The Rise of Youth Culture in the 1950s

8/9/2019 The Rise of Youth Culture in the 1950s

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Welcome to week two of The History ofRock - Part One, here on Coursera.This week we're going to talk about theBirth and First Flourishing of Rock andRoll.So, that's the period from 1950 'til theend of the decade, 1959, 1960.in this video were going to talk aboutthe rise of Youth Culture during thatperiod.But before we do, let's briefly reviewwhat we talked about in week one.You remember that one of the main pointsof week one is that there were threeprinciple marketing categories.Or divisions, of popular music in theperiod up to 19 40, 1955.that was mainstream Pop, Country andWestern, and Rhythm and Blues.And we went through each of those thosehistory of each of those styles a bit to,to get a sense of what was going onleading up to 1955.

We also raised the question, why is 1955the, the birth of Rock and Roll?Why should we choose that particularyear?so now, that we're going to focus in on1955 and see if we can understand exactlyhow it is Rock and Roll took off the wayit did.And why it really should be seen assomething different from the styles thatcame before.And I'll give the story away a little bitby saying one of the main ideas that's

often taught with regard to the beginningof Rock and Roll.Is that Rock and Roll constitutes theblending of Country and Western andRhythm and Blues with mainstream Pop.So, it's the blend of those three with a,with a, some gospel thrown in on the sideand doo-wop, as well, that really createwhat Rock and Roll is.What I will say is that Rock and Rollhappens when these styles becomemainstream Pop styles.That is, when Rhythm and Blues, and

Country and Western themes, cross overfrom their individual markets into themainstream pop market.And that's what we're going to talk aboutthis week.So, let's start with with talking alittle bit about the entire flow of whatwe'll say this week about the, thechapter.the period through 1950, 55 through 1959



is considered the first wave of Rock andRoll.And that basically divides up into theperiod before Elvis, that is right at1954 or 1955 in that period, Elvis, 1956.And then what happened after Elvis.Well, not after Elvis, in the sense thathe was gone, but after Elvis' initialsuccess.It may be better to say in the wake ofElvis.So, that's the way we'll divide it up.You may be surprised to find out thatElvis is actually not really at the verybeginning of Rock and Roll.But doesn't make his biggest impact untilother artists have in some sense clearedthe way for him.I should also take a minute to point outthat what you're learning in the Courseracourse that we're doing here.Is really an American perspective on thehistory of rock music.It's the way it looks, the way this

history looks in the United States.we will find out, especially when westart to talk about The Beatles and TheBritish Invasion, that in many ways, thehistory of Rock and Roll looks differentin the U.K.Some of the same things we're talkingabout that are going on in the music hereare, are balanced in different kinds ofways in the U.K.So, for those of you who are taking thecourse who aren't in the United States,please understand that we're talking

about the course.talking about the subject and the way itlooks from the America perspective.The, the American market, being thebiggest market, really in the world forthis music at this time.But, that's, that's my caveat with regardto that.well, let's now talk about dig, dig intothis idea of the rise of youth culture inthe 1950s.And talk about the invention of theAmerican Teenager.

What could I possibly mean by theinvention of the American Teenager duringthese years?after all, haven't we always hadteenagers?What is it, before rock and roll peoplewent from the age of 12 to the age of 20and never went 13 through 19, now?Of course with, there have always beenteenagers.



But we've never, up, up to this point theculture had never really separatedteenagers out as they're, as they're ownsort of separate entity in the culture.So, kind of the way it worked is, youwent to school until you graduated fromhigh school.And then when you moved on to college orinto a career, or something like that,you put childish things away and becamean adult.There wasn't really a transition periodthat was celebrated in a particular kindof way.And there weren't goods and services andproducts and those kinds of things thatwere, that were devoted to teenagers.But what starts to happen during thisperiod, is that parents start to developa, a, maybe a greater sort of care.Maybe it's not fair to say care becausethat, that makes it seem like the parentsbefore then weren't caring as much aboutthe, about their kids.

But they start to really focus more onthe children.Maybe that's because Coming out of thesecond world war, a lot of these people,the, the, the fathers had been away atwar.People come back, war had been a toughtime.Now the war was over, they wanted to getback to as normal a kind of life as theycould.And they really focused on doing whatthey thought was best for their kids.

So these kids were a little bit morepampered maybe, than earlier generationswere.There was a lot more focus put on theireducations and, and, and their generalsort of emotional health and this kind ofthing.And what that generated was a bunch ofkids.Who had their own turned out had theirown clothes, their own language, theirown cars, their own ideas of what teenromance was.

