Victory through Harmony: The BBC and Popular Music in World War II

Abstract

Victory through Harmony: The BBC and Popular Music in World War II. By Christina L. Baade. NY: Oxford University Press, 2012. 275pp. Photos. Index. Bibiliographical references. ISBN 978-0-19-537201-4 Victory through Harmony is a study of the role of popular music in BBC broadcasts during the war, but the book's range is much wider. It also tells us a great deal about the history of broadcasting and music broadcasting, popular music and jazz in Britain, British-American relationships, and the role of women and blacks in British broadcasting. It is thoroughly researched and documented, but also entertaining to read. The British Broadcasting Corporation, founded in 1922, was the first national broadcasting company in Europe. It established the "public service" model of broadcasting, which was followed by many other countries. In this system, broadcasting was not financed by advertising like in the United States, but by license fees collected from listeners. In practice, European broadcasting did not differ that much from American. Broadcasting time was divided between speech and music. Most broadcasting was live from the studio; records were seldom used. By the end of the 1930s, the BBC had become the biggest employer of musicians in Britain and the most important source of income for the Performing Rights Society (the British equivalent of ASCAP). However, there were important distinctions in their relationship to popular music. In order to maintain their credibility, European public broadcasters developed a policy of "uplift": they saw it as their duty to educate audiences to appreciate good, preferably classical music, and shunned the more vulgar forms of popular music. Nevertheless, they could not deny the wide appeal of popular music to the listening audiences. In the 1930s, the core of BBC's popular music programs consisted of well-trained restaurant dance bands and theatre organists. There is as good opening chapter on British popular music in the 1930s. It is interesting to learn that even at this early time, the BBC already had a "payola" problem--not in the form of payments from record companies to disc jockeys, but from music publishers to bands with regular radio programs. The outbreak of the war forced the BBC to change its programming in many ways. All programming was reduced to a single national wavelength. Popular music presented a special problem. There were influential voices suggesting that in the time of war, popular music would be dangerous to the morale of the troops. On the other hand, there was the urgent task of maintaining the productivity of war workers on the home front. One of the first results was the program Music While You Work, which became very successful. It was the first example of functional background music on the BBC. It was performed live from the studio, with various dance bands playing non-stop carefully selected popular tunes. The author follows the development and planning of MWYW, quoting preserved program manuscripts, internal planning documents, audience research, and newspaper reactions. The chapter also shows how the BBC was a pioneer in studying its audiences systematically. Music While You Work is the first of the chapters illustrating the policies of the BBC during the war. Christina Baade follows the development of BBC's popular music programming through five additional themes. "Between Blitzkrieg and Call-up" discusses the problem of finding competent performers at a time when more and more musicians were called up for military service. Civilian dance bands, on which BBC had heavily relied, were in a crisis. The press suspected the remaining players of being draft dodgers, while Melody Maker, the voice of the dance band profession and its fans, praised musicians for doing essential war work. The BBC attempted to solve the situation with regular contracts with two bands featuring different styles, Gerlando and Jack Payne. "Radio Rhythm Club" discusses the rise of the British jazz movement and the intermediary role of black British musicians (mostly from the West Indies). …