Rock And Roll In The 1950's

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Betsy Rivera History 21 Dr. Christensen 12 December 2014 The 1950’s: Rock and Roll Year after year music influences what it is to be heard during a certain period of time. Top chart artist such as Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift have also made an impact to what music will evolve to in the future.. Even though pop culture music might in fact seem strange to the older generations, the recent playing music wasn’t always what it is. Going back into the history of music, music began by simply being a piano player that later incorporated an orchestra, but no vocals. Music has evolved and also transformed society beginning from the music periods of the middle ages, the renaissance, the baroque age, the classical period, the romantic era and up to date…show more content…
Beginning in the early 1950’s American Pop Charts were still filled with big band era vocalists such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Percy Faith, and other artist (Rock Music Timeline 2013). Blues and Rhythm charts were as well still filled with African American artists, who played mainly for African-American audience. The Blues, boogie, jazz, gospel, R & B groups and country were all influences to what became known as “rock and roll” (Rock Music Timeline 2013). In the early fifties the use of instruments as well changed, the electric guitar became the instrument of preference and influenced other R&B artist. R&B became cross-over artist due to that they began to play rock and roll. In 1955 the rock and roll genre had its first #1 single, which was “Rock and Roll Around the Clock” sung by Bill Haley and the Comets. This new music was heard on their radios, on television and danced to at parties. The music was easy to dance to, a feature that appealed to a younger generation. It allowed them to get the energy out of their system and show their athletic prowess. Fast dances were a variation of the Lindy or…show more content…
Adults feared of this because they did not manage to understand why the youth had to attempt to change their identity. Teenagers viewed Rock music as the story of their own life and likes. Rock and roll had an impact in the youth sexual activity, which by old tradition and beliefs sex was to be saved till marriage. According to Maris A. Vinoskis, professor at the University of Michigan, during the 1950’s teenage pregnancy reached a peak of 97.3 births per 1000, which ranged from ages 15-19. It is interesting to note that even though it was feared that music had a sexual impact in teenagers during this decade, surprisingly since 1957 teenage pregnancy declined to 53.7 (Vinovskis

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