Historical approaches to Merseybeat

This article examines the connections between place and sound with a particular concentration upon Liverpool and ‘Merseybeat’. The article examines the ways in which accounts of the city’s musical sound in the early 1960s have been presented in journalistic and critical reception of Liverpool’s popular music. It considers the assumptions behind those accounts, assesses the validity of the explanations they offer and traces the evolution of academic, journalistic and populist discourses about Merseybeat. The contributions can be organized into three categories (delivery, affinity and diversity) which are broadly distinctive perspectives that usefully indicate the different ways in which the sound of Merseybeat has been approached.