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Hearing Global Britishness on the BBC's Commonwealth of Song (1953–1961)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2022

TREVOR R. NELSON Open the ORCID record for TREVOR R. NELSON [Opens in a new window]
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Abstract

Part of the United Kingdom's national reconstruction following the Second World War was reforming its self-image as a global power in light of imperial decline. This recasting took place across political and cultural spheres and emphasized the Commonwealth, idealized as a friendly collection of current and former colonies linked by British culture. In this article, I demonstrate how music broadcasting functioned as a site of diplomacy, using white, middle-class taste for light entertainment to reinforce British values at the Empire's twilight. I focus on musical depictions of the Commonwealth on the BBC radio programme Commonwealth of Song. Using archival records, I reconstruct debates concerning Commonwealth representation and its importance to British citizens. I argue that Commonwealth of Song was a site of testing and reformulating new sonic constructions of globally minded ‘Britishness’ in the 1950s, yet conflicting messaging about what musics and people should represent the Commonwealth led to a lukewarm reception.

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Twentieth-Century Music , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , June 2022 , pp. 311 - 341
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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