: The Rock File Reader, eds Charlie Gillett and Simon Frith, 10–25. London: Pluto Press.
Macan, Edward. 1997. Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture. New York: Oxford University Press.
Marsh, Dave. 1983. Before I Get Old: The Story of the Who. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Martin, Bill. 1998. Listening to the Future: The Time of Progressive Rock, 1968–1978. Chicago and LaSalle, IL: Open Court Press.
Milner, Ronald S. 1970. ‘Rock and the Classics’. Guardian, September 14, 1970 (n.p.).
Norman, Philip. 1981. SHOUT! The Beatles in Their Generation. New York: MJF Books.
Page, Jimmy, interviewed by Felix Dennis. 1969. Oz 20 (April 1969): 38.
Paulu, Burton. 1981. Television and Radio in the United Kingdom. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Pitt, Arthur A. 1969. ‘Underground Music is Dead! Long Live Pop’. International Times 72 (January 28–February 11, 1969): 13.
Putt, S. Gorley. 1966. ‘Progress Lost in All-Day Pop’. Times, December 23, 1966 (n.p.).
Schuler, Chris. 1983. ‘I Hear a Symphony…’. The History of Rock 8: 1681–84.
Shearman, Colin. 1982. ‘Rock on TV’. The History of Rock 4: 849–52.
Stump, Paul. 1997. The Music’s All That Matters: A History of Progressive Rock. London: Quartet Books.
Toynbee, Jason. 1993. ‘Policing Bohemia, Pinning up Grunge: The Music Press and Generic Change in British Pop and Rock’. Popular Music 12: 289–300.
Veldman, Meredith. 1994. Fantasy, the Bomb and the Greening of Britain: Romantic Protest, 1945–1980. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Woffinden, Bob. 1982. ‘BBC Blues’. The History of Rock 2: 375–80.
Published
2007-04-01
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Simonelli, D. (2007). BBC rock music programming on radio and television and the progressive rock audience, 1967–1973. Popular Music History, 2(1), 95-112. https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v2i1.95
