Deviance, Disorder and Music in Modern Britain and America

Deviance, Disorder and Music in Modern Britain and America is a study of the perceived collision between morality and popular music in the mid-20th century. The arrival of ‘Rock and Roll’ music in 1955 signalled the beginning of music’s grip on youth popular culture. Since then, there has been consistent attention paid to the impact of popular music on the behaviour of young people both in terms of morality and criminal behaviour. This work examines the early concerns associated with ‘Rock and Roll’, which focused around its contravention of the established racial order in America and promotion of material of a sexually explicit nature. In the Sixties there were further worries about the impact of music on youth in terms of disorder and increasing drug use. In the Seventies and beyond anxieties were introduced around the association with civil disobedience, racial violence and even Satanism. Cliff Williamson draws together these different elements into a coherent and original analysis of the interaction of the law and popular music in the modern era.