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Beyond Authenticism : New Approaches to Post War Music Culture

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Beyond Authenticism : New Approaches to Post War Music Culture ORBIT-OnlineRepository ofBirkbeckInstitutionalTheses Enabling Open Access to Birkbeck’s Research Degree output Beyond authenticism : new approaches to post war music culture https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40204/ Version: Public Version Citation: Hennessy, Tom (2016) Beyond authenticism : new approaches to post war music culture. [Thesis] (Unpublished) c 2020 The Author(s) All material available through ORBIT is protected by intellectual property law, including copy- right law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law. Deposit Guide Contact: email Beyond Authenticism New Approaches to Post War Music Culture Tom Hennessy Birkbeck, University of London Thesis for Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Social Science, History and Philosophy 1 Declaration of Originality I hereby declare that this thesis and the work reported herein was composed by and originated entirely from me. Information derived from the published and unpublished work of others has been acknowledged in the text and references are given in the list of sources. Signed: Tom Hennessy Date: 2 Abstract The emergence of folk, jazz, blues, skiffle, rock n roll and R&B scenes in the post-war period of 1945 – 1964 was a major development in Anglophonic music culture. Key individuals operating within these scenes frequently pursued authenticity, or framed their musical activities as “authentic” – that is as cultural produce that was supposedly “true” to a certain way of life, or that offered something “real” in the face of the commercial culture of the mainstream. While this “authenticism” was productive in many respects it also represents a problem for the cultural historian. This thesis tackles this problem by first diagnosing the origins, nature and effects of authenticism, and then by undertaking three new historical studies through which a differently inflected history of this remarkable phase of popular music can be drawn. The first part of this thesis describes the emergence of authenticism in the 1940s and 50s as constituted by certain forms of language. I situate authenticism as a broad current within post war culture which fed upon the growing sense of dissatisfaction with the status-quo. I pay particular attention to its association with the New Left, a confluence whose legacy I argue should now be reappraised. The second part of the thesis proposes three alternative approaches to the subject: a data-based and textual analysis of chart pop, an analytical biography of Lonnie Donegan and a consideration of space and music culture focused upon London. These three case studies will provide a critical and evidence-led analysis that asserts the hybrid and de-centred nature of post war music culture and its place within the broader narratives of modernity. The aim is to create distance from the discourses of authenticism that still influence popular and academic understandings of this field. 3 Acknowledgements I wish to extend my thanks and gratitude to those who have brought this thesis to life, starting with my parents who encouraged (and underwrote) the project from the start. Their careers and achievements have been an inspiration to me, and I can only aspire to match their integrity, diligence and generosity. To Prof Howard Caygill at Goldsmiths for his encouragement during my Masters and for opening up the possibility in my mind that popular music was legitimate subject for serious philosophical engagement. Thanks to Dr Marybeth Hamilton, for writing In Search of the Blues, which had a profound influence on my understanding of the field, for a year of supervision and for having the generosity to read this thesis cover to cover five years after these obligations ended. Thanks to Prof Jerry White for vital, critical interjections during my upgrade and following a read through of the London chapter. I would especially like to express my unreserved thanks to Prof Matt Cook for six years of amazing supervision. It is no small task to keep a part time research student focussed and motivated over such a distance, and his tireless positivity, skills as an editor and vast knowledge have made this project possible. His contribution is even more praiseworthy considering we were paired unexpectedly and with not a great deal of practical common ground to start with. My thanks to the staff at the British Library (Humanities 2 and Newspaper rooms), to the Goldsmiths Library staff for grudgingly renewing my access every year, to the Bishopsgate Institute archivists and Mass Observation. To my sister Laura, Walter, Pete, Gemma, Lydia, Steve, Ade and Kit, and anyone else whose ears I have bent about this stuff since I started. Thank you to my beautiful girlfriend for giving me calm and clarity. At last, this is for you. 4 Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... 4 List of Images and Tables .......................................................................................................... 6 List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................................. 7 Preface: Authenticism in action at the Partisan Coffee House .................................... 8 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 16 Context ..................................................................................................................................................... 21 The Post-War Social Context ........................................................................................................... 28 Methods & Theory ............................................................................................................................... 40 Chapter 1 – Historicising Authenticism ............................................................................. 47 Authenticity Up to 1945 .................................................................................................................... 49 Authenticism as Discourse ............................................................................................................... 57 A Historiography of Authenticism in Music? ............................................................................ 63 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................ 71 Chapter 2 – Authenticism and Music Culture .................................................................. 74 The Popular “Mainstream” ............................................................................................................... 76 Folk ............................................................................................................................................................ 85 Jazz ............................................................................................................................................................. 98 Blues ....................................................................................................................................................... 110 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................................... 125 Chapter 3: “In Dreams” - Exploring the Pop Process.................................................. 129 General Trends ................................................................................................................................... 137 Romance ............................................................................................................................................... 156 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................................... 175 Chapter 4 – Lonnie Donegan and the fate of skiffle .................................................... 178 The Invention of Skiffle................................................................................................................... 181 Donegan Arrives ................................................................................................................................ 188 Black and White Minstrels ............................................................................................................ 199 The Fate of Skiffle & Conclusions ............................................................................................... 207 Chapter 5: Capital ................................................................................................................... 213 The Outer Suburbs ........................................................................................................................... 218 The Inner Suburbs ............................................................................................................................ 239 The West End after the War .......................................................................................................... 260 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................
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