Britishness, Popular Music, and National Identity

"This is a brilliant work of interpretation of modern British culture...[it is] a good book to read for people who are working on pop culture studies themselves, historical or otherwise: it gives words to a definition of modern British culture that many people have probably thought about but never articulated. Also, it will make for a good final reading in a modern British history course at the seminar level, especially one focused on the postimperial era." - David Simonelli, Journal of British Studies

"This is an informative and often engaging read, which covers a broad sweep of the history of British popular music with an evident enthusiasm for its subject. It represents a valuable contribution to the corpus of academic literature on both popular music and national identity, and would be a welcome addition to the reading lists of scholars and students of History, Music and English Literature, as well as Cultural and Media Studies." --Ruth Adams, King’s College London, LSE Review of Books

"This volume is a fine examination of English pop music and evolving social attitudes and a must for all academic libraries, but it really is more than that. Morra opens new areas of discussion and reframes long-held competing theories and debates surrounding popular music. The book is not a mere academic exercise. There is nothing dry or dull here, as Morra maintains that popular music unsullied by sanitization imposed by the music industry is the legitimate voice of Britain. She invites her audience to re-examine their music collection in new ways and to listen again, this time for the sounds that have struggled to reshape Britain into a modern nation." - James Martens, Popular Music and Society

"This study by the Canadian-born Dr Morra, who teaches at Cardiff University's School of English, Communication and Philosophy, is timely...Morra concludes that, in becoming: “as much a part of national establishment culture as Shakespeare, Dickens, the BBC and the Queen” (p. 188) – as the Olympic opening ceremony demonstrated – British pop has become part of a national heritage that in spite of pop's anti-establishment posture is as entropic as the rest of the heritage industry, and which stands in the way of a more critical approach to the pressing issue of forming a positive sense of national identity." - Cultural Trends