The Teen Market and Racial Opposition

  1. The Teen Market in the 1950s - Alan Freed coined the term "rock-and-roll" in 1951 to describe the music resulting from the fusion of R & B and white music. By 1954, Rock-and-roll had completely engulfed other forms of popular music.
    1. Garofalo suggests three definitions of the term "rock and roll":
      1. a metaphor for the act of sex - it is hardly an accident that women artists, who had accounted for about a third of the hit songs in previous years, had been "just about eliminated" (Garofalo, p. 97) from the rock and roll charts.
      2. ironically in light of the 1st definition, a "more acceptable" term for rhythm and blues
      3. the musical genre as it evolves over time, particularly in the 1950s
    2. Palmer argues that the "cliche" of rock and roll as a melding of country and rhythm and blues is overly simplistic and overlooks many other contributions (see Garofalo, p. 95). Instead, rock and roll "proved an All-American, multi-ethnic hybrid. . ." Rock and roll in the 1950s combined a number of musical "currents:"
      1. What was the first Rock and Roll recording? Some likely candidates are listed at http://www.history-of-rock.com/numberonerecord.htm. A few likely candidates include:
        1. [Bill Haley - "Crazy Man Crazy"] (1953)
        2. [Dominoes - "Sixty Minute Man"]
        3. earlier songs that include the use of the phrase as a slang term include L'il Son Jackson's "Rockin' and Rollin'" (1950), Sister Rosetta Tharpe's "Rock Me" (1942), or even Trixie Smith's "My Daddy Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)" (1922).
      2. Rhythm-and-blues was the offspring of race recordings which crossed color boundaries in the early 50s, particularly in the emerging youth culture.
      3. New Orleans contributed a variety of musical styles such as "barrelhouse piano," jazz, and Mississippi Delta blues as well as several great session players. Antoine "Fats" Domino and "Little Richard" Penniman were probably the most famous New Orleans rock 'n' rollers.
      4. Some performers in the jazz tradition continued playing a more danceable style after the "mainstream" shifted toward bebop.
      5. In the last half of the 1950s, L.A. produced rockers with a Latin heritage. The death of Ritchie Valens slowed the Latin contribution to rock 'n' roll.
      6. Country influences can be found not only in the rockabilly artists but in others as well. A demo of the song that would become "Maybelline" by Chuck Berry was reworked because it sounded "too country for a black man."
      7. Although R & B was not considered suitable for church, several artists - including the Dominoes and Ray Charles - were significantly influenced by church music.
      8. Garofalo describes "Doo Wop" as the intersection of gospel, jazz, and pop. Predecessors include the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots.
        1. Many of the groups were "one-hit wonders" (see chart in Garofalo, pp. 124-5), due at least partly to management or record company decisions.
        2. The style is defined by the series of recordings rather than the influence of one or a few artists.
        3. Although dominated by African American groups, a few white or (even more rarely) integrated groups recorded. It seems that, among white doo wop groups, Italian Americans were most prevalent.
  2. Social factors contributing to Rock and Roll's rise in popularity:
    1. Growth of the television industry caused a change in radio programming, particularly an increase in music.
      1. “Race” music began getting a share of radio time, and many DJ's became advocates of the new music.
      2. DJs such as Alan Freed became celebrities and were able to exert significant influence on their listeners.
          1. Originally a student of "trombone and music theory," Freed's 1st broadcasting position was on classical station WKST in New Castle, PA.
          2. In 1946 became the host of Request Review on WAKR in Akron OH. He blamed his relative lack of success on jazz (the music he featured), claiming that it had become too intellectualized to be "the people's music."
          3. Freed got a job in Cleveland at WJW in 1951, where he began playing R & B records. He named his show The Moondog Rock 'n' Roll House Party.
          4. Freed additionally promoted rock 'n' roll concerts. Racially integrated, they met with enthusiastic response among teens. The "Moondog Coronation Ball" attracted 18,000 people to a 9000-seat arena, and Freed was forced to cancel the show.
          5. By late 1954, Freed had a late-night show on New York station WINS; he was also managing several acts and appearing in films such as Rock Around the Clock.
          6. For more information, check out The Official Alan Freed Website.
    2. The development of portable and car radios.
    3. Desegregation. Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka banned segregation in public schools in 1954; "In the field of public education, 'separate but equal' has no place."
    4. Financial prosperity, teens with disposable income, and the beginnings of a youth counterculture.
  3. Opposition based on racism and by the music industry.
    1. In 1956, a spokesman for the White Citizens Council of Birmingham, AL charged that Rock 'n' Roll, "the basic, heavy-beat music of the Negroes" appealed to "the base in man, brings out animalism and vulgarity" and represents "a plot to mongrelize America."
    2. A few artists, particularly African Americans like Count Basie, regognized the similarities between opposition to the new music and criticism of their own. Others, however - Sinatra and friends, for example - were extremely critical.
    3. “Covers” by white artists.
  4. the Top 40 format
  5. “Lost Idols”
    1. Through a variety of circumstances, the top rock-n-roll performers of the late 50's disappeared from the scene. Elvis went into the army, Jerry Lee Lewis lost his following when he married his 13-year-old 3rd cousin, Buddy Holly died, Little Richard went into the ministry, and Chuck Berry went to prison.
    2. The void in idols occurred at precisely the time at which:
      1. A market for the music had grown.
      2. Record companies had responded to the demand for the new music.
    3. FabianRock-n-Roll gains a new image and new stars (check out "Teen Idols" for one fans recollection of the time).
      1. Dick Clark & American Bandstand
        1. Not initially familiar with the music, Clark turned a local Philadelphia program into a national hit program that helped shape and define the music and the culture surrounding it. American Bandstand premiered on August 5, 1957. Clark got Beechnut Spearmint gum to help sponsor the show.
        2. Clark maintained and insisted upon a clean-cut image:
          1. dress code.
          2. no smoking or gum chewing (ironically).
          3. no sexual overtones.
        3. Clark produced several Philadelphia-based, mostly Italian singers such as Fabian, Frankie Avalon, and Bobby Rydell. He also introduced Chubby Checker and the Twist.
        4. Clark became a celebrity in his own right.Frankie Avalon
  6. The “Payola” scandals of 1959 and 1960, prompted at least in part by songwriters and ASCAP in response to performers that wrote their own material and ASCAP's ongoing battle with BMI.
    1. Following investigations into questionable TV quiz show practices, Congress began investigating the practice of "payola," or playing records in exchange for monetary or other favors.
    2. The practice had been prevalent in the industry for decades. However, it provided a useful means of attacking the new music; DJs were the primary focus.
    3. Although a number of DJs including Alan Freed were fired or charged with commercial bribery, Dick Clark - despite his interlocking business interests - survived with his career and reputation intact.
  7. Don Kirshner
    1. Co-founded Aldon Music in 1958 and set up shop in the Brill Building; his songwriters included Neil Sedaka, Carole King/Gerry Goffin, and Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil
    2. Kirshner's songwriters helped extend the popularity of doo-wop into the 1960s, and Kirshner helped organize for "girl groups" such as the Crystals and the Ronettes.
    3. For more information check out Don Kirshner and Aldon Music at www.history-of-rock.com.

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