1. Making sense of the ‘Fifties’ ‘American High’ or ‘A moral disaster’ ? 1945-60 GDP increased 250 % Per capita income increased 35 % By 1960 US 6% world’s popn., but consuming 50% world’s production

2. Family and Suburbia GI Bill (SRA) 1944 1942 Start of baby boom (last until 1964) 1950 Avge marriage age 20.3 (women), 22 (men) Levittown, Long Island, 1947 Suburbs grow 40X as fast as cities By 1960 60% Homeowners

3. ‘riding along in my automobile’ By 1960 75% US families owned a car 1956 ‘Interstate Highways Act’ By 1960 87% familes owned a TV By 1960 75% families owned washing machines

4. Rebels without a cause ? J.D Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951) 1959 Teenagers spent $20M on lipstick, $25M on deodorant, $75 M on pop singles 33% of 18 and 19 year old ‘girls’married

5. The DA Haircut

6. ‘Making Out’

7. ‘…the best one came from Tupelo, Mississippi’ July 1954 records ‘That’s alright Mama’ Nov 1955 signs for RCA 1956 ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ No.1 for 8 Weeks (his songs filled the slot for 25 weeks in 1956, and again in 1957) 1956 TV appearances 1957 Drafted into army

8. The Beat Generation Nov 1952 ‘This is the Beat generation’, by John Clellon Holmes On the West Coast ‘Howl’ (1955) On the Road (1957)

9. 52ndSt, New York (1948)

10. Bebop, Cool and Hard Bop 1944-5 Bebop Key players: Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Charlie Christian, and Miles Davis 1949 ‘Birth of the Cool’ 1959 ‘Kind of Blue’

11. Abstract Expressionism Jackson Pollock, ‘Lavender Mist: No.1’ (1950). ‘drip paintings’ Rothko, DeKoonig, Gorky, Smith Links with beats and jazz Pollock dies in car crash, 11 Aug 1956