13.4 Popular Culture and Mass Media
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Describe Americans’ different responses to rock and roll music
- Discuss the way contemporary movies and television reflected postwar American society
With a greater generational consciousness than previous generations, the baby boomers sought to define and redefine their identities in numerous ways. Music, especially rock and roll, reflected their desire to rebel against adult authority. Other forms of popular culture, such as movies and television, sought to entertain, while reinforcing values such as religious faith, patriotism, and conformity to societal norms.
ROCKING AROUND THE CLOCK
In the 1940s, various evolutions of up-tempo blues, jazz, and country music gave way to Rhythm and Blues, a genre predominantly created by Black artists and marketed to Black audiences. Sister Rosetta Tharpe was widely credited with delivering the first true Rock and Roll performance with “Strange Things Happening Everyday,” and was a major influence on artists of the time. Several years later, Jackie Brantson, singing with Ike Turner’s Band, released “Rocket 88,” which became a chart-topper and is another contender for “first Rock and Roll recording.” Aided by new technologies such as the “45” (or single record), the jukebox, and the solid-body electric guitar, R&B and Rock and Roll artists soon gained the attention and purchasing power of young White people. Rock and roll music celebrated themes such as young love and freedom from the oppression of middle-class society. It quickly grew in favor among American teens, thanks largely to the efforts of disc jockey Alan Freed, who named and popularized the music by playing it on the radio in Cleveland, where he also organized the first rock and roll concert, and later in New York.
The theme of rebellion against authority, present in many rock and roll songs, appealed to teens. White artists began covering popular songs by Black artists, and following in their footsteps. In 1954, Bill Haley and His Comets provided youth with an anthem for their rebellion—“Rock Around the Clock” (Figure 13.14). The song, used in the 1955 movie Blackboard Jungle about a White teacher at a troubled inner-city high school, seemed to be calling for teens to declare their independence from adult control.
Haley illustrated how White artists could take musical motifs from the African American community and achieve mainstream success. Teen heartthrob Elvis Presley rose to stardom doing the same. Thus, besides encouraging a feeling of youthful rebellion, rock and roll also began to tear down color barriers, as White youths sought out African American musicians such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard (Figure 13.14).
While youth had found an outlet for their feelings and concerns, parents were much less enthused about rock and roll and the values it seemed to promote. Many regarded the music as a threat to American values. When Elvis Presl