Introduction

Abstract

In the introduction to James Park’s book Learning to Dream, he states that “…the history of British cinema is one of unparalleled mediocrity.” 1 I would beg to differ and perhaps this book, a historical consideration of British film music and film musicals, might be taken as some evidence to the contrary. Britain not only has produced a range of outstanding films over the years, but has also highly created extraordinary material at the intersection of the film and music industries. Since World War I, the British film industry has worked in the shadow of its richer and more successful American relation. Yet despite American films proving over-whelmingly popular in Britain, British films often have retained a sense of their own distinct character, even in the face of the increasingly international status of film industries over the last half century. The British film industry lacked the rationalized production line that characterized American film production from the 1930s to the 1950s, which exerted a prescriptive effect on the music in British films. Rather than being a standardized element that was produced communally and to a strong blueprint, British film music often was more modest in sound and scale and was produced by a system that was altogether more artisanal in its methods.KeywordsMusical ScorePopular MusicFilm IndustryMusic IndustryConcert HallThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.