1. 1951  “race music”  “ROCK ‘N ROLL” Elvis Presley  “The King”
Teen Culture
In the 1950s  the word “teenager” entered the American language. By 1956  13 mil. teens with $7 bil. to spend a year.
1951  “race music”  “ROCK ‘N ROLL”
Elvis Presley  “The King”

2. Rock-and-Roll
Based on black rhythm and blues, became popular among teenagers in the 1950s.
Many adults disliked rock-and-roll music, claiming that it encouraged immorality.

3. *Rock-and-Roll Legends*
Rock ‘n’ Roll gave teenagers a music they could call their own.
Elvis, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry were among the pioneers of Rock.
Biggest impact= creating a culture of individuality

5. Teen Culture “Juvenile Delinquency” ???
1951  J. D. Salinger’s A Catcher in the Rye
Marlon Brando in The Wild One (1953)
James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

6. Behavioral Rules of the 1950s:
*Teen Culture*
Behavioral Rules of the 1950s:
Obey Authority.
Control Your Emotions.
Don’t Make Waves  Fit in with the Group.
Don’t Even Think About Sex!!!

7. Teen Culture The “Beat” Generation: “Beatnik” “Clean” Teen
Jack Kerouac  On The Road
Allen Ginsberg  poem, “Howl”
Neal Cassady
William S. Burroughs
“Beatnik”
“Clean” Teen

8. *Beatniks*
Beatniks, many of whom were artists and writers, launched a movement that stressed spontaneity and rejected money and power.
They rebelled against conformity and tradition.
Beatniks shocked people with their open sexuality and use of illegal drugs.

9. Jack Kerouac
“The beat generation, which had its genesis in New York City in the mid-1940s, has been most thoroughly chronicled by Jack Kerouac, a lusty, restless, spontaneous, ‘crazy dumbsaint of the mind’. Beginning respectably enough with a non-beat first novel that took 3 years of writing and rewriting, he soon abandoned such tedium for what he calls the “bookmovie”, the visual American form” that was first employed in On the Road, a novel that he typed in three weeks on rolls of pasted-together art paper. This novel, and those that followed, have utilized the experiences of Kerouac and his friends.”
Barbara Harte and Carolyn Riley, 1969

11. Religious Revival
Today in the U. S., the Christian faith is back in the center of things Time magazine, 1954
Church membership: 1940  64,000,  114,000,000
Television Preachers:
1. Catholic Bishop Fulton J. Sheen  “Life is Worth Living”
2. Methodist Minister Norman Vincent Peale  The Power of Positive Thinking
3. Reverend Billy Graham  ecumenical message; warned against the evils of Communism.

12. Religious Revival Hollywood: apex of the biblical epics.
The Robe The Ten Commandments Ben Hur
It’s un-American to be un-religious! The Christian Century, 1954

13. “*In God We Trust”
Add this to notes
In 1864 this motto appeared for the first time on the U.S 2-cent coin
*In 1955, in order to differentiate from communism and its promotion of Atheism, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered this motto to appear on all currency

14. Progress Through Science
First IBM Mainframe Computer
Hydrogen Bomb test
DNA Structure discovered
Salk Vaccine tested for Polio
First Commercial U. S. Nuclear Power Plant
NASA Created
Press Conference of the First 7 American Astronauts

15. *Technology Transforms Life*
Military research during WWII made computers much more powerful than before.
The invention of the transistor made computers and radios much smaller and faster.

16. *Technology Transforms Life*
Advances in Medicine — Dr. Jonas Salk developed a vaccine against polio.

17. *Progress Through Science* 1957  Russians launch SPUTNIK I
1958  National Defense Education Act

18. Education as Defense
To meet the scientific and technical challenge from the Soviet Union, the National Defense Education Act was passed in 1958.
This act provided low-cost loans to college students, incentives for teaching math and science, and money for building science and foreign language facilities in schools.

19. *Meeting the Technology Challenge
*In response to fears that Soviet technology was superior, the U.S. formed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1958.
NASA was dedicated to space exploration.

20. Progress Through Science
UFO Sightings skyrocketed in the 1950s.
War of the Worlds
Hollywood used aliens as a metaphor for whom ??

21. Progress Through Science & Technology
Atomic Anxieties:
“Duck-and-Cover Generation”
Atomic Testing:
 U. S. exploded nuclear weapons over the Pacific and in Nevada.

22. *What did Americans worry about in the 1950s?*
Year
Challenge
1953
Korean War
1954
Threat of War
1955
Working out peace
1956
1957
Keeping out of war
1958
Economic conditions
1959
Keeping peace

23. The 50s Come to a Close 1959  Nixon-Khrushchev “Kitchen Debate”
Cold War -----> Tensions
<----- Technology & Affluence

24. 1. Name two music artists who were early pioneers in Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Review
1. Name two music artists who were early pioneers in Rock ‘n’ Roll.
2. What were the traditional behavior rules of the 1950s?
3. Who were the Beatniks, and what did they represent?
4. What new medium did the ministers of the s use to reach their audiences?
5. Name 3 scientific advances made during the 1950s.
6. What happened at the “Kitchen Debate”?