The People's Songs - The Story of Modern Britain in 50 Records

These are the songs that we have listened to, laughed to, loved to and laboured to, as well as downed tools and danced to.

Covering the last seven decades, Stuart Maconie looks at the songs that have sound tracked our changing times, and - just sometimes - changed the way we feel. Beginning with Vera Lynn-s -We-ll Meet Again-, a song that reassured a nation parted from their loved ones by the turmoil of war, and culminating with the manic energy of -Bonkers-, Dizzee Rascal-s anthem for the push and rush of the 21st century inner city, The People-s Songs takes a tour of our island-s pop music, and asks what it means to us.

This is not a rock critique about the 50 greatest tracks ever recorded. Rather, it is a celebration of songs that tell us something about a changing Britain during the dramatic and kaleidoscopic period from the Second World War to the present day. Here are songs about work, war, class, leisure, race, family, drugs, sex, patriotism and