Searching for Gainsbourg – Insights from an Outsider’s Perspective (Research Project)

Jardin Serge Gainsbourg. Foto: André Rottgeri

Jardin Serge Gainsbourg. Foto: André Rottgeri

As a German with a French first name, I had dedicated my PhD thesis to the intercultural mix of the French band Mano Negra. Consequently, I always got excited, when I could share my outsider’s perspective on popular music in France with French colleagues. Yet, when I was asked to hand in an application for the IReMus conference on Serge Gainsbourg in 2018, I was challenged, as Gainsbourg did not stand at the centre of my research.

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Writing Europe into British Cultural History (CBH theme issue on Popular Culture)

Contemporary British History 35 (2021) 3

In Britain the history of culture – and popular culture especially – is often written within a national paradigm. Books about British pop music, British cinema, British music hall, British musical and so on abound. If other parts of the world are included at all, then mostly with an eye to the United States, or regions belonging to the (former) British Empire or the Commonwealth. Contacts, connections and transfers between Britain and continental Europe are often ignored. The CBH theme issue “Writing Europe into British Cultural History” wants to highlight these omissions and to try out ways to bring them into focus.

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