English pop music was a dominant force on the global cultural scene in
the decades after World War II—and it served a key role in defining,
constructing, and challenging various ideas about Englishness in the
period. Kari Kallioniemi covers a stunning range of styles of pop—from
punk, reggae, and psychedelia to jazz, rock, Brit Pop, and beyond—as he
explores the question of how various artists (including such major
figures as David Bowie and Morrissey), genres, and pieces of music
contributed to the developing understanding of who and what was English
in the transformative postwar years.