Comparing The Social Realities Of Rock Roll's Birth And The Teenager
Research Proposal: The Social Realities of Rock n' Roll's Birth and the Teenager
The story of the birth of rock n' roll has a mythical quality to it. It speaks of racial barriers bridged through the fusion of Afro-American musical styles with white popular music in 1950s America. Not only did white record producers and radio disc jockeys market Afro-American artists, but white artists began to cover their songs, as well as incorporate Afro-American style into their own song writing. The musical style was so powerful that the white audience was infected by it, despite the social stigma that listening to "race music" possessed. The common view of teenagers' participation in the creation of rock n' roll as an act of rebellion runs parallel with the music's legendary origins. Through rock n' roll, the teenagers of the United States created a generational gap that angered their parents' generation. Teenagers rejected kitchy Tin Pan Alley, "Sing Along with Mitch," and the sleepy crooning of Perry Como in favour of sexually charged race music. Historians have taken different approaches to the question of teen rebellion. While some consider their love of rock n' roll revolutionary, others argue that the music cemented teenagers within the …show more content…
conformity and materialism of the 1950s; what cars were to adults, rock n' roll was to teens.[1]
In dealing with these issues, historians have neglected to examine the social implication of "race music" on a white audience, specifically teenagers. Historians most often explain the origins of the music as something of a legend; Afro-American music and culture is praised, and white American society is indebted to the cultural enrichment it has received from it. Afro-American music saved white society from being boring.[2] The social realities of the United States during that decade make this birth story seem hypocritical and condescending. The 1950s did not produce harmony between the black and white populations of the United States; racial tensions were enormous.
In light of this, the racial aspect of rock n' roll and its implications on its white middle-class teen audience needs to be examined. Were teenagers consciously rebelling by listening to the music with Afro-American origins or did their social attitudes remain unaffected? Was Afro-American music merely a tool in marketing, in the commercial capitalization of the generation gap? This research proposal seeks to establish ways in which the print media, music charts, and the recordings themselves can be reread in order to answer these questions.
Historiography and Approach
The theme of teenage rebellion is prominent among early rock n' roll historians, who imposed the language and social consciousness of the late-1960s onto their interpretations. According to them, rock n' roll in the 1950s enabled teenagers to protest against the conformity of the era and also their parents' music. Arnold Shaw in The Rockin' 50s considered teens' rejection of pop music an outcry against Cold War acquiescence.[3] Carl Belz claimed rock n' roll was folk art that functioned as a voice of the people, namely teenagers. Like Shaw, Belz saw rock n' roll as a "protest art" against prevailing popular music.[4] Rock n' roll also displayed that it was folk art because its audience was drawn to it instinctively, rather than through sophisticated aesthetic standards for judging the music; the dance beat was more important than musical technicalities.[5]
For these historians, listening to rock n' roll was an act of rebellion precisely because the adult audience and the press condemned the music. In outlining this rebellion, historians like Belz, Shaw, and Gillett ignored the social significance of Afro-American music finding an audience in white middle-class teenagers. Gillett offered a rosy but weak prognosis that the white audience, by virtue of being a minority audience, bridged racial gaps by taking on a radical stance against majority tastes.[6] This does not offer any sense of the social implications involved, nor does it signify exactly whether affluent white teens' racial views changed through rock n' roll. While this interpretation of the revolution of a minority audience further defines the teenage audience as rebels, it isolates them from their surroundings American society in the 1950s. These historians ignored the implications and meaning of white teens switching their radios to rhythm and blues stations.
Another historical approach dismisses the notion of the creation of teen rebels through rock n' roll. Instead, rock n' roll was a marketing construct designed to provide affluent teens with something to claim as their own on which to spend their money. For the first time, teenagers were a separate commercial unit from their parents and the market was quick to catch on. Rock n' roll, like blue jeans or milkshakes, was marketed directly at teens. This view creates a passive role for teenagers in the formation of rock n' roll; they were simply subject to wider social conditions, namely the materialism of 1950s America.
Nik Cohn, in Rock from the Beginning, reduced the legendary milestones in the birth of the music to creations of business. For example, the success of Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock," seen popularly as the point of fusion between Afro-American and white musical styles, is attributed to fluke marketing. Record producers did not really know what teenagers wanted. "All they could do was release noise by the ton and see what caught on best."[7] "Rock Around the Clock" did just that.
