Journal of Film Music 3.1 (2010) 92-94
doi:10.1558/jfm.v3i1.92
ISSN (print) 1087-7142
ISSN (online) 1758-860X
K. J. Donnelly, Pop Music in British Cinema:
A Chronicle
London: British Film Institute, 2001. [vii, 274 pp. ISBN 0851708625. $25.50 (trade
paper)] BFI Film Classics. Filmographies, illustrations, appendices, indices.
Bradford Lee Eden
University of California, Santa Barbara
[email protected]
T his book is especially for scholars and readers
interested in British pop music, specifically
its appearance in British film. Whether on
a reference shelf at a library or on a coffee table in
one’s home, music scholars, professionals, and music
aficionados alike would find it useful for its concise
information. The concept for the volume is based
on the author’s doctoral dissertation, and while
comprehensive research on this topic is impossible,
the author asks for the reader’s help in reporting any
omissions or corrections for future revisions.
Pop music is here defined as starting with
rock and roll in the mid-1950s up to the present.
The book is arranged by decade, starting with
the 1950s up to the 1990s. Each section has an
introduction that describes the major musical
developments and artists of that time period.
Under each decade, films are then arranged
chronologically by year and then alphabetically.
Each entry uses a standard format: film title, giving
director and year of release, production company,
producer, screenwriter, music, musical direction,
and song(s)/performer/song title (songwriter). A
brief synopsis of each film is also provided. A short
overall introduction to the book is also included.
Appendix 1 is an interesting and confusing essay
on the various musical conventions in films—both
interesting and confusing for Donnelly’s use of a
hodgepodge of technical terms used by the film
movie industry and film theory terms. Terms like
diegesis, non-diegetic music, ambient diegetic music,
performance mode, lip-synch mode, among others, are
explained with examples; however, previous sources
(now very dated) have already offered a standard
vocabulary for all of these terms used in the movie
industry. Take, for example, Irene Kahn Atkins’ Source
Music in Motion Pictures (Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh
Dickinson University Press; London: Associated
University Presses, 1983) or Milton Lustig’s Music
Editing (New York: Hastings House, 1980). Appendix
2 is a list of top 20 bands/stars, top 20 concert films,
and 20 greatest moments in British pop films (all
of which are subjectively chosen according to the
author’s own personal choices, as he clearly states).
There are also helpful indices, and the volume has
numerous pictures and photos from selected films.
According to Donnelly, pop music and rock and
roll in the 1950s caught the film industry by surprise.
The film musical quickly declined in popularity, but
film executives realized the importance of rock and
roll, then a new musical genre, as both story line
material and background music. Many of the early
stars (from England, the U.S., and other countries)
of the new genre found their way into these films,
in major roles (like Elvis Presley), as extras, or
playing themselves as part of a band scene within
the drama. The explosion of interest can be seen
just by the number of films the author arranges
by decade in the book. “The Fifties,” for example,
has only 15 identified films that incorporate pop
music, while “The Sixties” has 121 movies. This
trend continues into the following decades.
© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2010, 1 Chelsea Manor Studios, Flood Street, London SW3 5SR.
REVIEWS
For British film, the pop music revolution could
not have come at a better time. The industry itself
was at a low point, and while the new musical
genre was considered as neither tasteful nor useful
within “established” films, the growing influence
of British teenagers as film consumers of cult and
underground movies influenced the British film
industry to expand and produce this new type of
movie for this age group. British television shows
like Oh Boy! featured celebrities and icons of the new
vernacular music, who helped to spread rock and roll
into British coffee houses and cafés. British musical
icons like Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard were
discovered in these coffee houses, and often portrayed
themselves in movies while playing their own music.
In the 1960s John Barry made a name for himself
scoring music for the James Bond films. As a regular
on Oh Boy!, Barry not only became well established as
a film composer, but also continued to perform with
his ensemble the John Barry Seven, and had a role in
the movie It’s All Happening (1963). The revue film
featuring rock became popular, where a succession
of scenes in the performance mode would have a
minimal narrative (Donnelly fails to acknowledge
that the revue film harks back to the early days of the
talkies). Cliff Richard continued to be popular in the
early part of the 1960s, until the “Beat Boom” period
between 1964 and 1966. A Hard Day’s Night (1964),
released concurrently with The Beatles’ third LP of the
same title, was a turning point in British film. With
the “British invasion” in 1964, and the emergence of
The Rolling Stones that same year, the combination
of pop music and movies made for a winning duo.
