ABSTRACT
Britain has several languages and a multiplicity of accents, but the voice that dominates British pop is a commercial construct, a phoney diction that says more about our slavish relationship to America than it does about popular expression. Minstrelsy was the first American pop form to leave its mark on British musical culture, but in those pre-recording days it reached its audiences more often in local adaptations than as performed by the occasional visiting troupe. If the minstrels were an easy listening version of strong feeling, black masks were later put on with more excitement – by British jazz musicians in the 1930–1950s, by British blues and soul bands in the 1960–1980s. In this chapter, the author makes a counter-point: 'Americanization' means not the rise (or fall) of urban subcultures but the increasing importance of suburbia. Well into the 1920s the piano was a more popular domestic instrument than the record player and an equally important aspect of Americanization.
