The first episode shows how music invites fantasy and why it matters. Fantasy plays a role in everybody's life, and music has proved its power to on many levels. This programme features some of that fantasy, from cowboys to barber-shop and from skiffle to Victor Sylvester.
Cowboys, it was once believed, tamed the wilderness - while they sang a Hollywood, concoction of wild west songs round the campfire. This is the image of 1930s Gene Autry hokum which has lived on to become a fixture of the British music scene in the 1980s.
The radio fantasies that pre-dated the deluge of pop culture tended towards elegance and affluence. 'Palm Court' created the imaginary mood of an expensive hotel with soothing string music. Strict tempo ballroom dancing was another opportunity for fantasy. The fantasies evoked by an exotic tango or paso dobie are still potent for many people.
SERIES:
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Series 1 Episode 1 Beautiful Dreamer: Music, Romance and Fantasy
The first episode shows how music invites fantasy and why it matters. Fantasy plays a role in everybody's life, and…
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Series 1 Episode 2 Running Plot: Music and Humour
This episode looks at music and humour, from the good old days of the music hall, to films, radio and television.
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Series 1 Episode 3 Pass It On: Music, Learning and Tradition
This episode focuses on the learning process and how music is passed on from generation to generation.
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Series 1 Episode 4 Wait Till the Work Comes Round: Music, Work and Leisure
This programme looks at the relationship between music and work. They seem to have little in common, but perhaps that…
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Series 1 Episode 5 Outsiders? Music on the Margins
The programme travels first to Southall where young Asians of Punjabi descent say they want nothing of the parental…
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Series 1 Episode 6 Knocking on the Door: Music and Talent
The penultimate programme in the series by Jeremy Marre exploring popular music and entertainment in England.
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Series 1 Episode 7 Pomp and Circumstances: Music and Ritual
The last programme in the series of music documentaries by Jeremy Marre, it examines the music of ceremony and ritual -…
- With language some might find offensive
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