Lots of leisure time and disposableincome.And most importantly their own music.And Rock and Roll would become the musicthat the idea that all of a sudden kidscould be teenagers for a while.In a period of time where they were nolonger children, but weren't quiteadults.And there was a whole kind of culture



that they could go into.That could have all kinds of things thatwere exclusive to that.This was new in the 1950s, and theimportance of Rock and Roll is it was thesoundtrack of this new teenageexperience.if you want to get an idea of what, what,life was like in the 1950s for, for thiskind of kidYou might think of films like the 1973film, American Graffiti.The one of early George Lucas films.It was actually set in 1962, but itcaptures a lot of that late '50s kind ofambiance the television show Happy Days.A lot of people have heard that, haveever seen, have, have seen that, have youever seen the movie Back to the Futurewith Michael J Fox.Where they sort of go back to the '50s?Now, a lot of that is idealized.There were a lot more problems and therewere all kinds of other issues that

happened in the '50s.That you don't really sort of see in thatidealized view of what the '50s were.But that's the idea, a time of innocence,a time of teenagers It's a Potsy andRalph Malph.Down at the malt shop, this kind ofthing, you know, dancing to the jukebox,and, and, and this, this, this is whatthe American teenage teenager thing is.I've got friends colleagues about thesame age as me, who, who, who, who didn'thave teenage years.

Or didn't have a sort of teenagerculture, when they were growing up in theUK at that time.And so they talk about this as theAmerican invention of the teenager.For was, for us, what's important, isthat it opens up a market for product.And in the second half of the 1950's,music would be sold to these teenagers asthe music that sets them apart from theirparent's generation.And that's the important thing.We should also talk about the, the

construction of Rock and Roll Youth andJuvenile delinquency, [LAUGH], thatstarts to develop at about this time.a real concern, because people were soconsumed with their kids growing up theright way, a real concern that they mighttake the wrong path.And juvenile delinquency, the idea ofkids going bad, kids going wrong.really started to become a thing that



people were talking about in the culture.You can see this especially, in threefilms that came out just about in the mid1950's.There's a film from 1953 starring MarlinBrando called The Wild One.And one of the main characters, the oneplayed by Brando is a character by thename of Johnny.His motorcycle gang are called TheBeetles.Sound familiar?We'll get to that in a couple of weeks.Anyway, Johnny is a rebel and when askedat one point in the movie what he isrebelling against?He turns the person that asked him andsays, I don't know, what do you got?In other words, it was almost rebellionfor its own sake, but it was certainlyviewed as a kind of juvenile delinquency.Another film like that, featured JamesDean from 1955.It was called Rebel Without a Cause.

Well, there you go, rebellion with noreason, rebellion for the sake ofrebellion itself.a misunderstood youth, who you know ismeets tragedy at the end of the film.And that's further reinforced by the factthat the actor, James Dean, actually didmeet with a tragic death.And to a certain extent that sort ofsolidifies this idea of dying young,rebellion.The thing about The Wild One and RebelWithout A Cause, however, is the music

that appears in those movies, is not rockand roll at all,and so, there is not the directconnection with rock and roll, but thethird movie.Blackboard Jungle from 1955 starringGlenn Ford and Sidney Poitier.Is about Some kids in an inner, innercity school, and how they're struggling.And their, their music teacher, one oftheir teachers likes to play music to tryto connect up.And, and in the movie, the music he uses

is Jazz to try and talk to these kids.But over the opening credits, and thenlater in the mu, in, in the movie, thesong Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haleyand The Comets is played.And with that, with Rock Around theClock, and Blackboard Jungle, and thiswhole sense of juvenile delinquency, andthe concern about it.You get this linking together of rock and



roll, with, with troubled youth, thatwill, in fact, become part of theidentity of rock and roll for the rest ofits history.what's interesting about that movie and Iguess you really have to use yourimagination to imagine this happening.Is that the, the, the playing of RockAround the Clock in the theater whenpeople went to see the film.And the film starts out with this sortof, you know, sort of crawling text thatsays you know.Juvenile delinquency in our country is abig problem, this kind of thing, youknow.And then out comes Rock Around the Clock.And kids got so excited about the musicwhen they were seen this film, theyactually start to riot in theaters.There were reports of people tearing outtheater seats and this kind of thing.Well, what could more reinforces the ideaof Rock and Roll whipping these kids up

into a demonic fever that we needed to dosomething about in our culture.And keep these kids from going over tothe dark side and this kind of thing.So anyway, now these films the youthculture.All of this sort of pulled together tocreate an environment that makes itpossible for, for Rock and Roll to to, tobegin to flourish.Bill Haley's Rock Around the Clock wasone of the top pop hits of 1955.In 1955 we really start to see songs that

we would think of as Rock and Roll songsnow, as top hits in the Pop Charts.Not just crossing over but being some ofthe biggest records of that year.many, of course, records have followed.And, and many of R&B songs would start tocross over in the Pop, in, in, onto thePop Charts, and we'll talk about that injust a minute.Now some would argue that there was somuch R&B crossing over in 1955 into thePop Charts.That that what we call Rock and Roll

would really be better just be calledWhite Rhythm and Blues white R&BBut I will, I, I I'll try to fashion anargument for you.And present an argument for you thatshows that Rock and Roll is really insomeways a changing of what R&B is and isworth the, this separating out.But for now let's just let's just thinkabout the youth culture that, that made



it possible for rock n roll to to happenin this country.And turn our attention in the nextlecture to how is it that White teenscame to hear Rhythm and Blues in thefirst place.

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The Rise of Youth Culture in the 1950s