The South Bank Show, Popular Music And The Reframing Of Arts Television

This article focuses on the framing of popular music on The South Bank Show (SBS) (1978-2010, 2012-present). Popular culture was central to SBS's agenda from its very conception, framed by the title sequence by Pat Gavin and the choice of subject matter - the first ever episode was on Paul McCartney, signalling a mainstream cultural appeal and a cultural conservativism given the wider contemporary context of punk sensibility. Therefore, to understand SBS's approach to popular music, we need to understand the context from which it emerges: the British broadcasting political economy of the late 1970s centred around the pre-choice duopoly and intense rivalry between the BBC and ITV, as well as a production environment centred around Melvyn Bragg. Yet, SBS was not a radical programme, and its focus on popular music over the years has largely been focused on mainstream artists and tastes - speaking to a mainstream audience rather than to avant-garde tastes. In assessing this history, this article considers two programmes from the SBS archive in some detail, as well as reflecting on how production cultures impact cultural outputs.