Defining the Discographic Self: Desert Island Discs in Context
Julie Brown, Nicholas Cook, and Stephen Cottrell
Abstract
The radio programme Desert Island Discs has run almost continuously since 1942, and represents a unique record of the changing place of music in British society. In 2011, recognising its iconic status, the BBC created an online archive that includes podcasts of all programmes from 1976 on, and many from earlier years. Based on this and extensive documentary evidence, Defining the Discographic Self: ‘Desert Island Discs’ in Context for the first time brings together musicologists, sociologists, and media scholars to reflect on the programme’s significance, its position within the BBC and Britai ... More
The radio programme Desert Island Discs has run almost continuously since 1942, and represents a unique record of the changing place of music in British society. In 2011, recognising its iconic status, the BBC created an online archive that includes podcasts of all programmes from 1976 on, and many from earlier years. Based on this and extensive documentary evidence, Defining the Discographic Self: ‘Desert Island Discs’ in Context for the first time brings together musicologists, sociologists, and media scholars to reflect on the programme’s significance, its position within the BBC and Britain’s continually evolving media, and its relationship to other comparable programmes. Of particular interest are the meanings attributed to music in the programme by both castaways and interviewers, the ways in which music is invoked in the public presentation of self, the incorporation of music within personal narratives, and changes in musical tastes during the seven decades spanned by the programme. Scholarly chapters are complemented by former castaways’ accounts of their appearances, which give fascinating insiders’ views into how the programme is made and how its guests prepare for their involvement.
Keywords:
radio,
castaway,
celebrity,
media culture,
identity,
self,
class,
taste,
emotion,
music
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2017 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780197266175 |
| Published to British Academy Scholarship Online: May 2018 |
DOI:10.5871/bacad/9780197266175.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Julie Brown, editor
Professor of Music, Royal Holloway, University of London
Nicholas Cook, editor
1684 Professor of Music, University of Cambridge
Stephen Cottrell, editor
Professor of Music, City, University of London
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