'Adult Reactions to Popular Music and Inter-generational Relations in Britain, 1955-1975' challenges the often unquestioned assumption that 'the older generation' largely reacted in a negative or hostile fashion to forms of music popular with young people in Britain from the 1950s to the mid-1970s (including rock 'n' roll, skiffle, 'beat' and rock music), and that the music invariably exacerbated inter-generational tensions. Utilizing extensive primary evidence, from first-person accounts to newspapers, television programmes, surveys and archive collections, the book demonstrates the considerable variety which frequently characterized adult responses to the music, whilst also highlighting that the impact of the music on inter-generational relations was more complex than is often assumed. There has been a growing recognition among scholars of the need to reassess the alleged 'generation gap' of this era, but this theme has yet to be examined in depth via the prism of popular music. [NP] The book is also distinctive in the thematic approach it adopts. Rather than attempting a chronological survey, it identifies three key arenas of British society in which adult responses to popular music, and the impact of such reactions upon relations between generations, seem particularly revealing and significant, and explores them in considerable depth. The first chapter examines the place of popular music within family life, the second focuses on the Christian churches and their engagement with popular music, particularly within youth clubs, and the third explores 'encounters' between the worlds of traditional Variety entertainment and popular music. The work offers detailed appraisals of each of these areas, while also providing fresh perspectives on this most dynamic and turbulent of periods.

Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. 'You Go Halfway, Don't You?' Family Life, Generational Identity and Popular Music; 2. 'To Have Done Something': The Christian Churches, Youth Clubs and Popular Music; 3. 'You've Got to Be Able to Entertain People': The Encounter between Popular Music and the Worlds of Variety and 'Light Entertainment'; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.