After WWII, the United States encountered an economic boom that finally put the Great Depression to rest. With a growing middle class, the United States had more families than ever with a substantial amount of money not only to have more children, but also to spend more frivolously. This combination of higher wages and growing youth population gave rise to a brand new demographic: the American teenager. The 50s was the coming out of teens and young adults as marketing companies began to advertise straight to America’s newest demographic. Developed from Black rhythm and blues, rock & roll aroused a sense of self-awareness in young adults of the 50s so effectively that the youth began to shape American culture by using rock music as a means to proliferate the messages of the movements that occurred during the 50s and 60s, thereby empowering the young adults.
Although nobody is quite able to pinpoint from which genre and time period rhythm and blues emerged, rock and roll most definitely evolved from black rhythm and blues of the late 40s and early 50s. In fact, the terms rock and roll, especially popular in the growing rhythm and blues genre of music, came from “black slang for sexual intercourse.”1 Teenagers, with a tendency to thirst for the new and exciting, were the first of the white demographic to pick up on this new style of music as they surfed through the radio stations and discovered the African American rhythm and blues. However, the stigma of listening to “race music” would continue so much that rhythm and blues couldn’t be mass marketed to the populace as it was. However, after white disc-jockey Alan Freed caught on to the teens’ trend of listening to rhythm and blues by playing it on his radio show and officially call...
... middle of paper ...
... "Civil Rights and Elvis Presley." Elvis Presley History Blog, Profiling the King of
Rock and Roll. Accessed May 22, 2014. http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/civil-rights.html.
Washington Post. "From Joan Baez to Lady Gaga: Music of the civil rights movement - The Washington Post." Washington Post. Accessed May 22, 2014. http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/politics/from-joan-baez-to-lady-gaga-music-of-the-civil-rights-movement/2014/05/20/ee8afe56-e048-11e3-9442-54189bf1a809_video.html. Wattenberg, Ben. 1998. "Did Woodstock change America?" Podcast audio. PBS. August, 1998.
Accessed May 21, 2014. http://http://www.pbs.org/thinktank/transcript119.html.
Yagi, Randi. "10 Top Anti-War/Protest Songs about the Vietnam War - San Jose Internet.”
Examiner.com. Last modified March 29, 2012. http://www.examiner.com/article/10-top-anti-war-protest-songs-about-the-vietnam-war.
The book depicts the story of culture conflicts of the music, which arose from the introduction of the foot-tapping, hip-swaying music now known as rock n' roll (Graarrq). The outcome of rock n’ roll coincided with tremendous uproar in the movement to grant civil rights to African American. Trapped in the racial politics of the 1950s, rock n’ roll was credited with and criticized for promoting integration and economic opportunity for blacks while bringing to “mainstream” cloture black styles and values (Altschuler). Black values were looked over and kind of not important to whites. Whites were very much so well treated then blacks were, however no one spoke out until the outcome of rock n’ roll.
This book provides a very detailed outline on how and where rock and roll originated. It places much emphasis on the transition from Black to White rock artists and how society reacted to this change. Szatmary also presents sufficient information on the many aspects of rock and roll, ranging from what the lyrics are about, to the beginnings of rock and roll and new age rock.
Since the beginning of time, humans have been changing, developing, and evolving. The 1950s was a fascinating era in American history, and whether its people altered for good or bad is debatable, but one thing is for certain - many drastic changes were made during this time, especially involving teenagers. Juvenile delinquency erupted from the depths of the community, and countless gangs arose. Different genres of music were also emerging. Old perspectives were being replaced with controversial ideas; a lot was about to change.
Rock n - roll In the 1950s rock-n-roll established its own mark in history. It spread throughout the decade in a thrilling, substantial, and even livid manner to those Americans trying to get rid of all sorts of conflicts and challenges that occurred during this time period. As exciting as this music was, the novel “All Shook Up” portrays how rock-n-roll brought many changes to the American culture and later to the sixties. It expresses many concerns such as race relations, moral decay, and communism, but in ways that are partially true.
