This book focuses on two commercial radio stations, Radio Luxembourg and Europe n°1, which were popular institutions in Western Europe throughout the Long Sixties, working across media and broadcasting transnationally. It argues that the existence of an overarching ‘dispositif ’ of commercial radio stations enabled them to operate on various dimensions and differentiated them from other broadcasters. The book therefore answers current calls in media history to look beyond national and single-medium borders and contributes to the cultural and media history of Western Europe.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Radio presents exciting new research on radio and audio, including broadcasting and podcasting. Since the birth of radio studies as a distinct subject in the 1990s, it has matured into a second wave of inquiry and scholarship. As broadcast radio has partly given way to podcasting and as community initiatives have pioneered more diverse and innovative approaches so scholars have embarked on new areas of inquiry. Divided into seven sections, the Handbook covers: - Communities - Entertainment - Democracy - Emotions - Listening - Studying Radio - Futures The Bloomsbury Handbook of Radio is designed to offer academics, researchers and practitioners an international, comprehensive collection of original essays written by a combination of well-established experts, new scholars and industry practitioners. Each section begins with an introduction by Hugh Chignell and Kathryn McDonald, putting into context each contribution, mapping the discipline and capturing new directions of radio research, while providing an invaluable resource for radio studies.

During the interwar years, broadcast radio became a popular way for Europeans to consume local, national, and international news. The medium not only began to shape European policy and politics, but also laid the foundation for European unification and global interconnectedness. In Europe On Air, Suzanne Lommers has documented the rich and often underexposed history of broadcast radio through the lens of international European relations. She specifically explores the roles of Radio Moscow, Radio Luxembourg, Vatican Radio, and the International Broadcasting Union as institutions that played an important role in national identities and establishing standards for broadcasting. The radio also offered new opportunities to politicians, who seized upon a vibrant and more direct way to communicate with their constituents. Essential reading for scholars of technology and European history, Europe-On Air reveals broadcast radio to be a technology that revolutionized international relations during the brief respite between the chaos of war in Europe.

Broad in geographical scope, this collection explores the most important transformations and upheavals of post-1945 Europe in the light of recent scholarship. A wide array of authors from the UK, the USA and across Europe contribute twelve chapters consider key political, cultural and economic changes of an era that needs reevalutaion and reconsideration from a historical perspective. Cross-disciplinary, covering a wide range of issues – politics, economics, social and cultural aspects Themes in Modern European History since 1945 is structured around recent theoretical debates on the postwar, and will find a firm standing on the bookshelves of European history students.

This comprehensive companion is a much-needed reference source for the expanding field of radio, audio, and podcast study, taking readers through a diverse range of essays examining the core questions and key debates surrounding radio practices, technologies, industries, policies, resources, histories, and relationships with audiences. Drawing together original essays from well-established and emerging scholars to conceptualize this multidisciplinary field, this book’s global perspective acknowledges radio’s enduring affinity with the local, historical relationship to the national, and its unpredictably transnational reach. In its capacious understanding of what constitutes radio, this collection also recognizes the latent time-and-space shifting possibilities of radio broadcasting, and of the myriad ways for audio to come to us 'live.' Chapters on terrestrial radio mingle with studies of podcasts and streaming audio, emphasizing continuities and innovations in form and content, delivery and reception, production cultures and aesthetics, reminding us that neither 'radio' nor 'podcasting' should be approached as static objects of analysis but rather as mutually constituting cultural forms. This cutting-edge and vibrant companion provides a rich resource for scholars and students of history, art theory, industry studies, journalism, media and communication, cultural studies, feminist analysis, and postcolonial studies. Chapter 42 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Elvis Presley stands tall as perhaps the supreme icon of 20th-century U.S. culture. But he was perceived to be deeply un-American in his early years as his controversial adaptation of rhythm and blues music and gyrating on-stage performances sent shockwaves through Eisenhower's conservative America and far beyond. This book explores Elvis Presley's global transformation from a teenage rebel figure into one of the U.S.'s major pop-cultural embodiments from a historical perspective. It shows how Elvis's rise was part of an emerging transnational youth culture whose political impact was heavily conditioned by the Cold War. As well as this, the book analyses Elvis's stint as G.I. soldier in West Germany, where he acted as an informal ambassador for the so-called American way of life and was turned into a deeply patriotic figure almost overnight. Yet, it also suggests that Elvis's increasingly synonymous identity with U.S. culture ultimately proved to be a double-edged sword, as the excesses of his superstardom and personal decline seemingly vindicated long-held stereotypes about the allegedly materialistic nature of U.S. society. Tracing Elvis's story from his unlikely rise in the 1950s right up to his tragic death in August 1977, this book offers a riveting account of changing U.S. identities during the Cold War, shedding fresh light on the powerful role of popular music and consumerism in shaping images of the United States during the cultural struggle between East and West.

