- 290 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
From the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, showbands were all the rage among Ireland's dancing audiences. Performing covers of rock 'n' roll and pop hits from American and British weekly Top 10 charts, they riveted their fans, dismayed many parish priests, and offered Irish youth a taste of modernism and pop culture from outside of Ireland.
In Are You Dancing?, Rebecca S. Miller tells the story of how these working-class bands brought new sounds and choreographies to the Irish and Northern Irish pop landscape. Both as a response to and an agent in Ireland's changing economic landscape, showbands quickly grew into a hugely lucrative commercial industry. At the same time, they nudged open doors for Irish women to take to the stage as pop stars, rewarded a generation of entrepreneurs, and created the template for Ireland's popular music industry. Miller draws upon interviews with more than 80 musicians, agents, managers, fans, and clergy, to reveal the vast interplay of social, economic, and cultural changes that ensued with the Irish showband era.
Drawing upon an extensive catalog of ethnographic and archival research, Miller presents an overlooked era of musical performances that revolutionized Irish entertainment.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1. Introduction Remembering the Showbands, Documenting Popular Music
- 2. âThe Archbishopâs Quadrilleâ The Church, the State, Dance Bands, and CĂ©ilĂs, 1925 to 1955
- 3. Origins âThe Band That Does the Showâ
- 4. âTraveling Jukeboxesâ Imitation, Translation, and Irishness
- 5. âBlarney Soundsâ Making and Marketing the Showband Industry
- 6. Builders, Promoters, Managers, and Priests Profiles of Showband Entrepreneurs
- 7. âAching the Notesâ and Challenging the Industry Negotiating Gender on the Showband Stage
- 8. Hucklebucking across the Waters Irish Showbands in Diaspora
- 9. The End of the Showband Era
- References
- Index