Forms of Popular Culture of the 1950’s and early 60’s Essential question: How did popular culture during the 1950’s and early 60’s help unify America?

Rock ‘n’ Roll Rock ‘n’ Roll was born in the 50’s and it’s first and greatest star was Elvis Presley. His good looks, style of dress and performances all made him wildly popular among young Americans. Presley’s music, like that of many early white rock musicians, drew heavily from black rhythm and blues. His record promoter Sam Phillips reportedly said in the early 50’s, “If I could find a white man with a Negro sound, I could make a billion dollars”. Elvis was one of the most successful performers in American history and his known as the “king of rock”.

Rock ‘n’ Roll and Black Origins Presley’s music, like that of many early white rock musicians, drew heavily from black rhythm and blues traditions. The 1950’s also produced growth in popularity of African-American bands and singers among both black and white audiences. Chuck Berry, Little Richard, B.B. King, Chubby Checker, the Temptations, and others-many of them recorded by the black producer Berry Gordy, the founder and president of Motown Records in Detroit.

Innovations in radio and television programming The rapid rise of rock owed a great deal to innovations in radio and television programming. By the 1950’s many radio stations stop playing live shows and instead dedicated their airtime to playing recorded music. Early in the 1950’s a new breed of radio announcers began creating programming exclusively for teenage audiences. They were known as “disc-jockeys”. American Bandstand which began airing on TV in 1957 was a televised showcase for rock-n-roll hits in which a live audience danced to recorded music.

Rapidly Growing Record Sales Record sales increased rapidly in the mid and late 50’s, especially in the inexpensive and popular 45 rpm format-small disks that contained one song on each side. Also important were juke boxes, which played individual songs on 45s and which proliferated in soda fountains, diners, bars and places were young people congregated. Sales of records increased from $182 million to $521 million between 1954 and 1960.

New Era of Mass Media Television quickly became perhaps the most powerful medium of mass communication in history. In 1946, there were only 17,000 sets in the country; by 1957 were 40 million television sets in use. By the late 1950’s, television news had replaced newspapers, magazines, and radios as the nation’s most important vehicle for information. Television advertising helped create a vast market for new fashions and products. Televised athletic events gradually made college and professional sports one of the most important sources of entertainment.

Social Conflict Accentuated Much of the programming of 1950’s and early 1960’s created a common image of American life-an image that was predominately white, middle class, and suburban, and in which most women were mothers and housewives striving to serve their children and please their husbands. i.e. the tittle of one show, “Father Knows Best”. Yet television also created conditions which accentuated social conflict. At the same time that television was celebrating the white middle class, it also contributed to the sense of alienation and powerlessness among groups excluded from the world it portrayed. Television news also conveyed with unprecedented power the social upheavals that gradually spread during the late 1950’s