Unit 5: The Empire strikes back The Reaction to Rock ‘n’ Roll

Introduction By late 1950s, R&R had changed the popular music landscape Social change evident; big change had been economically R&R had turned the structure of the music business on its head Aesthetically-encouraged tilt to African American & working-class styles Socially-music had threatened to upset the separation of races and classes not just in music but in all social interactions

Intro, cont. 1950s was politically the Eisenhower Era President was old-fashioned, conventional, bland, polite and conservative; R&R not Conformity was a huge theme of 1950s Suburban life-Men went to work; women stayed at home; kids went to school to prepare for working class Conformity of work life conflicted with demands of new consumer economy Post war created economy that practiced on pleasure principle; contradicted Protestant work ethic Ideal consumer was impulsive Important: this tension was experienced as a conflict between the official values of school, family and church and reality

The Established powers fight back After the success of independent labels with R&B, major labels tried to cash in on success Major practices include: creating cover albums Promoting alternative styles of music When efforts failed, ASCAP & Government suppress music in “War on Rock” Major labels stayed away from R&R until it became apparent it was the new “thing” Columbia and RCA stayed away but did sign big names like Elvis and Johnny Mathis Other labels were impressed with RCA’s success of Elvis and looked for the “next Elvis” For MGM, Conway Twitty was the answer with his country roots

Powers fight back: Covering the Bases Recording multiple versions of a song by various artists in different styles was nothing new in the 1950s was nothing new Using this strategy to sanitize a particular style of music was new Covers by major labels altered stylistic elements and often doctored lyrics Biggest artist to receive criticism for covering other artists was Pat Boone Did Little Richard “Tutti Frutti” and Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame” He dramatic changed the style of artists’ work While big labels not willing to take risk, independents were flexible to consumer demand Unfortunately, as teenagers became more adept at distinguishing originals from covers, covers became less valuable to major companies

Pop diversions One way major labels try to deal with the emergence of R&R was through other musical forms Particularly calypso & popularized folk music Calypso was black music but its Latin beat gave it another sort of appeal; originally from Trinidad Harry Belafonte made calypso hits like “Jamaica Farewell” and “Banana Boat” AKA: “Day-O” popular Groups like the Kingston Trio capitalized on folk music Managed to avoid attacks by anti-communists like Joseph McCarthy With coordinated preppy attire and college-oriented humor, they swept the country with pop folk repertoire

Schlock Rock: Enter the White Middle Class Late 1950s: initial rush of R&R excitement over New generation emerges: white, middle-class teen idols Roots barely scratched the surface of pop Big artists included: Fabians, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, Connie Francis Philadelphia became the center of schlock rock Many artists of Italian American descent Many felt compelled to anglicize their names New pop could not be reduced to a particular ethnic affiliation completely Music became overly bland, white, middle-class rock ‘n’ roll Major non-white artist to emerge was Chubby Checker Biggest hit was “The Twist” Set off dance craze; other artists began to follow suit Ex: Sam Cooke’s “Twisting the Night Away” and Isley Brothers “Twist and Shout”

American Bandstand Was a local Philadelphia dance party broadcast on ABC affiliate WFIL-TV Dick Clark brought in after first host fired Only 27 but looked like the teenagers he was hosting 1957-Show picked up by ABC for national broadcasting Within 2 years being broadcasted by 101 affiliates with more than 2 million viewers Clark pointed out in 1990 that nearly 2/3 of all HOF inductees got there TV start on ABS Being in Philly, he was in a great position to promote local artists of schlock rock ABS was not the first vehicle for promoting music artist Ed Sullivan The Mickey Mouse Club The Adventure of Ozzie and Harriet promoted Ricky Nelson Nelson was a product of a family of singers

The War on Rock ‘n’ roll Throughout the 1950s, American society was beset by widespread anxieties concerning youth and juvenile delinquency prompted by the rising cultural influence of teenagers in the midst of the baby boom. - initially political and religious leaders targeted comic books and movies as detrimental influences. http://teachrock.org/lesson/fear-of-the-american- teenager/ By mid-decade rock ‘n’ roll had become society’s focal point of the general moral decline seen in American youth main concern was the bringing of various styles of music, previously considered class and race specific, into the mainstream and creating new popular music with no set boundaries.

The Beginnings of resistance 1954 Variety Magazine released a three-part series on “leer-ics” - called for industry to police itself Generated enough public response that numerous record companies and radio stations announced campaigns to weed out suggestive lyrics. Catholic Youth Organizations in Boston, Chicago, and Minneapolis (along with fundamentalist groups in the south) supplied lists of objectionable records. - Billy Ward and the Dominoes-“Sixty Minute Man”, “Work with Me Annie” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpQuNY3XFI0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5owcnu0cVA Municipalities set up review boards to screen new releases, and police began confiscating offensive records and Jukeboxes. In 1955 opponents decided to broadened their offensive to aspects outside sexually suggestive lyrics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1vZKxD5uGo

The Opposition expands By the Mid-1950s major establishments joined the fight war against Rock n roll The American Society of composers, authors and publishers (ASCAP) and the U.S. Government began to work in unity (if not conspiracy) to bring a return to “good Music” ASCAP had aimed at putting Broadcast Music Incorporated BMI out of business since the 30s 1953 thirty-three ASCAP members filed a $150 million antitrust suit against BMI for a conspiracy to monopolize the market by not playing ASCAP music on the radio. - BMI chair, Sydney M. Kaye, proved that no radio stations received compensation for playing BMI music over ASCAP. 1956 700 ASCAP and the antitrust Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Congressman Emanuel Celler, launched an investigation into if BMI’s relationship with numerous radio stations influenced the music that was being played. - clear racial undertones “Well, rock and roll has its place. There is no question about it. It’s given great impetus to talent, particularly among the colored people.” – Celler - committee found no wrongdoing and referred the matter to the Justice Department

Opposition Continued 1958 ASCAP had a Senate bill introduced to prevent broadcasters from owning BMI stock. - Frank Sinatra wrote a testimony revealing his distaste for rock n roll. - despite 1200 pages of testimony the bill died in committee. 1959 ASCAP convinced the Legislative Oversight Subcommittee of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce to launch a new investigation into payola, particularly against deejays. - main target: Alan Freed - 1952 Cleveland concert, 1958 Boston concert -1960 $30,000 in payola https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNoO775HYqM

Outcomes By the end of hearings the committee identified $23,245 in payola to deejays; however, with no hard evidence of the figure Still led to a substantial number of deejays coming forward to confess their wrongdoings in fear of being publicly shamed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuTeLxoQTLo Extensive media coverage of the hearings created a climate that encouraged the makeover of “down and dirty” rock n roll. In aid of the opposition rock was already being neutralized in many ways - Elvis was drafted in 1958 and by the time he returned in 60 his influence had dwindled -Little Richard left rock n roll for the ministry -Jerry Lee lewis’s career had self destructed when he married his cousin -Buddy Holly died in a plane crash -Chuck Berry was arrested for violation of the Mann Act

Outcomes continued Finally, a bill passed that outlawed payola -Imposed a tighter and more hierarchical structure that made popular music easier to control -But listeners still demanded the music and stations couldn’t afford to ignore their wishes, so they played as few black artists as they could without losing their listenership.