Pompey Pop: A case study of a local music archive. (21st January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Allen, Dave
• Is Part Of: Popular music history. Volume 12:Number 1(2019)
• Page Start: 15
• Page End: 34
• Publication Date: 2020-01-21
• Subjects: local history -- music archive -- portsmouth music; Popular music -- History -- Periodicals; 781.6309
• DOI: 10.1558/pomh.39553
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1740-7133

Abstract

Abstract : This article provides a retrospective account of the author's long-time involvement with 'PompeyPop', a project uncovering the somewhat neglected history of the impact of popular music inPortsmouth. The article demonstrates how the dedication of the author, a retired employeeof Portsmouth University, to this community initiative has established the importance of popularmusic to this working-class city and, most importantly, how it has challenged notionsof 'mainstream' history. After describing the growth of light entertainment in post-SecondWorld War Portsmouth, it challenges a number of preconceptions, ranging from notions ofnew styles 'sweeping away' their predecessors, to tokenized histories of the post-war periodalways being 'depressed', to notions of the swinging sixties being centred exclusively in certainparts of London. Regarding the latter, the article outlines a methodological problem, wherewriters such as Dominic Sandbrook are regarded as focusing exclusively on archival research, asopposed to also including the oral histories of ordinary people who lived through the period.