In The Rise and Fall of Popular Music, Donald Clarke reiterated this interpretation from the music industry's point of view. Rock n' roll was manipulated from gritty race music into less offensive, smoother sounding songs, geared for the sensitive ears of the white American audience. Teen love-songs and novelty songs dominated the charts, along with country and folk songs, while rock n' roll showed up sporadically.[8] Clean-cut white boys like Pat Boone and Paul Anka replaced black artists, in order to create a wholesome image.[9] Clarke attributed this to American cold war paranoia:
The truth is that America was floundering; the most powerful nation in the history of the world was frightened of that responsibility, because there were no cultural or political values at the top. Hence the paranoia about rock'n'roll, among other things, even as the USA was selling its own popular culture down the river.[10]
Thus American conformist society played a vital role in the direction taken by popular music. The racial element of rock n' roll was smoothed over by the music industry in order to remove the danger implicit in the sexuality and rawness that the Afro-American style brought with it.
Other historians acknowledge both the camaraderie created through rebellion via rock n' roll and its role in social conformity. Paul Friedlander and Richard Aquila both agreed that teens were bonded together by the music. However, through rock n' roll, they did not dissent or protest against society. Rock n' roll was a socially acceptable vent and source of group identity for teens. Leisure, such as the purchase of records, was far more important to them than social protest.[11]
Friedlander agreed with the early historians that rebellion specifically existed as a construct of the negative reaction from parents and the press to sexually charged Afro-American music. This was a threat to family hegemony and society.[12]
Richard Aquila, in That Old Time Rock and Roll" eliminates any element of rebellion from the music.
He states "adherence to rock & roll music signifies their acceptance, not rejection, of society and culture during the 1950s and early 1960s. The music may have sounded strange to some adult ears, but its message should have sounded quite familiar."[13] Rock n' roll's themes reflected traditional American values like marriage, family values, religion, car obsessions and patriotic sentiments. It also echoed sexual standards and stereotypes.[14] While Aquila makes no reference to racial matters, it is clear that, through his interpretation, the racial element of rock n' roll is replaced by white middle-class
norms.
Douglas T. Miller and Marion Nowak, in The Fifties: The Way We Really Were, agree that rock n' roll served as cohesion for the teen generation. Moreover, they state that juvenile delinquency was the biggest preoccupation of American society in the 1950s, more so than poverty, racism, or sexism.[15] However, in the constraints of 1950s society, it was not hard to rebel against what was considered normal. They state: "given the closely defined and superficial propriety of the era, [the high level of juvenile delinquency] was not too surprising: any norm that excludes much of the range of humanity guarantees alienation and rebellion."[16] Rebellion was rooted in something far deeper than rock n' roll. They agree that the music served to enforce societal conformity. In fact, they state that rock n' roll could have been the perfect opiate had not adult and press reaction created the rebellion.[17]
Historical accounts of the origin of rock n' roll most often pay tribute to the contributions Afro-American music has made to the formation of rock n' roll. Before the mid-1950s, radio stations were segregated in their racial audience. A handful of rhythm and blues stations catered to the Afro-American population. The music was distinctive for its harsh vocal styles, emphatic dance rhythm, and the dominance of saxophone, piano, guitar and drums. The lyrics were also more sexually explicit than the subtle popular music of the time.[18] White teenagers began to listen to rhythm and blues stations, fed up with their parents' crooners and seeking music that they could consider their own.
Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed is revered for making R & B accessible to the white audience. The story is mythical in its own proportions: the sight of a mob of white kids buying R&B records inspired him to host an after school show entitled "Alan Freed's Moon Dog Rock and Roll House Party." He renamed the music "rock n' roll" to remove the racial connotation held by R&B and set the new white audience at ease.[19] Radio station across the United States followed suit.
Historians credit Afro-American artists such as Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Little Richard, along with country singer Bill Haley, for the establishment of the rock n' roll style. Here, the Afro-American singers reach heroic proportions. Nik Cohn called Chuck Berry the "poet laureate [of] the whole rock movement."[20] As "pioneers of rock n' roll," they paved the way for a multitude of white artists, who adapted the R&B sound into their country music roots. Thus began the movement of Afro-American artists into the pop charts, as well as some white singers into the R&B charts. Above all, white rock stars owed their style to Afro-American music.[21] Through these stories, early Afro-American artists are venerated for heralding an end to boring white popular music. Thus the Afro-American roots are praised.