The Effects of Race Music on Rock and Roll “African Americans invented rock and roll,” noted a prominent American historian. “Without their musical contributions, we would not have the genre.” Based on what you’ve learned in History 105 about the origins and the first decade of Rock and Roll in the United States, is this an accurate statement? Why or why not? Rock and Roll is a genre of popular music that originated in the United States of America during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
One of the main waves of music of the time was a calmer more gentle rock. A major band called The Beatles were so popular during this time it was called Beatle Mania. The Beatles were one of the numerous bands coming to America either many more would coming getting the title of the British invasion. During the 1960s America’s economy was greatly increasing. This time period focused on the housing and computer industry which overpowered automobiles, chemicals, and electrically powered consumer durables, which were the leading sectors in the 1950s. Agriculture fell from 19.2 to 7.5 percent, minimum wage increased from $1.00 to $1.25, and the unemployment of was around 6 percent. Another economic point is the growing middleclass. Between 1945 and 1960, the median family income, adjusted for inflation, almost doubled. Rising income doubled the size of the middle class. Before the Great Depression of the 1930s only one-third of Americans qualified as middle class, but in postwar America two-thirds did. Many middle class families of postwar America became suburban families. Of the 13 million new homes built in the 1950s, 85 percent were in the suburbs. The GI bill helped this growth greatly. Soldiers coming home from the war would have a government loan for a home or going to college. Making college more of a social norm. Which still effects society today making more jobs having a college degree required. The political culture focused more on containing communism with the theory helping this being called the domino theory “Military Intervention in Korea and Vietnam finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the falling domino principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration
Music has continued to change throughout each decade, but the 1960s was the most influential decade in the history of music. Starting in the early 1950s, rock music was first introduced. Major record labels were releasing new “cover songs” which were originally made by black artist, but now by white artist (Rock and Roll). These cover songs changed a few lyrics from the original songs to avoid copyright issues and to also make the song more appropriate for the white listeners. The biggest star of the 1950s was Elvis Presley, who was known as the “King of rock n’ roll”.
Although he later denied that he ever said it, Sam Phillips-the man who discovered Elvis Presley-is reputed to have said, “if I could find a white man who had the Negro sound the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars” (Decurtis 78). Certain radio stations would not play the work of black artists in the segregated America of the 1950s. But, nevertheless, rock ‘n’ roll was an art form created by African-Americans. Little Richard, whose songs “Tutti Fruitti” and “Long Tall Sally” became hits only after white-bread versions were made by Pat Boone, said, “It started out as rhythm and blues” (Decurtis 78).
The ‘60s were the age of youth, as millions of children’s from post World War II became teenagers and rebelled against the conservative fifties. Denying civil rights to African-Americans and liberation to teenagers in previous decades and Vietnam War, created a vortexes which lead to massive rebellion against the status qua. Music of the 1960s was characteristic of the revolution that was going on during the decade. It was a time of rebellion and counter-culture in which the teenagers and college students were critical of government, business, religious institution and other various aspects of life. Era marked by civil rights movement, Vietnam War, environment of drug abuse and sexual freedom formed new music like: folk rock, soul and psychedelic rock. These genres starkly contrast the teen idol music of ‘50s pop mainstream. Writes John Covach; “World was exploding, and rock musicians were listening more closely than ever.”(Covach, 152) Such stark contrast in pop music directly relay to changing social culture in America, which further echo’s the relationship between music and culture.
The development of Rock ‘n’ Roll in the late 1940s and early 1950s by young African Americans coincided with a sensitive time in America. Civil rights movements were under way around the country as African Americans struggles to gain equal treatment and the same access to resources as their white neighbors. As courts began to vote in favor of integration, tensions between whites and blacks escalated. As the catchy rhythm of Rock ‘n’ Roll began to cross racial boundaries many whites began to feel threatened by the music, claiming its role in promoting integration. This became especially problematic as their youth became especially drawn to ...
The rise of rock and roll into the limelight is to a large extent attributed to the teenagers of the 1950’s. Early rock music listened to by teenagers during the 1950’s was formed by blending together Rhythm and blues with country music. This kind of ...
Before the big evolution of rock and roll, the United States was heavily involved in World War II. In this era, teens were expected to grow up at a very early age. Going to school was not one of the main priorities for these young adults during this time, and because of that "teens were expected to take life seriously. [Meaning,] the young men were expected to join the military or go get a job to support their family or their future families, while the young women were taught to take care of the household and prepare themselves to be a dutiful wives and to take care of their [future] children," (Cox). Even though they were expected to grow up early, “teens had very little economic power, freedom, independence, and input into [many of their own] decisions" (Cox).
It was no coincidence that rock ‘n’ roll and the civil rights movement started at the same time. The genre originated from African American music and was greatly discriminated against. Traditional white Americans would target anything bad about it. But as the teenager demographic of the 1950s started increasing the sales of the music, the genre started gaining more popularity. It was the style of Elvis Presley and his new voice that made girls weak in the knees and boys want to be him. Artists such as Presley had enough influence to change the view of their devoted fans on civil rights issues. Soon as protest songs and rock ‘n’ roll became more popular and influential, it began a gap between the young adult generation and their parents which led to the rebellion of the civil rights movement. Through these factors rock ‘n’ roll influenced a great deal over the civil rights movement.
The Fifties were a good time to be a white middle class American These years brought an UN-thought of prosperity and confidence to Americans who barely remembered the Great Depression. Popular music of the early fifties mirrored the life of mainstream America: bland predictable and reassuring. Which didn't seem bad after the depre...
The nineteen fifties was a decade of prosperous times in America, but the average lifestyle of an American seemed extremely dull. The average American conformed to social norms, most Americans in the nineteen fifties dressed alike, talked the same way, and seemed to have the same types of personality. Music is what started to change the conformist lifestyle in America. Teenagers started to rebellion against their families by listening to Rock-n-Roll...