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How did rock and roll impact society in the 1950s?
I like this response from Adam Begun, Musician/Composer
“Teenagers screamed.
Adults held their ears.
College-age young adults scratched their heads.
School dances doubled the amount of chaperones.
Drive-in movies became a (literal) petting zoo.
White adults were terrified that their kids would forever be corrupted and never let into Heaven if that “Black” garbage-music was played in their vicinity.
Many, many kids started their own bands.
Movies featured more Rock And Roll songs and less Jazz or Show Tunes.
Parents became afraid of movies and TV shows that featured Rock And Roll.
Some feared the end of “society” and “civilization” as we know…er…knew it.
Yeah…
…that sure didn’t happen.
Actually, Rock And Roll is just a confluence of styles.
Take Country & Western, electrify it and you get Rockabilly.
Take Rhythm & Blues, combine it with Rockabilly and you get (very) early Rock And Roll…all the right instruments but the solos are usually on saxophone…which is more R&B than R&R.
Stop writing “explicitly” about sex and more “metaphorically” about…er…sex. (cars, the sky, etc.) and get White people to play it so White people will want to buy it.
Give the solos to the guitar or piano and phase the sax out entirely.
Have events which create “new” legends (explain thatone) like Buddy Holly dying or Elvis wiggling his hips on TV.
Then, like any new “craze”, exploit the Hell out of it to make as much money as possible before people go back to listening to Lawrence Welk and Mitch Miller.
The tangible effect on society was this:
Rock And Roll was something new to make a lot of money from…upset your parents and teachers with…confuse your older, Jazz loving siblings…destroy segregation (oh, the HORRORS!}…
…and for all I know was the start of Attention Deficit Disorder and Hell on Earth for all mankind. (they said that about Jazz too…and Stravinsky…*arrgh*)
Bottom Line:
MONEY! LOTS AND LOTS (and lots) OF MONEY…made from financially empowered teenagers (the 1950’s was like that).
At least today we can say…that…uh…um…hmm…
…nope. It’s still all about money. (still will be in 50 years time, too.)”
All I can add is how fortunate we are to have the MLT with their healthy passion for and respect for music creation without money being the bottom line!
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3 Replies
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Interesting article, Howard! Everyone talks about how the music of the 60’s changed the culture, but I think the rock-and-roll revolution of the 50’s may have been even more profound in some ways.
That reminds me of this classic Stan Freberg recording from 1960:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhWnebZ2ZlU
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Thanks for sharing David.
The Congressional Payola Investigations occurred in 1959, after the United States Senate began investigating the payola scandal. Among those thought to have been involved were DJ Alan Freed and television personality Dick Clark.
“Prosecution for payola in the 1950s was in part a reaction of the traditional music establishment against newcomers. Hit radio was a threat to the wages of song-pluggers. Radio hits also threatened old revenue streams; for example, by the middle of the 1940s, three-quarters of the records produced in the USA went into jukeboxes. Still, in the 1950s, independent record companies or music publishers frequently used payola to promote rock and roll on American radio; it promoted cultural diversity and disc jockeys were less inclined to indulge their own personal and racial biases.
Alan Freed, a disc jockey and early supporter of rock and roll (and also widely credited for actually coining the term), had his career and reputation greatly harmed by a payola scandal. Dick Clark’s early career was nearly derailed by a payola scandal, but he avoided trouble by selling his stake in a record company and cooperating with authorities.”
Sadly, Payola issues are still around today.
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I think Rock and Roll certainly took root in the 50’s as the likes of Elvis and Buddy Holly caught the attention of the youth. It did have a profound impact on society but it was not generally accepted by the older generation and the establishment. It was considered a passing fad by many back then. I think it was the Beatles who truly transformed Rock and Roll later in the 60’s into something that would span all generations and elevated it’s stature as good music that was here to stay. Of course there were other great bands from the 60’s from the British Invasion, Motown, California etc too that had a big part in it, but the Beatles were certainly the most inspiring of them all and took the entire world by storm.
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