Brief Response How was the decade of the 1950s the pinnacle of the “American Dream”? So many children were born in the post-war decade, creating a spike in housing and consumer demand. Americans were living the same goals: opportunity, success. Media portrayed the American lifestyle for all to assimilate to.

Popular Culture; 652,

Today’s goal The Arts and Entertainment industries experienced great experimentation and growth; much of it shaped by the new medium, television. Television changed the mass-media landscape. Subcultures and genres such as the Beat movement, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and jazz, emerged. Rock and Roll music led the way for a new kind of youth: the teenager.

Vocabulary Mass media Means of communication that reaches large audiences at the same time. Prior to the 1950s: news papers, radio, motion pictures. Television surpassed and threatened them all because it showed recorded and live moving/talking images.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Government agency supervising communications: Telephone, telegraph, radio, television….. Licensing stations and people broadcasting on them. Regulating (language and other content that might be publicly offensive). In 1956, 500 new TV stations were regulated.

TV First commercial broadcasts began in 1948. RCA announces color compatible TV in 1953. Note prices (similar to flat-panel/HDTVs when they first came out) Note actual date when mass-production will begin. President Eisenhower makes first color broadcast, 1958. Note that Ike thought TV was important enough to assist RCA and NBC in promoting color television personally.

TV was (still is) stereotypical Conventional formulas Oversimplified descriptions TV critics felt that it was a “vast wasteland” Stereotyping and idealized modern and historic world. Women and minorities stereotyped Violence a common tool to resolve plot problems. Violent westerns were king Gunsmoke (notice commercial aimed at the targeted show audience) Have Gun, Will Travel The Rifleman Rawhide Wanted, Dead or Alive

Beat movement Generation of socially nonconformist artists, poets, and writers. Beat came from being “weary” (“I am beat”) (bored conformity around them) and the new beat of the experimental music they were into. Alan Ginsburg and Jack Kerouac were major figures in it. Attractive to some artists in mass media and college students. Mass media would play its stereotyping magic and trivialize the Beat movement. Mainstream critics claimed “Beatniks” were just against what everyone else was doing.

jazz Very different from the 1920s and 30s jazz Not conducive to dancing much anymore Improvised, atonal, often moody Often using classic melodies from earlier decades. Others wrote original pieces. Pioneered by mostly African Americans, but not exclusive to them. Miles Davis Sonny Rollins Charlie Parker* Dizzy Gillespie Thelonius Monk

Beat and jazz Jack Kerouac using his beat skills to memorialize Charlie Parker. Note Parker-style jazz playing as the background. Parker had died young from substance abuse. It should be noted that Kerouac was already “acceptable” to the mainstream, and beat had become passé.

Rock ‘n’ roll Name for a new type of predominantly African American music that combined rhythm and blues with electronic instruments. Coined by DJ Alan Freed, one of the first to broadcast it. Richard Penniman (“Little Richard”) From a British documentary Chuck Berry Dick Clark and Johnny Carson introduce Chuck before a “hip” crowd…. Willa Mae “Big Mama” Thornton Elvis Presley Remember what you know about the older culture in America: Why are people reacting the way they do to his act? For kids, a pleasant, but vocal shock as Elvis gyrates on the stage. For many adults, it was socially unacceptable at the moment, but mass media would make it acceptable, and, today, passé. Bill Haley and the Comets Youtube used shots from George Lucas’ American Graffiti, a nostalgic look at the end of the early rock culture as the summer of 1962 comes to an end. One of the actors, Ron Howard, will appear in another 50s retro series, Happy Days, in the 1970s.

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p. 653, analyzing effects More households used television for entertainment People spent and increasing number of hours watching TV More varied shows were broadcast TV Dinners were invented to accommodate viewers. In aluminum trays: Easily baked pre-made/cooked foods 1950s live, filmed, 1970s, variety

p. 653, interpreting graphs 1. 1950-60 2. People used computers more

p. 654, evaluating Positive Negative Informing and entertaining Reinforcing cultural values Negative Promoting stereotypes of minorities and women. Exposing children to images of violence

EC Find a show produced/broadcast between 1950 and 1965 on Youtube or some other free-access on-line source. (If you use Real Player, you can download the file and provide it with your project) (8) Provide background information (year, title, company, network) (2) Describe the show (genre, the particular episode) (4) Describe how the plot is stereotypical/how any characters are stereotypes. (4) Does this type of show have similar types broadcast today? How are they similar/different? (4) Due in 5 school days of this lesson. Up to 22 points

p. 655, summarizing Radio: Cinema They concentrated on what they did best—local news, weather, and music programming. Cinema Size (Todd-AO, Cinemascope, 3-D) Color (Technicolor) Stereophonic sound in movies

p. 655, analyzing causes Teenagers looking for alternatives to the conformity and consumerism of their parents (but create their own conformity and consumerism) Celebrated….. Poverty Unconformity Art that reflected immediate sensory experience.

p. 656, making inferences Songs were about love and heartache, and the problems of being young.

p. 657, 3, evaluating agree disagree TV presented idealized White values and ignored the problems of minorities disagree TV programs provided needed escape for many people and also portrayed the ideal family life that many valued.

p. 657, 4, analyzing effects They carried images of singers and the sounds of their music to most Americans.

p. 657, 5, Comparing and contrasting Both were rebellious, experimental, and innovative. Often wore non-conformist clothing. Attracted the young, as well as older, middle-class Americans. Performed for live audiences.

Brief Response How did the popular culture of the 1950s reflect and affect American lifestyle. (include a negative)