The reactions of British newspapers to rock ‘n’ roll, and popular music more broadly, have, since the ‘cinema riots’ of 1956, frequently been viewed by scholars monolithically and straightforwardly, and explored largely by those who seek evidence of disapprobation and misunderstanding. For some, the press reactions to the music constituted a clear example of ‘moral panic’, as developed in the work of Cohen and fellow sociologists. When deployed with subtle caution, this complex term may still provide a useful means of exploring the 1956 incidents and broader press responses to rock ‘n’ roll. Many of its key elements were evident in the newspaper coverage, and reiterated during future incidents in which popular music was seen to be involved. There is, nevertheless, a danger that, particularly when deployed too loosely, the term may become misleading, encouraging straightforward conclusions regarding ‘press reactions’ which can ignore important variations within the coverage. In assessing why ‘modern press history’ has tended not ‘to flourish in Britain’, Peter Catterall notes that, all too often, ‘[n] ewspapers are means not ends’, their stories used as illustrative examples of wider social trends, but less extensively analysed as historic artefacts in their own right.

Ultimately, this work has endeavoured to show that, while useful, the ‘moral panic’ framework for exploring press responses to popular music must be deployed alongside other considerations – in particular, recognition of the internal changes which the newspaper industry was undergoing during this time; the divergence between ‘serious’ and ‘popular’ newspapers in their responses to popular music; and, perhaps most significantly, the challenges which individual newspapers faced as they attempted to locate and assert their ‘voices’ during a time of intense competition and uncertainty. The temptations to exploit popular music, and the expressions of youth culture with which it was closely associated, for ‘shock value’, as a means of attracting attention and generating greater revenue, never completely disappeared. However, equally, with increasing recognition of the value and persistence of the various popular music styles, the press ceased to treat rock ‘n’ roll and its musical relations predominantly as sources of social disorder, and to recognize their cultural, musical and commercial potential. Some publications exhibited signs of this recognition more effectively than others, at least in the short term.