These are the songs that we have listened to,laughed to,loved to and laboured to,as well as downed tools and danced to. Covering the last seven decades,Stuart Maconie looks at the songs that have sound tracked our changing times,and - just sometimes - changed the way we feel. Beginning with Vera Lynn's'We'll Meet Again',a song that reassured a nation parted from their loved ones by the turmoil of war,and culminating with the manic energy of'Bonkers',Dizzee Rascal's anthem for the push and rush of the 21st century inner city,The People's Songs takes a tour of our island's pop music,and asks what it means to us. This is not a rock critique about the 50 greatest tracks ever recorded. Rather,it is a celebration of songs that tell us something about a changing Britain during the dramatic and kaleidoscopic period from the Second World War to the present day. Here are songs about work,war,class,leisure,race,family,drugs,sex,patriotism and more,recorded in times of prosperity or poverty. This is the music that inspired haircuts and dance crazes,but also protest and social change. The companion to Stuart Maconie's landmark Radio 2 series,The People's Songs shows us the power of'cheap'pop music,- one of Britain's greatest exports. These are the songs we worked to and partied to,and grown up and grown old to - from'A Whiter Shade of Pale'to'Rehab','She Loves You'to'Star Man','Dedicated Follower of Fashion'to'Radio Ga Ga'.'If there's a purer,more joyous and affectionate tribute to the power of popular songs,then I'd like to read it'- Daily Mail
MEDIA REVIEWS
Publisher: Ebury PublishingISBN: 9780091933807Number of pages: 480Weight: 316 gDimensions: 197 x 128 x 30 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
One of the most insightful and purely readable books on pop music I think I have ever encounteredAn unequivocal pleasure and highly recommendedThe blend of research and conjecture is impressiveMaconie succeeds in being at once elegant and approachable,definititive but also self-deprecatingA fine writer: sharp,funny,tender and thoughtful
Stuart Maconie
Stuart Maconie is a British journalist,author,DJ and television presenter,who has penned books on popular music,social history and British travel,as well as the acclaimed memoir Cider with Roadies. His latest book is The Nanny State Made Me.
Visit the Stuart Maconie author page
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