BBC Music Memories

If you have only ten minutes to track down some tunes, BBC Music Memories is what you need. 

Built by the BBC Archive with the help of Playlist for Life, BBC Music Memories is a website containing 30 second snippets of popular music and 60 second snippets of classical music. The tracks are organised by decade, genre and special items like Social Music, and TV and radio themes. 

The website even has a ‘Memory Radio’ which features archived music-based radio programmes from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Each decade has its own activity sheet with conversation prompts. 

BBC Music Memories is a Finding Tool not a listening tool, because you cannot listen to full tracks. 

Here’s how to use it.

1. Use your Music Detective knowledge to quickly visit someone’s Memory Bump or possible Identity Tracks, play them a snippet, and look for a response.
2. If there is no reaction move on.
3. If you do get a reaction, then ‘Like’ the tune by clicking on the heart, and then move on.
4. At the end of the session you can print out or email all the tunes you ‘Liked’ to create a ready-made shopping list. Use it yourself or give it to a younger relative or friend to set up your playlist.