Sonneck Society for American Music
Bulletin, Volume XXV, no. 3 (Fall 1999)
Letter from Britain
It remains a common cliché in British society -- especially among the older generations --
to blame anything perceived as a deterioration in standards (particularly moral standards) on
American influence. These were, after all, the folks who during World War II coined the phrase,
"overpaid, oversexed, and over here" to describe their allies from across the pond. Of course, this is
all nonsense; as the infamous censorship of Elvis's pelvis made clear, Americans were (and are) if
anything even more concerned than their British counterparts with combating apparent societal degeneration.
It was, however, with that misplaced thought in my mind (alongside another perpetual, usually linked,
complaint -- "there's nothing decent on the television these days") that I decided to examine a
randomly chosen day's worth of programming for evidence of degenerate and morally subversive
American influence.
Long gone are the days when British television broadcasting consisted only of what my friend Paul
Machlin once described (not altogether teasingly) as "four channels, all of them censored by the
government." Satellite, cable, and digital developments have led to an explosion in the number
of channels available (if you have the right equipment, which we don't). There are now five
terrestrial channels that can be picked up by anyone with an aerial and a television license (BBC1,
BBC2, ITV, and the imaginatively named Channel 4 and Channel 5), plus a rapidly multiplying number of
what I suppose might be termed extra-terrestrial channels, i.e., those requiring a dish, cable,
set-top box, or some other piece of paraphernalia, plus -- in many cases -- separate subscription fees.
What I found surprising, on my randomly chosen survey day (Tuesday, 28 September), was the degree
to which BBC1, BBC2, ITV, and Channel 4 avoided American imports. Indeed, in the twelve hours from
6 a.m. through 6 p.m., the main imported material seemed to Australian soap operas. (If you think
American soaps are crass, you should try BBC1's Neighbours [sic] or ITV's Home and Away). Otherwise, there are
home-produced news-cum-breakfast magazines, discussions children's shows, schools programs, sports,
comedy repeats, the odd game show (phrasal ambiguity intended), and lifestyle programs. (There has
been a particularly nasty recent rash of cooking quizzes and house make-overs.) Also buring in there
are live relays from the 1999 Labour Party Conference, including a speech by Prime Minister Tony
Blair (maybe Paul was right after all). Evidence is Americana is slim; Sesame Street, a few
cartoons, and one or two films. Channel 5 follows the same general trend, through the talk shows
should be familiar to some of you: The Roseanne Show, Leeza, and The Oprah Winfrey Show all appear
before mid-afternoon.
Things aren't much different after 6 p.m.: the only regular American items on channels 1-4 are
Seinfeld (which, believe it or not, has only a cult following over here) on BBC2 at midnight, and Renegade
on ITV around the same time. Quite fortuitously, though, 28 September was the evening on which
BBC2 broadcast ninety minutes of highlights from The 1999 CMA Awards. (Country music is amazingly
popular in Britain.) Channel 5, meanwhile, showed Police Academy as its mid-evening film, and spent
the first five hours of the following morning (finishing at 6 a.m.) with NFL coverage (Arizona
Cardinals versus the San Francisco 49ers, and the Atlanta Falcons versus the Dallas Cowboys).
It's only when one goes extra-terrestrial that American-produced programs start to have a major impact,
though even here it is quite patchy. There is virtually nothing Amerian on digital channels BBC
Choice, BBC Knowledge and ITV2, nor on satellite/cable channels Granada Plus, UK Gold (excepting the
millionth repeat of Dallas), Living, UK Arena, UK Horizon, UK Style, Discovery, Performance, Sky Sports
1, Sky Sports 2, or British Eurosport. On Sky Sports 3, though you can watch WWF bouts from
the Charlotte Stadium in North Carolina! The film channels -- Sky Premier, Sky Moviemax, Sky Cinema,
Sky Box Office, Film Four, Front Row, and TNT -- tend to be dominated by American-made films, and there
are no prizes for guessing the origins of the shows on Disney, National Geographic, Paramount Comedy,
and MTV. Finally, Sky 1 (in case you were wondering, all the Sky channels are owned by Rupert Murdoch)
survives on a diet of Oprah, Flash Gordon, Star Trek: Voyager, The Simpsons, and Beverly Hills, 90210.
What, you may be wondering by now, has any of this got to do with music? Actually, very little, except
to note that -- rather ironically, at a time when the number of sources of visual entertainment
is expanding rapidly -- it is still mainly in the audio field that American cultural influence
is most frequently encountered in Britain. The vast majority of commercial radio stations -- from
Virgin through Jazz FM -- inevitably broadcast a large amount of American material, as do two of the
five BBC networks (Radio 1, the "pop" station, and Radio 2, the "easy listening" station). But even here,
it is difficult to support the notion that American cultural influence on Britain is all-pervasive
(let alone a source of moral denegration). Indeed, one suspects that the degree to which Britain
is affected by American cultural imports is no greater (and possibly even less) than that to which
America is affected by British cultural imports, whether these be The Beatles, Monty Python, Inspector
Morse (witness the alarming number of grumpy New York cops who drink real ale), and Thomas the Tank
Engine, The Spice Girls, or -- and I apologize profusely here -- Tracey Ullman and The Teletubbies.
So while we British can, I would suggest, continue without fear to promulgate traditional values
("more tea, vicar?"), perhaps its time for you folks to organize a Boston TV Party.
--David Nicholls
Keele University
Updated 12/15/99