'Victory through harmony': Popular music and the British Broadcasting Corporation in World War II.

摘要

This dissertation examines issues of popular music values, gendered listening, American music reception, and British national identity in British Broadcasting Corporation programme policy during the Second World War. In response to the circumstances of war, the BBC mobilized popular music to maintain civilian and military morale, increase industrial production, and promote a sense of Anglo-American cooperation. It thus reconceptualized popular music as useful and legitimate, revising its traditional attitude toward popular music as a commercial form that was inferior to serious music. To further this goal, the BBC tracked the tastes of discrete audiences, including servicemen stationed overseas, young female factory workers, and jazz connoisseurs, seeking to satisfy listener preferences in a wholesome manner. As it became concerned with sentimentality, effeminacy, and the growing influence of American musical styles, the BBC began to censor song lyrics and performers in order to promote a properly virile British dance-band style.; My research draws on primary materials and contemporary press sources found at the BBC Written Archives Center in Caversham, the National Sound Archive in London, the Mass-Observation Archives at the University of Sussex, and the British Library Newspaper Library. This dissertation articulates an unexplored locus where popular music helped redefine notions of war, gender, and nationality; helps situate the role of technology and broadcasting institutions in defining musical tastes; and contributes to understanding American popular music history in a more global context.