This is the first book to tell the story of the bebop subculture in London’s Soho, a subculture that emerged in 1945 and reached its pinnacle in 1950. In an exploration via the intersections of race, class and gender, it shows how bebop identities were constructed and articulated. Combining a wide range of archival research and theory, the book evocatively demonstrates how the scene evolved in Soho’s clubs, the fashion that formed around the music, drug usage amongst a contingent of the group, and the moral panic which led to the police raids on the clubs between 1947 and 1950. Thereafter it maps the changes in popular culture in Soho during the 1950s, and argues that the bebop story is an important precedent to the institutional harassment of black-related spaces and culture that continued in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This book therefore rewrites the first chapter of the ‘classic’ subcultural canon, and resets the subcultural clock; requiring us to rethink the periodization and social make-up of British post-war youth subcultures.
Author(s): Ray Kinsella
Series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 284
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Figures
Chapter 1: Introduction
Overview
Key Terms: Definitions
Contribution to Knowledge
Histories of Jazz in Britain
Histories of Post-War Youth Subcultures in Britain
Methodology and Approach
The Chapters
References
Chapter 2: Contextualising Soho, 1800–1945
Introduction
Soho: London’s Cosmopolis
A Short Comparison of Soho with Its Surrounding Imperial Thoroughfares
The Mythologisation of Soho as a Carnivalesque Place
Entertainment, Nightlife and Jazz in Soho During the Interwar Years
Jazz and the Musicians’ Union
Bottle Parties, 1930–1945
Archer Street: A Meeting Point for Musicians
Popular Music During the War: Swing and Dixieland Jazz
Summing Up
References
Chapter 3: Bebop Music and the Soho Clubs
Introduction
Bebop’s Roots in New York City
Contested Notions of Bebop: Bird Versus Diz’
Music of the Black Atlantic
Bebop’s Reception by the Music Press in Britain
The Birth of Bebop in Britain: The Fullado Club, Soho, 1945–1947
Harlem in Soho
The Transatlantic Migration of Bebop Records to Britain, 1947
Recording and Distribution
Localising Bebop in Soho
The Tito Burns Sextet and Commercial Bebop
Metropolitan Bopera House
The Feldman Club
Club Eleven
The Paramount Dance Hall
Bebop Banned at Wimbledon Palais and on the BBC
Bebop Banned by the BBC
Summing Up
References
Chapter 4: Men’s and Women’s Sartorial Style in the Clubs: The Bebop Look
Introduction
A Very Brief History of the Traditional Suit
The Zoot Suit
Jazz and the Zoot Suit
The British Version of the Men’s Zoot Suit as a Prominent Feature of the Bebop Clubs in Soho
Black Hipsters
The Difference Between the Zoot Suit and the ‘Spiv’ Suit
Customising the Zoot Suit Look
Gangster Chic and the Notion of the Spiv
The Bebop ‘Look’ Influences Suburban London Youths Then Spreads All Over England
The Bebop Style Spreads All Over England
Women’s Sartorial Style in the Soho Bebop Clubs
A Very Brief History of Women’s Fashion in Europe, 1914–1950
The Difference Between Women’s Bebop Style and Women’s Trad Jazz Style in the Clubs in Soho
Summing Up
References
Chapter 5: The Police Raids on the Soho Bebop Clubs, 1947–1950
Introduction
Drug Use in the Clubs
The Police Raids on the Clubs
The Fullado Club
Club Eleven
Paramount Dance Hall
A Brief History of Drug Fears in Britain
Miscegenation Fears in Britain After the First World War
The Return of Pseudo-scientific Racism
Miscegenation Fears and the ‘Colour Bar’ During the Second World War
The Police Raids in Detail
Summing Up
References
Chapter 6: Soho After the Raids
Introduction
A Short History of Soho’s Bebop Clubs After the Police Raids
Studio'51
The Flamingo Club
Ronnie Scott’s: ‘First Place’ and Frith Street
The Musicians and Bands: Soho Pioneers, Emergent Players and Drugs
Women, Class and Students at Bebop Clubs in 1950s Soho
Musicians’ Union Ban Relaxed
The Birth of the Teenager and the Rise of Rock ‘n’ Roll
New Folk Devils: The Teddy Boys
Soho’s Coffee Shops and Skiffle
Record Labels and the Rise of Tin Pan Alley
Summing Up
References
Chapter 7: Is This a Subculture?
Introduction
Music and Periodisation
Race
Clothes
Resistance
Moral Panic
Spaces
Drugs
After Subculture
Summing Up
References
Chapter 8: Conclusion
The Bebop Subculture in Soho: Why It Matters?
Further Research
Final Thoughts: Similarities with Acid House, Parallels with the Present and Structural Racism and Popular Culture in the 2020s
Acid House
Parallels with Contemporary Britain
Structural Racism and Popular Culture in the 2020s
References
Index
