Sound Recording in Post-War British Folk

Recording technologies shaped the sound and meaning of 20th-century folk music in Britain, constructing a sonic aesthetics of authenticity in an era of rapid technological and social transformation.


The folk revival that changed the sound of British popular music in the 20th century was supported by a varied and innovative recording culture. The sound of folk on record presented a 'real' sound in an age of studio artifice, asserting the value of face-to-face performance over technologically mediated consumption. At the same time, the folk movement drew upon advances in recording and media technology, embracing a range of sonic practices including radio documentary, commercial studio production, and field recording. Within the revival's technological culture, recordings, and the act of recording itself, reflected and shaped the meaning of the music for folk musicians and their audiences as they developed new aesthetics and techniques, and explored recording's expressive potential.

Post-War British Folk Music traces how folk music's recording culture was shaped by beliefs about music, technology, and society, constituting a key site for the articulation of aesthetic, cultural, and political values. Bringing together theoretical approaches from musicology, social semiotics and science and technology studies, and drawing on fieldwork interviews with musicians and producers, the book seeks to enhance scholarly understanding of the place of recording technologies in 20th-century folk and popular music, and the relationship between music, technology, and cultural-political movements more broadly.