Full Description
The radio programme Desert Island Discs has run almost continuously since 1942, and represents a unique record of the changing place of music in British society. In 2011, recognising its iconic status, the BBC created an online archive that includes podcasts of all programmes from 1976 on, and many from earlier years. Based on this and extensive documentary evidence, Defining the Discographic Self: Desert Island Discs in Context for the first time brings together musicologists, sociologists, and media scholars in one volume. They reflect on the programme's significance, its position within the BBC and Britain's continually evolving media, and its relationship to other comparable programmes. Of particular interest are the meanings attributed to music in the programme by both castaways and interviewers, the ways in which music is invoked in the public presentation of self, the incorporation of music within personal narratives, and changes in musical tastes during the seven decades spanned by the programme. Scholarly chapters are complemented by former castaways' accounts of their appearances, which give fascinating insiders' views into how the programme is made and how its guests prepare for their involvement.
Contents
Preface
1: Julie Brown, Nicholas Cook, and Stephen Cottrell: Introduction
Personal Spin A: Lemn Sissay (11 October 2015)
Desert Island Discs in Historical Perspective
2: Will Straw: The Cultural Baggage of the Desert Island
3: Jenny Doctor: From Forces' Choice to Desert Island Discs: The BBC's Promotion of Personal Choice in Wartime
4: Kyle Devine: Desert Island Discomorphoses: Listening Formations and the Material Cultures of Music
Personal Spin B: Derek Drescher (producer Desert Island Discs 1976-85)
Personal Spin C: Anthony Wall (director of Arena: Desert Island Discs, 1982)
Cultural Ideologies and the Politics of Sound
5: Jo Littler: Adrift or Ashore? Desert Island Discs and Celebrity Culture
6: Andrew Blake: Playlists and Prizes: Cultural Authority, Personal Taste, and Musical Value since the 1940s
7: Simon Frith: What Does It Mean to Be Cultured? Desert Island Discs as an Ideological Archive
Personal Spin D: Uta Frith (castaway 24 February 2013)
Personal Spin E: Angie Hobbs (castaway 1 February 2015)
Desert Island Discs and British Identities
8: David Hendy: Desert Island Discs and British Emotional Life
9: Peter Webb: Punk, class, and taste in Desert Island Discs
10: Sarah Hill: Peripheral Identities on Desert Island Discs and Beti a'I Phobol
Personal Spin F: Mary Beard (31 January 2010)
Personal Spin G: Nick Hornby (28 September 2003)
Narrativising and Caring for the Self
11: Tia DeNora: Music and Narrative Selves in Desert Island Discs
12: Julie Brown: Desert Island Dislocation: Emotion, Nostalgia, and the Utility of Music
13: Stephen Cottrell: Musicianly Lives Musically Told: Oral History, Classical Music, and Desert Island Discs
Personal Spin H: Debbie Wiseman (castaway 19 October 2014)
Personal Spin I: Steven Isserlis (castaway 2 December 2007)
Personal Spin J: Gavin Bryars (castaway 5 April 1998)
14: Nicholas Cook: Afterword: Playing the Discographic Self
