Scouse Pop

By (author) Paul Skillen

Book cover: Scouse Pop

Extent: 196 pages

Publisher: Equinox Publishing

Subjects: Cultural Studies, Music & Performing Arts

Series: Popular Music History

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(October 2018)

ISBN: 9781781798935

6.15 x 9.2 inches

Price: $29.95

Out of stock

Hardback (Published)

(October 2018)

ISBN: 9781781791233

6.1 x 9.15 inches

Price: $39.95

In stock

Scouse Pop is a journey into the personalities and music of the successful pioneering Liverpool pop bands of the late seventies and eighties.


Scouse Pop is a journey into the personalities and music of the successful pioneering Liverpool pop bands of the late seventies and eighties. It examines their motivations, their uniqueness and the routes to success which made them into enduring musical innovators. It looks at the reasons why art-pop bands such as OMD, China Crisis, Echo and the Bunnymen, Black and Frankie Goes to Hollywood managed to combine art and commerce with such spectacular success. The bands experienced their own ‘revolutions in the head,’ internal revolutions than eventually made many of them household names. The development of these suburban romantics from Liverpool represented a period of intensive creativity and musical romanticism that still resonates today. The spirit of (internal) revolution at the heart of these bands retains a strong fascination for those interested in artistic creation and popular culture. Given the bleak and uninspiring context within which the bands surfaced, how did these musicians achieve great success? Scouse Pop explores this question in detail, and examines the factors that facilitated the transformation of Liverpool teenage dreams into commercial and cultural impact. The music industry, radio and DJs, producers and engineers, the record-buying public and the bands themselves comprise the heart of this account.

Table of Contents

Preliminaries

Foreword vii-viii, Paul Du Noyer

Preface ix-x

Acknowledgements xi-xii

Chapter 1. A Sense of Place 1-28

Chapter 2. To be Somebody: Ambition and the Desire to be Different 29-94

Chapter 3. Rainy Day Music: Art Pop and the Scouse Romantic 95-110

Chapter 4. Some Aspects of the Music Industry in Liverpool 111-149

Chapter 5. The Audience Respond 150-169

End Matter

Appendix 1: List of interviews 170

Appendix 2: Scouse Pop TV 171

Notes 172

Bibliography 178-181

Index 182-183

 
  • By (author) Paul Skillen

"The more that Liverpool was written off, whether for being too stuck in Fab Four nostalgia or too bolshie to accommodate the new economic order, the more its young musicians responded with songs of emotional generosity and visionary breadth. I am pleased that Skillen has documented what they did, in such eloquent detail." From the Preface by Paul Du Noyer, author of Conversations with McCartney and Liverpool: Wondrous Place