Scottish indie music and BBC radio’s 'Beat Patrol' (1995–2000)

Authors

  • J. Mark Percival Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v4i1.23

Keywords:

alternative music, BBC, independent, radio, Scotland

Abstract

This essay investigates music radio consumption and how it relates to local popular music production. The study focuses on one specialist weekly music programme, Beat Patrol, presented in several formats by Peter Easton at BBC Radio Scotland from 1984 to 2000, and the ways in which a very specific segment of that show’s audience (in this case, indie musicians) make sense of that show. Firstly, it offered an independent measurement of the bands’ critical success and status in relation to local, regional and national music scenes. The show therefore contributed directly to the acquisition of cultural and social capital for musicians at an early stage of their careers. Secondly, Beat Patrol provided a powerful tool with which bands were able to evaluate both the technical and aesthetic qualities of their recordings in relation to their peers and to artists whose work they admired. The use of this comparative tool suggests that specialist music radio was central to the development of indie musicians’ notions of good’ and ‘bad’ creative and technical characteristics of their own music.

Author Biography

  • J. Mark Percival, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh

    J. Mark Percival is a lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. He has published on the relationship between radio and the music industry and the local production of popular music, and has had 10 years’ experience of freelance presentation for BBC Radio Scotland. Mark spent two years on the judging panel of the Mercury Music Prize (1999–2000).

References

Chapman, R. 1992. Selling the Sixties: The Pirates and Pop Music Radio. London: Routledge.

Crisell, A. 2002. An Introductory History of British Broadcasting, 2nd ed. Abingdon: Routledge.

Garner, K. 2007. The Peel Sessions: A Story of Teenage Dreams and One Man’s Love of New Music. London: BBC Books.

Hind, J., and S. Mosco. 1985. Rebel Radio: The Full Story of British Pirate Radio. London: Pluto Press.

Peterson, R. A. 1997. Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Straw, W. 1997 [1991]. ‘Communities and Scenes in Popular Music’. In The Subcultures Reader, eds K. Gelder and S. Thornton, 494–505. London: Routledge.

Published

2010-04-07

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Percival, J. (2010). Scottish indie music and BBC radio’s ’Beat Patrol’ (1995–2000). Popular Music History, 4(1), 23-38. https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v4i1.23