The Beat Goes On

Book of The Beat Goes On

The Beat Goes On: Liverpool, Popular Music and The Changing City

Following the exhibition, the book The Beat Goes On: Liverpool, Popular Music and The Changing City is now available, priced £16.95.

Copies are available to purchase in National Museums Liverpool's venues or you can order one from the online shop.

Based on the themes explored in the exhibition, the book includes the following contributions by authors including the exhibition curator:

• Historical approaches to Merseybeat: delivery, affinity and diversity – Ian Inglis
• Growing up with The Beatles – Spencer Leigh
• From sea shanties to cosmic scousers: the city, memory and representation in Liverpool’s popular music – Robert Strachan
• Pubs in the precinct: music making, retail developments and the characterization of urban space – Sara Cohen and Brett Lashua
• The soul continuum: Liverpool black musicians and the UK music industry from the 1950s to the 1980s – Robert Strachan
• Not just one of the boys: gender, representation and the historical record – Marion Leonard
• Liverpool’s 1970’s bohemia: Deaf School, Eric’s and the post-punk scene – Robert Strachan
• Dance moves: finding a place for house music in Liverpool – Georgina Young
• The creative process: Liverpool songwriters on songwriting – Marion Leonard

In 2001 the Guinness Book of records declared Liverpool ‘City of Pop’, reflecting its status as the British city that has produced the most hit records relative to the size of its population. But why is Liverpool so important musically and how has it sustained its importance, from The Beatles to the Zutons and beyond?

The Beat Goes On is a critical historical account of popular music in Liverpool which explores the contextual, creative and geographical factors that have contributed to the city’s status as a major centre of creativity within Anglo-American popular music. Rather than attempting to create a singular linear account of the history of popular music and its culture within the city, the book takes a thematic and case-study approach. Drawing on popular music history, cultural geography and ethnography. The Beat Goes On explores the ways in which Liverpool has been represented through its music and its musicians, and makes use of extensive interview material to provide a fascinating set of new perspectives on both the dominant and the less well known elements of the musical history of the ‘City of Pop’.