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The Influence of the 1950S on the Development of Music Essay

Updated August 25, 2022
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The Influence of the 1950S on the Development of Music Essay essay

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It is the 1950s; Playboy released their very first magazine issue, the television made its debut in American households, and a new genre was in the works aimed towards America’s rebellious teenagers who wanted nothing to do with social norms or anything related to the government, being politically correct, or their parents. Rock music is a very influential genre that was one of the first genres to be nondiscriminatory and broke racial barriers due to the rebellious nature of America’s teenagers. Country, Jazz, and Blues music are also crucial properties that shaped rock music today into what it is. Without the influence, energy, and fusing together of Country, Jazz, and the Blues along with the social and cultural injustices in the 1950’s causing American teenagers to rebel; rock music could not have developed into the unbiased universal genre it is today.

One of the main ingredients in the formation of Rock and Roll was the fusing of the Country, Jazz, and Blues music by various artists. As segregation and racism were slowing being put behind Americans, Billboard began to transition the racist fashion of the term ‘race record’ into ‘Rhythm and Blues’ to refer to black music. Rhythm and Blues music featured electric guitars and suggestive lyrics very similar to country music that was attracting the attention of America’s rebellious teenagers. Disc Jockey, Alan Freed was one of the first to realize that the music scene was changing and Americas youth didn’t want to listen to past traditional music anymore, to be rebellious they wanted to listen to the catchy music of Rhythm and Blues. Due to his discovery, he controversially started playing Rhythm and Blues on his radio station.

In 1951, Freed is credited with coining the term ‘Rock and Roll’ while playing the new genre on his radio station ( Ferris 233). Elvis Presley the ‘King of Rock and Roll’ and Bill Haley and the Comets, who are credited with producing the first widely produced Rock and Roll song ‘Rock Around the Clock’, mixed their country music with the dance rhythms and delivery of Rhythm and Blues and before America’s eyes; Rock and Roll was born and America’s popular music was forever changed. At one point before Elvis Presley and Bill Haley could fuse Country music with various other genres, country music was almost entirely secluded.

Country music was a great influencer to Rock and Roll because it already related to the common folk and the lyrical content was very relatable. Country music began to expand to the cities where it would gain more lyrical content to sing about based upon societies new arising issues. When Country music moved towards the city it began to take all ethnic and regional styles encountered and would take the originality of country and morph it together to create a sound that people were interested in hearing the lyrics to as well as the sound itself. Lyrics in Country music were usually very harsh in subject and people enjoyed the frank lyrics that they could relate to (Ferris 189). Elvis morphed Gospel and Country to produce his unique sound we all know today. Other Country influences include Hank Williams Sr.

After high tension in the United States, people were searching for an outlet to let loose when they stumbled upon Jazz. Jazz is known for its upbeat, fast tempos, and dancing styles (Ferris 148). The diverse population of New Orleans made it the perfect place to be the center for Jazz. The diverse population created many opportunities for young artists such as Louis Armstrong. While Jazz was rarely mainstream to attracted listeners of both white and black people proving that America loved to dance and loved Jazz’s new sound that was fresh and adventurous for its listeners. Jazz was the perfect touch to the development of Rock and Roll because it is where Rock and Roll inherited its animated and energetic style that makes early Rock and Roll so easy to dance to.

Blues is a branch of Jazz that has origins in Africa, first sung by the slaves of America. The Blues is usually instrumental and the lyrics addressed every aspect of everyday life one may encounter (Ferris 148). Usually lyrical content was melancholy in nature which is how the genre got its name The Blues. The Blues provided a solid platform for the use of instrumentation with Rock and Roll. Major instruments of early Rock and Roll groups were electric guitars and drums that the Blues helped normalize within a mainstream genre. Influential Jazz artists were Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Jelly Roll Morton.

If one could use on word to describe Rock and Roll, it could be generally agreed upon by many people that ‘Rebellious’ would be a very accurate descriptor word. To understand why being ‘rebellious’ was such a big fixation of the 1950’s, one has to dive further into what was going on during that period of time socially and culturally and some theories as to why teenagers had become to rebellious. Culturally, America was starting to put segregation behind us and beginning to slowly morph together the lives of the minorities and live in harmony. Socially, America just won the Second World War and many of the teenagers’ of the era’s fathers had been deployed to war, mothers had to join work forces to support the family, which left children somewhere in the middle with little to no parental involvement which in turn affected their teenaged years (Wiseman).

Another similar thought is that with Americans being wedged between the Second World War and the grave terror of the Cold War, it simply was a time where all attention was focused elsewhere but at the youth of the nation. When families returned to normalcy, America had many concerning issues to consider regarding segregation, women’s rights, and in all, the whole nation was experiencing a change in social dynamic as well as war threats. Not everybody deals with changes well, and as the resistance to change was apparent to teenagers, it made them question adults and in turn made the teenagers drift further and further away from social norms and social rules they were expected to follow. In theory, being a child during a war time really contributed to the abandonment of the idea of following suit like their parents and had started the yearning in teenagers for individuality and independence because they did not necessarily agree with their parents ideas anymore.

