- Home
- Non-fiction
- Popular Music
- Roots, Radicals and Rockers
Roots, Radicals and Rockers
Billy Bragg charts the history, impact and legacy of skiffle – Britain’s first indigenous pop movement.
29 in stock
Shipping to: UK & EU
UK Standard Delivery: £3 - 2-3 business days
UK Premium Delivery: £5 - Next working day delivery
EU Standard Delivery: Calculated at Checkout - 10-12 business days
Orders are sent by Royal Mail (UK) or FedEx / Deutsche Post (EU) and are tracked
Free delivery (UK) on orders over £35
Join Faber Members for 10% off your first order. Use code members10.
Summary
A Rough Trade, Mojo and FT Book of the Year
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PENDERYN MUSIC BOOK PRIZE
Emerging from the jazz clubs of the early 1950s, skiffle – a uniquely British take on American folk and blues – caused a sensation among a generation of kids who had grown up during the dreary post-war years. Teenagers were looking for a music of their own in a culture dominated by crooners and mediated by a stuffy BBC. Against a backdrop of Cold War politics, rock and roll riots and a newly assertive working-class youth, Billy Bragg charts – for the first time in depth – the history, impact and legacy of a movement that sparked a revolution and shaped pop culture as we have come to know it.
Critic Reviews
Roots, Radicals and Rockers is full of fascinating digressions but it also traces the grand sweep of an unfurling counterculture, from its politics to its music. With an archivist’s sense of mission, a musician’s knowledge and a fan’s joy, Bragg performs a real national service: illuminating a moment all too easily lost.
Critic Reviews
A first-rate work of history.
Critic Reviews
With music acting as a centrepiece, Bragg adroitly links the changes in films, politics, television and teenage life as he proceeds . . . Impressive and puts one “in-the-room” throughout.
Critic Reviews
Billy Bragg has a long-standing interest in [skiffle], and his passion for those early days of frantic strumming and washboard-driven rhythms is clear throughout his eloquent and thoroughly researched book
Critic Reviews
Deeply researched . . . Bragg is an evangelic guide.
Critic Reviews
A revelatory and energetic study of skiffle music that makes the case that it was a vital staging post for British pop and rock
Billy Bragg
Stephen William ‘Billy’ Bragg is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that span political or romantic themes. His music is heavily centred on bringing about change and getting the younger generation involved in grass-roots activist causes. His book Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World was…
Read MoreBilly Bragg
More books by Billy Bragg
Also Recommended
Browse a selection of books we think you might also like, with genre matches and a few wildcards thrown in.