The Wireless World sets out a new research agenda for the history of international broadcasting, and for radio history more generally. It examines global and transnational histories of long-distance wireless broadcasting, combining perspectives from international history, media and cultural history, the history of technology, and sound studies. It is a co-written book, the result of more than five years of collaboration. Bringing together their knowledge of a wide range of different countries, languages, and archives, the co-authors show how broadcasters and states deployed international broadcasting as a tool of international communication and persuasion. They also demonstrate that by paying more attention to audiences, programmes, and soundscapes, historians of international broadcasting can make important contributions to wider debates in social and cultural history. Exploring the idea of a 'wireless world', a globe connected, both in imagination and reality, by radio, The Wireless World sheds new light on the transnational connections created by international broadcasting. Bringing together all periods of international broadcasting within a single analytical frame, including the pioneering days of wireless, the Second World War, the Cold War, and the decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the study reveals key continuities and transformations. It looks at how wireless was shaped by internationalist ideas about the use of broadcasting to promote world peace and understanding, at how empires used broadcasting to perpetuate colonialism, and at how anti-colonial movements harnessed radio as a weapon of decolonization.

This edited collection studies the production and dissemination of popular music, tourism, cinema, fashion, broadcasting programmes, advertising and coffee in Western Europe in the twentieth century. Focussing on the supply side of popular culture, it addresses a field of study that is neglected in European historiography. Moreover, it provides a theoretical and methodological discussion that takes into account the inherent dynamics of content production and the role of cultural intermediaries in the change of cultural repertoires. Taking key developments in the culture industries in the USA as a point of reference, the book highlights particularities of cultural production in Europe. It identifies a greater autonomy of creatives, stronger influence of critics and a lesser concern with audience research as three characteristics of the production regime in Western Europe. It takes into view the transfer of popular culture across the Atlantic and between European countries and offers new insights into research on the cultural Americanisation of Europe. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Review of History.

France entered the twentieth century as a powerful European and colonial nation. In the course of the century, her role changed dramatically: in the first fifty years two World Wars and economic decline removed its status as a world power, whilst the immediate post-war era was marked by wars of independence in its colonies. Yet at the same time, in the second half of the century, France entered a period of unprecedented growth and social transformation. Throughout the century and into the new millennium France retained its former international reputation as a centre for cultural excellence and innovation and its culture, together with that of the Francophone world, reflected the increased richness and diversity of the period. This 2003 Companion explores this vibrant culture, and includes chapters on history, language, literature, thought, theatre, architecture, visual culture, film and music, and discuss the contributions of popular culture, Francophone culture, minorities and women.

Made in France: Studies in Popular Music serves as a comprehensive introduction to the history, sociology, and musicology of contemporary French popular music. The volume consists of essays by scholars of French popular music, and covers the major figures, styles, and social contexts of pop music in France. The book first presents a general description of the history and background of popular music in France, followed by essays that are organized into thematic sections: The Mutations of French Popular Music During the "Trente Glorieuses"; Politicising Popular Music; Assimilation, Appropriation, French Specificity; and From Digital Stakes to Cultural Heritage: French Contemporary Topics. Contributors: Christian Béthune Juliette Dalbavie Gérôme Guibert Fabien Hein Olivier Julien Marc Kaiser Barbara Lebrun David Looseley Stéphanie Molinero Anne Petiau Cécile Prévost-Thomas Vincent Rouzé Catherine Rudent Matthieu Saladin Jedediah Sklower Raphaël Suire Florence Tamagne