From “Rock” to “Beat”: Towards a Reappraisal of British Popular Music, 1958–1962

This paper examines the cultural circumstances which gave rise to the impression that the period 1958-1962 constituted a 'bland', uneventful era in British popular music, and presents a reappraisal of this much-maligned era in which rock and roll music transformed into an eclectic entity which became known as 'beat'.