Miller and Nowak place a different spin on the veneration of rock n' roll's Afro-American foundations. They outline the racism implicit within the music industry. Until 1956, hit songs that were written by Afro-American musicians were only made bestsellers when performed by white artists, because black performance style was considered crude and offensive.[22] A rhythm and blues superstar was needed, but he could not be black; Elvis Presley fit the bill perfectly. By 1957, there was open hostility and violent attacks on Afro-American performers.[23] This seems a more realistic view of the fusion of Afro-American and white musical styles.
In The Triumph of Vulgarity: Rock Music in the Mirror of Romanticism, Robert Pattison created an image of rock n' roll that is vital to the discussion of race in the music. The book examines "the convergence of elite and mass culture in our age," as played out by the dominance of Romanticism in elite culture.[24] As such, Pattison explained the origin of rock n' roll not by historical fact but by popular perception the Romantic myth. This is the myth of rock's "primitive" roots in Afro-American music. Pattison defines the common story of Alan Freed's move to R&B broadcasting and the explosion of Afro-American music onto a white music seen as "rock orthodoxy."[25] It is what those who revere rock n' roll's black roots choose to believe, whether true or not. The reverence of this myth displays the white audience's Romantic tendencies towards glorification of the primitive, like Rousseau's Noble Savage. "When white America turned to black rhythm and blues for its popular music, it embraced animalism and vulgarity' as virtues. It did so willfully and selectively."[26]
The matter of teen rebellion, then, lay explicitly in the difference between two visions of the Romantic myth. While adults were outraged at rock's "jungle rhythms," teenagers delighted in them. In both visions, "the black man is a libidinous jungle animal. The versions differ only in their judgment of what whites should do."[27] Furthermore, teens' love for Afro-American music was not a sign of social integration; the myth was and continues to be more important than reality.[28] Thus Pattison implies that the white audience exploited Afro-American music and there was no concern with social realities.
Pattison's work lays a foundation upon which to reinterpret the opinions expressed in the 1950s about rock n' roll and teenagers. Given that American society in the 1950s was inherently racist, the origins of rock n' roll and the birth of the teenager as a distinct generation must be reinterpreted to reflect this. If rock music's popular origin is a myth, then a more factual account could be given. In light of this, the teen's place in society as rebel or conformist could be established.
Methodology
The approach to this type of research would be exploratory, in which primary sources would be reread in light of the theory of rock n' roll's mythological beginnings. In rock history, the sources are limited to recordings and mass media, particularly popular magazines. Music charts, particularly Billboard, also provide vital information. These have been the sources for all rock historians. What follows is a list of primary sources to be used and their service in the reinterpretation of the racial element of rock n' roll.
1. Recordings The themes of popular rock n' roll songs reflect prevailing attitudes of the 1950s. As stated earlier, many songs spoke of themes that enforced white middle-class values. In addition, some also espoused ethnic as well as sexual stereotypes. Richard Aquila lists songs that stereotype Afro-Americans, Aboriginals, and Hispanics, as well as others.[29] Songs like "Witch Doctor" and "Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko-Bop" further the primitive jungle image of Afro-Americans that Pattison described.
Many original songs by Afro-American artists only received fame when copied by white performers. The performance style was changed; slurred vocals and hard rhythms were tidied up and softened. In many cases, the lyrics were replaced by less sexually explicit ones. For example, the original lyrics to "Shake, Rattle and Roll" by Charles Calhoun are "You wear low dresses,/The sun comes shinin' through." Bill Haley's version was revised to "You wear those dresses,/Your hair done up so nice."[30] Other cover versions could be compared to the originals to see what changes were made. This demonstrates the reluctance of white performers to maintain the Afro-American style that so inspired them, and the desire to go in the most profitable direction. White performers exploited Afro-American style.
2. Billboard and other music charts Billboard magazine is important in its comprehensiveness. Song popularity was listed by regional as well as national level. The charts also reveal the geographical area where a record first became popular and the duration of its popularity.[31] Other Billboard charts in the 1950s included Top 100, Best Sellers, Most Played by Jockeys and Most Played in Juke Boxes.[32] The examination of these charts could disclose where Afro-American performers had the most regional popularity. Miller and Nowak point out the hypocritical nature of north-south relations in the United States in the 1950s. Non-southerners believed that racism existed only in the south, despite their own very racist tendencies.[33] Not least of these, to be sure, was the idea that Afro-Americans were primitive, whose musical styles needed to be refined for white ears. The charts might reveal regional preferences for smoother sounding white rock n' roll songs. Regions where Afro-American performers gained more popularity could hint at the extent of racial attitudes in that area.
