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The Primitive Pop Music Film: Coffee Bars, Cosh Boys and Cliff

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The British Pop Music Film

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Abstract

The neglect afforded to the pop music film by historians was for a long time shared by the film industry itself. When rock’n’roll began to assail the minds and bodies of American youth in the winter of 1954–55, Hollywood paid it scant attention. It was difficult to judge whether this new craze had any staying power, and months producing a product already past its sell-by date was indefensibly bad (show) business. Thus, while teenagers went wild in down-town dance halls, their elders in the movie industry were happy to stick with Crosby, Sinatra and Armstrong and the commercial certainties of High Society (Charles Walters, 1956).

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  1. Stephen Glynn
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© 2013 Stephen Glynn

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Glynn, S. (2013). The Primitive Pop Music Film: Coffee Bars, Cosh Boys and Cliff. In: The British Pop Music Film. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230392236_2

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