The “swinging London” style was epitomized in
the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’or winner The
Knack—and How to Get It (1965). This jazzy/pop
mix started the movie trend of commissioning
pop musicians to compose whole scores for films.
Examples include The Family Way (1966) with music
by Paul McCartney adapted and orchestrated by The
Beatles’ producer George Martin, Wonderwall (1968)
by George Harrison, and the hit Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely
Hearts Club Band (1978); the last incorporated music
from the 1967 Beatles album of the same name.
The success of American films like The Graduate
(1967) and Easy Rider (1969) saw a decline in the
popularity of British film in the early 1970s. Expensive
rock operas and cheap musical films seemed to be
the norm. Hybridized progressive rock films such as
Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and Paul
McCartney’s title song for the James Bond film Live
and Let Die (1973) were the only bright spots in the
© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2010.
93
early part of the decade. By 1975, British rock operas
and progressive rock began a resurgence of popularity
for British film. The Who’s Tommy (1975) was perhaps
the major example of this, featuring Roger Daltry
and the band as main characters, with an all-star
cast and a cameo appearance of up-and-coming star
Elton John. Other rock stars who either wrote musical
scores or starred in British movies included David
Bowie, Ringo Starr, Mick Jagger, and Adam Faith.
Donnelly also mentions some American rock films
that featured British film actors. For example, The
Rocky Horror Picture Show (an English and American
film released in 1975), which became a cult classic,
and launched the careers of English actor Tim Curry
and American actor Susan Sarandon. By the late 1970s,
the disco, glam rock, and punk genres all became
popular, and films like Jubilee (1977) and Quadrophenia
(1979) featured these newer musical forms.
The 1980s saw the rise of “new pop” such as
Duran Duran, Culture Club, and The Human League.
A View to a Kill (1985) skyrocketed Duran Duran to
international stature. Other bands like Wham! and
Spandau Ballet rode on their coattails. But Donnelly
credits the film Chariots of Fire (1981) and its Academy
Award for Best Motion Picture Score (composed by
Vangelis, whose background includes psychedelic
rock) that really marked the revival of British film,
even though the title song from the film was neither
pop nor rock. Electronic music—sometimes as rock
music—also found its way into British films like
Time Bandits (1981), The Killing Fields (1984), and A
Fish Called Wanda (1988). Nostalgia for 1970s glam
rock is felt in Michael Kamen’s score for Highlander
(1986) and Howard Blake’s orchestral score and
arrangements for Flash Gordon (1986), both featuring
songs written and performed by Queen. In addition
to these films was Trevor Jones’ score for Labyrinth
(1986) with songs by David Bowie (who also acted
in the film). The emergence of MTV and of video
recordings had a profound effect on the film industry.
Finally, the 1990s saw the development of the
English band the Spice girls, their movie Spice Girls
(1995), and some box office successes such as
The Full Monty (1997), Four Weddings and a Funeral
(1994), and Notting Hill (1999). There are extensive
discussions of films such as Hardware (1990), Scandal
(1990), and The Krays (1991), along with Backbeat
(1993), London Kills Me (1991), and Trainspotting
(1996). According to Donnelly, there were more
films produced in Great Britain than there had
been for decades. But despite this productivity,
there were less rockumentaries in the 1990s than
94 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC
in previous decades and the British film industry
had undergone a few changes that created a lull in
the middle of the decade. In 1992, the independent
film company Palace Pictures folded. In contrast,
the huge multinational film and media production
company PolyGram became the largest producer of
films made in Great Britain during this decade.
Donnelly elaborates in the introduction to each
decade the major films and their musical features.
The introductions provide only summary musical
information; the main focus of the book is factual
information related to the identified films of each
decade. Film music scholars would find this book
extremely useful as a reference book for detailed
factual information on this topic. They will,
nevertheless, be left wanting more musical details
© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2010.
than what is offered in Pop Music in British Cinema.
Though Donnelly’s narrative appears rambling from
one fact to the next at times, overall he provides a
fairly comprehensive directory and listing of British
pop music’s effect on the British film industry.
Bradford Lee Eden is an Associate University
Librarian for Technical Services and Scholarly
Communication at the University of California,
Santa Barbara. He has a masters and PhD in
musicology, and a masters of science in library
science. He is an associate editor of The Journal
of Film Music, and has edited a book on musical
associations in the mythology of J. R. R. Tolkien.