3. Magazines Societal norms and racial beliefs are revealed in popular magazines. Issues of Life in the 1950s were particularly focused on the middle-class state of affairs in the United States, especially the teenager. For example, a 1959 issue reported on the teenager as consumer. It concluded "If parents have any idea of organized revolt, it is already too late. Teen-age spending is so important that such action would send quivers through the entire national economy."[34] Rock n' roll as a teen craze also garnished plenty of attention. Racial attitudes of the press and society at large could be observed. Furthermore, the supposed rebellion created by the two opposing views of the rock n' roll myth, as outlined by Pattison, would surely be evident. Life might provide a perfect source of the rebellion myth, and how it was spread through popular media.
Teen magazines of the time would provide insight in to which performers were marketed as teen idols. If any Afro-American performers were found in these ranks, the language used about them could disclose the popular image of the black performer. The "glorification of the primitive" might be prevalent.
Expected Significance
Rock n' roll has reached gigantic proportions in North American society. It is difficult to imagine it as dangerous since it dominates advertising and shopping mall muzak. Plus, most contemporary adults have grown up with rock music; its place in widening the generation gap seems irrelevent. Nevertheless, it is still used in this way. Current performers continue to glorify rock's Afro-American roots, often paying emotional tribute to their forebearers. The racial aspect has changed significantly. Since the 1950s, Afro-American popular music has found a life of its own through genres like funk, soul and hip-hop.
The reinvention of the birth story of rock n' roll and the part teenagers played in it is significant for a more accurate understanding of American society in the 1950s. The blind reverence for Afro-American style and performers should be redefined. Historians have avoided questioning this reverence despite obvious exploitation of black performers. If teenagers were in fact conforming to societal racial views of the Afro-American as primitive, and the nature of their rebellion was based on this, the history of rock n' roll will have to be retold. In the new version, racial issues will have to be in the forefront. In this way, a more accurate view of the social climate in which Afro-American music reached the white audience can be observed.
[1] Richard Aquila, That Old Time Rock & Roll (New York: Schirmer Books, 1989) 27.
[2] Robert Pattison, The Triumph of Vulgarity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987) 74.
[3] Arnold Shaw, The Rockin' 50s (New York: Da Capo Press, 1974) 45-46.
[4] Carl Belz, The Story of Rock (New York: Oxford University Press, 1969) 31.
[5] Charlie Gillett, The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll (New York: Da Capo Press, 1970) 13.
[6] Ibid. 11-12.
[7] Nik Cohn, Rock from the Beginning (New York: Stein and Day, 1969) 15.
[8] Donald Clarke, The Rise and Fall of Popular Music (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995) 414-415.
[9] Cohn 55.
[10] Clarke 415.
[11] Paul Friedlander, Rock and Roll: A Social History (Boulder: Westview Press, Inc., 1996) 21.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Aquila 21.
[14] Ibid. 22-31.
[15] Douglas T. Miller and Marion Nowak, The Fifties: The Way We Really Were (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1977) 280.
[16] Ibid. 279.
[17] Ibid. 304.
[18] Gillett 10.
[19] Miller and Nowak 295.
[20] Cohn 40.
[21] Friedlander 40.
[22] Miller and Nowak 297.
[23] Ibid. 300-306.
[24] Pattison v.
[25] Ibid. 33.
[26] Ibid. 36.
[27] Ibid. 49.
[28] Ibid. 64.
[29] Aquila 119-120.
[30] Miller and Nowak 298.
[31] Belz x-xi.
[32] Billboard Top 1000 Singles, 1955 to 1992 (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Corp., 1993) 6.
[33] Miller and Nowak 188-193.
[34] Quoted in Miller and Nowak 272.
The story of the birth of rock n' roll has a mythical quality to it. It speaks of racial barriers bridged through the fusion of Afro-American musical styles with white popular music in 1950s America. Not only did white record producers and radio disc jockeys market Afro-American artists, but white artists began to cover their songs, as well as incorporate Afro-American style into their own song writing. The musical style was so powerful that the white audience was infected by it, despite the social stigma that listening to "race music" possessed. The common view of teenagers' participation in the creation of rock n' roll as an act of rebellion runs parallel with the music's legendary origins. Through rock n' roll, the teenagers of the United States created a generational gap that angered their parents' generation. Teenagers rejected kitchy Tin Pan Alley, "Sing Along with Mitch," and the sleepy crooning of Perry Como in favour of sexually charged race music. Historians have taken different approaches to the question of teen rebellion. While some consider their love of rock n' roll revolutionary, others argue that the music cemented teenagers within the …show more content…
conformity and materialism of the 1950s; what cars were to adults, rock n' roll was to teens.[1]
In dealing with these issues, historians have neglected to examine the social implication of "race music" on a white audience, specifically teenagers. Historians most often explain the origins of the music as something of a legend; Afro-American music and culture is praised, and white American society is indebted to the cultural enrichment it has received from it. Afro-American music saved white society from being boring.[2] The social realities of the United States during that decade make this birth story seem hypocritical and condescending. The 1950s did not produce harmony between the black and white populations of the United States; racial tensions were enormous.