Other theories suggest that the mass media and its advertising geared directly towards teenagers put added stress on the adolescents (Wiseman). With cinema being the first mass media that was geared directly at teenagers depicting how they should be and what was considered ‘in’ at the time, was unlike anything any previous generation of teenagers had experienced (Wiseman). With marketing directed at them showing them what to wear, buy, and how to live, it really enforced the ideas that the teenagers were not in control of their own lives and really made teenagers want to gain their own independence and individuality. Some theorize the teenage rebellion in the 1950’s was just in fact a phase similar to the “Romantic Movement” and the “Renaissance” and every few decades change is imminent and the 1950’s was a period that had that change(Wiseman).

Knowing that the 1950s were a very turbulent time for many Americans, with segregation newly abolished, the decade directly post war, and the presence of perhaps another war, one can easily be led to conclusions on how and why teenagers could have felt propelled to rebel from their parents and social norms and want to be seen as individuals and have their own independence. Teenagers felt compelled to rebel to show their want for independence by being uncontrollable and going directly against what their family beliefs and cultural believes were. Teenagers were looking to find any little way to disrupt the tranquility of the norms and one way they found it was by listening to Rhythm and Blues. White rebellious teenagers were drawn to this genre because of the upbeat tempos great for dancing, but also because listening to Rhythm and Blues still was not completely acceptable; it was still considered music for mainly the Black race. While segregation was no longer practiced in the United States, not all of the people could see past the segregated past and just join each other in everyday life just yet.

Listening to Rhythm and Blues was one way to rebel against parents of the 1950s, and while the teenagers were being drawn to the genre, disc jockeys started to play Rhythm and Blues on their radio station and artists started to experiment with different genres fusing into one sound to appeal to a mainstream audience.

As the teenage rebellion continued, Rock and Roll started to see different artists of diverse ethnic backgrounds and different influences. Blacks and Whites could perform and be some of the biggest influential artists of the genre and race had no say in the matter. Rock and Roll was one of the first genres to open its arms unbiased to any and all artists during the decade. Rock and Roll was attracting the attention of both White and Black teenagers because the genre had qualities and characteristics of the genres already widely accepted by the people who were most likely to listen to it. No longer did Black musicians decide to compose a jazz piece and a White artist had the privilege to play it for a white audience because it was not yet socially acceptable to play black music by a black artist on a white radio station.

One of the biggest early Rock and Roll influences was a black man .named Chuck Berry. Chuck Berry was known for creating the ‘duck walk’ while playing electric guitar (Ferris 234) Chuck Berry would be a influencer to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones before they led the British Invasion to America. The British Invasion was the turning point for Rock and Roll, saving it from near extinction in the 1960’s after popular and influential Rock and Roll artists had either gotten into legal trouble or had gone on too soon before their time (Ferris 240). During a unsettling time when segregation was no longer practiced, yet the separation in the United States was still prominent, having one the biggest Rock and Roll legends be a Black man says a lot about Rock and Roll in terms of diversity and acceptance. It also shows that skin color was no longer a huge barrier in Rock and Roll when a Black man can influence four British teenagers and make the said teenagers try to emulate him on stage. With deep roots in both Black and White culture (Ferris 240), Rock and Roll was truly the first unbiased genre in America.

Eventually Rock and Roll was shortened and became just Rock. The transition signified the change in genre as well as the mood of the United States with the race riots going on at the time and other tragic, social events. No longer was Rock music a light hearted genre one could dance to, but a heavier sound that now focused on other subjects. The transition from Rock and Roll to just Rock can also partially be blamed by the British Invasion bringing their new sound to America.

When the combined efforts of Country music’s harsh lyrics that were not afraid to speak its mind, the upbeat dance of Jazz, and the instrumentation of the Blues come together; one creates a genre that more or so appeal to the rebellious teenagers of the 1950s. Rock and Roll became a genre that one could dance to while having lyrics with deeper meanings behind them that many people can relate to. It also became a genre that was pure and unbiased against skin color. Having deep roots in black and white cultures, Rock and Roll is definitely a genre that adds diversity to America and helped to distance segregation and bring together people of any color without even intending to do so. Without all the above listed factors, rock music today would certainly not be the genre it is today and that’s a genre that is rich in hidden culture, lyrics with deep meanings that people can relate to, and instrumentation that is catchy when heard.

The Influence of the 1950S on the Development of Music Essay essay

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The Influence of the 1950S on the Development of Music Essay. (2022, Aug 07). Retrieved from https://sunnypapers.com/the-influence-of-the-1950s-on-the-development-of-music-essay/