ABSTRACT

The 1950s were a period of rapid stylistic and sociomusical changes in Swedish popular music. This chapter analyzes the gatekeeping practices with regard to popular music prevalent within Swedish public-service radio in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, and some major changes in these practices during this period of time. Martin Cloonan provides a detailed account of censorship of popular music in the programming of the BBC. Rock 'n' roll was introduced in Sweden in 1956–1957, first as a new dance craze and subsequently as a new popular-music style, as the US and British rock singers were followed by Swedish successors. In distinction to the BBC policies described by Cloonan, for a long time social-political considerations played a relatively insubstantial role in the deliberations within the Sveriges Radio.