How TV Changed our

Lives

TV Culture

• Mr. Johnson

• 1947 Regular Television casts were broadcast in this country.• 1950 most people only watched TV at local places or outside of department stores. Elvis Forrest•By 1955 study showed that most Americans spent more time watching TV than in school or at work.

• 1960 90% of all homes had at least 1 black & white television.• Watching TV as a family became the “norm” practice replacing all other family activities.• NBC & CBS were the two major TV stations and by the end of the 1950’s they were making $$ at an furious rate.

• Several radio stars made it big in TV:•Milton Berle (appeared in drag as Uncle and Auntie Miltie•Ed Sullivan hosted a talk show•I love Lucy YouTube - Uncle Miltie IS Auntie Mildred!•The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason and Art Carney. YouTube - Best of the Honeymooners 1

• Westerners actually became the most popular TV genre.•It allowed young boys a chance to see gun play and violence where it seemed “noble”•Westerns also highlighted our democratic national culture “Americanism”

• Westerns also tackled communist ideas which helped the fight in the Cold War.

Sports on TV• Sports started broadcasting on

TV as well.– Initially it was NOT well received

by teams.– Attendance at games dropped

• Many Minor league teams had fold because TV allowed people to just watch the major league club.

– Single camera angles skewed the images making distances appear inaccurate.

Impact of TV• Game Shows like the “$64,000

Question” and “Twenty One” also became popular.

• Although to gain ratings often times the games were rigged.

• Most networks started broadcasting the nightly news.

Impact of TV• The real importance came with

“commercials” • TV became the largest and most

used medium to evoke what the public needed, wanted, and SHOULD have.

• TV currently does the EXACT same today.

Impact of TV• TV ADVERTISING THEN AND NOW:

– Shows us what the latest fashions are– Highlights how products can save us

time and money.– Shows us what the “rich and popular”

are doing which many of us copy their trends…which is form of advertising

– Highlights what businesses think we “SHOULD” be doing/acting/being.

Impact of TV• With the advent of the TV and

commercials a lucrative business has been born.

• Example:– Cost of a 30 sec. commercial during

Super Bowl I =$40,000– Cost of a 30 sec commercial during

Super Bowl XLIV =$3.01 million

Rock-N-Roll

Rock & Roll

• 1951 Cleveland disk jockey Allen Freed termed “Rock and Roll”

• He took the term from the song “My baby rocks with me with a steady roll”.

• He decided to play “black music” to white teenagers on his radio show, “Moondog Rock-N-Roll Party”

Allen Freed’s influence/decision• Freed decided to play the “R&B” sounds to the

white teenage audience but called it “Rock-N-Roll” to remove the race stereotype associated with R&B.– Rock-N-Roll was a slang term in black neighborhoods

for having sex! (Freed didn’t know)

• It highlighted the electric guitar and offbeat rhythms and lyrics that were geared toward a younger audience. It was edgy for the times.

Allen Freed’s influence/decision

• Freed’s decision to play Rock-N-Roll on the air opened up the style of music to a HUGE audience.

• In 1952 he organized the Moondog Coronation Ball where he booked the top black acts and the audience was mostly white.

• 1957 he had a Nationally Televised Rock N Roll party show but it was canceled when Frankie Lymon danced onstage with a white girl.

Rock and Roll• Rock-N-Roll became wildly popular. (This was

a far contrast to the bland western tunes that the parents wanted the kids to listen to)

• Most credit “Bill Haley and the Comets” as the 1st group to have a Rock-N-Roll hit (titled Rock-N-Roll)– 1953 Crazy Man Crazy was his first Rock-N-Roll to

make the Billboard top 20. Crazy Man, Crazy– 1954-1955 Bill Haley records “Rock around the

Clock” and it’s the 1st rock song used in a movie. Rock Around the Clock-Bill Haley-original song-1955

ELVIS PRESLEY• 1956 at 19 years old Elvis

Aaron Presley became one of the biggest Rock-N-Roll stars.

• He blended R&B with Country and Rock.

• Elvis’s brand of music was part music part showmanship. His suggestive dance moves were a big reason he drew the attention of teenage girls.

ELVIS PRESLEY• His 1956 appearance on the Ed Sullivan show

where his dance moves were made public was met with great resistance.

• He was seen as a modern day outlaw because he bucked society’s acceptable norms and decency.

• He had a record 14 consecutive hit recordings such as Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog, Blue Suede Shoes, Don’t Be Cruel, Love Me Tender

• YouTube - ELVIS PRESLEY "Hound Dog" on The Ed Sullivan Show

ELVIS PRESLEY

• Parents, churches, and teachers petitioned against Elvis because he was too suggestive and his music was edgy.– They wanted the kids to listen to Pat Boone who was

more country and gospel and wholesome. pat boone

• Elvis “because he was white” paved the way for such black performers like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Chubby Checker, etc. to be accepted by the white society.

ELVIS PRESLEY

• The media played Elvis as a Rebel and the kids loved that stereotype.

• But in 1958 Elvis was drafted by the U.S. Army and willingly agreed to serve his 2 year stint in the military without any problems. Many kids saw him as a sell out but he wasn’t really a rebel in the first place.

• Elvis Presley In the Army

Rebels of the 50’s

Rebels• Those who decided to go against the “norms” of

the affluent society in the 1950’s were termed Rebels or “beats”– Variation of deadbeats or beatniks which means

those who don’t care and are drifters.

• College kids dropped out of the “Rat Race”– Rat Race Rat Race is a term used for a pressured urban life.

Many saw it as self-deflating and a pointless pursuit.– It left little time for leisure activities which the

“Beatniks” valued more than anything.

Rebels• The rebels fell in love with “Beat Writers” such

as Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road”, and J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” who wrote tales of rebel youths who skipped around the country doing “their thing”

• Some “Beat Writers” were even put on trial on grounds of obscenity because their books and poems focused and romanticized sex, drugs, and drifting. (This backfired because it helped liberalize what could be published in the USA.)

The Day the Music Died 1959

• Buddy Holly-- Was inspired by Elvis Presley.– Took the idea of rockability and incorporated it into his

songs. Had hits of “Peggy Sue, Oh Boy, and That’ll be the Day”

• Ritchie Valens-- An American songwriter of Latino decent who pioneered the Chicano Rock movement. He had hits of La Bamba, Donna, and Come on Lets Go.

• The Big Bopper– Was originally a DJ and became a songwriter with hits “Chantilly Lace” and The Big Boppers Wedding”

The Day the Music Died 1959

• Feb. 3rd 1959 while on tour known as “The Winter Dance Party” the 3 along with the Belmonts were playing in a venue in Iowa.

• Their tour bus’s heat broke on the way to Iowa and some of the band members had frostbite and pneumonia so Buddy Holly decided to charter a small 4 seat plane (for his band only) from Iowa to their next venue in Minnesota to get a good night’s sleep and to be off the freezing cold bus. (BUT THE SEATS CHANGED)

The Day the Music Died 1959

• Buddy Holly chartered the plane so he got a seat• The Big Bopper pleaded with Waylon Jennings for

his seat on the bus because Bopper had the flu– DHTS

• Ritchie Valens won a coin toss for the last seat with Tommy Allsup. (Valens also had a cold)

• Shortly after take off the plane went down crashing into a field at 170 MPH.

• All 3 artists and the pilot (Roger Peterson) were dead.

The Day the Music Died 1959

La Bamba