MU121 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Tom-Tom Drum, Cover Version, Sweet Little Sixteen
Ch 2 – The Birth and First Flourishing of Rock and Roll
The Rise of Youth Culture in the 50s
Youth Culture
- First wave of babies reached adolescence
- Emergence of rock and roll in the mid 5s linked to the rise of the teenager
o Development of youth culture
▪ New musical tastes, distinct fashions, slang, movies with teen themes
- Earlier generations had been expected to assimilate into adult culture as soon as
they left high school
- In the 50s, white middleclass teens were allowed to avoid adult responsibility
longer than any group in history
o They had fashion, music, dancing, movies, magazines, and bevy of slang
terms belonging exclusively to them
- Phenomenon partly arose from country’s relative political stability and affluence in
the post-WWII years
o Teens had more money to spend on leisure activities and luxury items
o Parents recovering from domestic disruption of war focused increasingly on
family life and devoted considerable attention and resourced to the health,
education, and happiness of their children
o Children born just before American involvement in war (Dec 1941) were the
first beneficiaries of this new attention
Why R&B?
- High school kids were excited by R&B available via local black radio
o Music seemed exotic, dangerous, and sexual
- Listening to R&B was a forbidden pleasure
o An act of social rebellion
o Way to resist assimilation into adult world of responsibilities and
commitments
Rock in Media
- James Dean was the icon for misunderstood youth and teenage tragedy
o He played misunderstood teenager in Rebel Without a Cause
▪ Died just before film release
- Success of Blackboard Jungle catapulted Bill Haley to the top of the charts
o This was significant because Haley’s Rock Around the Clock was one of the
top pop record in 1955 and its inclusion in juvenile delinquency film cemented
the association of rock music with teenage rebellion and rowdiness
- Once it became clear that R&B records would sell, the market was flooded with them
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Radio and Records
The Rise of the Disk Jockey
- Many white teenagers were first exposed to R&B through radio
o During the 50s, small and inexpensive tube-driven tabletop radios were
common among white middle-class
o Majority of black urban households had at least one radio
o Radios were common in automobiles
- By the end of the decade, the development of the transistor made small, portable
radios affordable and available to everyone
- DJs emerged as the most important tastemakers of early rock and roll
- All these early DJs were white, but most listeners assumed they were black on basis
of on-air voices
o Only 16 of around 3000 DJs on air in 1947 were black
o During the late 40s and 50s, black DJs made a mark on radio programming
Alan Freed
- Leo Mintz, owner of Record Rendezvous Cleveland, sponsored late-night radio show
devoted to R&B
- Alan Freed: host of The Moondog Show
o Cited as the most influential DJ in rock and roll’s breakthrough to popular
music mainstream
o Considered the Father of Rock and Roll by many teenagers
- The station’s signal reached far beyond Ohio state line
- Radio programming targeted at a black audience was now being enjoyed by white teens
o Free among the first of new wave disc jockeys to help develop R&B
programming
- Freed was not the first DJ to play R&B – modelled his own shows from Nashville
stations
o Debuted in Big Apple in 1954 and renamed the show The Rock and Roll Party
- Syndicated nationally and eventually in Europe
- Created considerable buzz over R&B among white teenagers
- Extended involvement in rock and roll by promoting concerts, producing films, and
working in television
o Took 1958 concert show, The Big Beat, on the road across the US
- Continual backlashes against rock music were directed at him and his shows
o Shows often portrayed by the press as teen riots
Aggressive Marketing by Independent Labels
- Most R&B heard on the radio during the 50s was recorded and released on
independent labels
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Payola
- Payola: practice of paying disc jockeys to play music on the radio
- Used by both major and indie labels
o Most beneficial to indie labels in order to compete with greater resources
shared by major labels
o Employees at major label often worked with company’s money
o Owner of indie label often had his own money on the line with a record
Major Labels
- National
o Had own manufacturing plants and national distribution networks
- Decca, Mercury, RCA-Victor, Columbia, Capitol, and MGM
Indies/Independent Labels
- Mostly regional
o Much smaller operations
o Had to farm out manufacturing and improvise distribution systems
- At first, cooperated with indie labels in other parts of the country to establish
reciprocal arrangements
o You distribute my records, I’ll distribute yours
- Competitive disadvantage meant successful indie labels had to be aggressive about
marketing
- Success was dependent on gaining radio play and getting records into stores and
jukeboxes
- Had to develop relationships with DJs, influencing them with:
o Gifts like cash and merchandise
o Nights on the town or vacations
- Stores received extra copies of records to sell at full profit in order to push a
particular record
R&B Belonging to Indies
- In the 50s, conventional wisdom said indie could not beat major labels in pop music
o R&B, and Country & Western were markets in which indies could make money
- Emergence of rock and roll can be attributed to entrepreneurship of both indie
labels and DJs working on outskirts of their respective businesses
o Indie labels fighting for place on margins of recording industry
o Indie radio stations battling in regional markets with local affiliates of
national networks
- R&B largely ignored by major corporate powers because they didn’t see the profits
as being worth the effort of developing, recording, and marketing a record
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Ch 2 the birth and first flourishing of rock and roll. The rise of youth culture in the 50s. Emergence of rock and roll in the mid 5(cid:882)s linked to the rise of the (cid:498)teenager(cid:499: development of youth culture, new musical tastes, distinct fashions, slang, movies with teen themes. Earlier generations had been expected to assimilate into adult culture as soon as they left high school. In the 50s, white middleclass teens were allowed to avoid adult responsibility longer than any group in history terms belonging exclusively to them: they had fashion, music, dancing, movies, magazines, and bevy of slang. High school kids were excited by r&b available via local black radio: music seemed exotic, dangerous, and sexual. Listening to r&b was a forbidden pleasure: an act of social rebellion, way to resist assimilation into adult world of responsibilities and commitments.
