The Urban Geography of Pop in Sixties Britain

The explosion of pop culture in Britain between the late 1950s and the late sixties is usually taken to have been an urban phenomenon. Pop was the ‘sound of the city’ in Britain as much as America. But what kind of ‘urban’ was involved – big city, small town, centre, suburb? What kind of geographical reach did pop have across the different parts of the United Kingdom in the 1960s? What was the significance of London in a cultural movement that was simultaneously national and international? Where pop was made and performed in its formative years helps us grasp why it took off so spectacularly in sixties Britain; it illuminates why post-war Britain was so receptive to and generative of pop music as well as the music’s nationwide appeal. In this respect the article contributes not just to the history of pop music and youth but to the larger cultural history of post-war Britain.