In light of this, the racial aspect of rock n' roll and its implications on its white middle-class teen audience needs to be examined. Were teenagers consciously rebelling by listening to the music with Afro-American origins or did their social attitudes remain unaffected? Was Afro-American music merely a tool in marketing, in the commercial capitalization of the generation gap? This research proposal seeks to establish ways in which the print media, music charts, and the recordings themselves can be reread in order to answer these questions.
Historiography and Approach
The theme of teenage rebellion is prominent among early rock n' roll historians, who imposed the language and social consciousness of the late-1960s onto their interpretations. According to them, rock n' roll in the 1950s enabled teenagers to protest against the conformity of the era and also their parents' music. Arnold Shaw in The Rockin' 50s considered teens' rejection of pop music an outcry against Cold War acquiescence.[3] Carl Belz claimed rock n' roll was folk art that functioned as a voice of the people, namely teenagers. Like Shaw, Belz saw rock n' roll as a "protest art" against prevailing popular music.[4] Rock n' roll also displayed that it was folk art because its audience was drawn to it instinctively, rather than through sophisticated aesthetic standards for judging the music; the dance beat was more important than musical technicalities.[5]
For these historians, listening to rock n' roll was an act of rebellion precisely because the adult audience and the press condemned the music. In outlining this rebellion, historians like Belz, Shaw, and Gillett ignored the social significance of Afro-American music finding an audience in white middle-class teenagers. Gillett offered a rosy but weak prognosis that the white audience, by virtue of being a minority audience, bridged racial gaps by taking on a radical stance against majority tastes.[6] This does not offer any sense of the social implications involved, nor does it signify exactly whether affluent white teens' racial views changed through rock n' roll. While this interpretation of the revolution of a minority audience further defines the teenage audience as rebels, it isolates them from their surroundings American society in the 1950s. These historians ignored the implications and meaning of white teens switching their radios to rhythm and blues stations.
Another historical approach dismisses the notion of the creation of teen rebels through rock n' roll. Instead, rock n' roll was a marketing construct designed to provide affluent teens with something to claim as their own on which to spend their money. For the first time, teenagers were a separate commercial unit from their parents and the market was quick to catch on. Rock n' roll, like blue jeans or milkshakes, was marketed directly at teens. This view creates a passive role for teenagers in the formation of rock n' roll; they were simply subject to wider social conditions, namely the materialism of 1950s America.
Nik Cohn, in Rock from the Beginning, reduced the legendary milestones in the birth of the music to creations of business. For example, the success of Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock," seen popularly as the point of fusion between Afro-American and white musical styles, is attributed to fluke marketing. Record producers did not really know what teenagers wanted. "All they could do was release noise by the ton and see what caught on best."[7] "Rock Around the Clock" did just that.
In The Rise and Fall of Popular Music, Donald Clarke reiterated this interpretation from the music industry's point of view. Rock n' roll was manipulated from gritty race music into less offensive, smoother sounding songs, geared for the sensitive ears of the white American audience. Teen love-songs and novelty songs dominated the charts, along with country and folk songs, while rock n' roll showed up sporadically.[8] Clean-cut white boys like Pat Boone and Paul Anka replaced black artists, in order to create a wholesome image.[9] Clarke attributed this to American cold war paranoia:
The truth is that America was floundering; the most powerful nation in the history of the world was frightened of that responsibility, because there were no cultural or political values at the top. Hence the paranoia about rock'n'roll, among other things, even as the USA was selling its own popular culture down the river.[10]
Thus American conformist society played a vital role in the direction taken by popular music. The racial element of rock n' roll was smoothed over by the music industry in order to remove the danger implicit in the sexuality and rawness that the Afro-American style brought with it.
Other historians acknowledge both the camaraderie created through rebellion via rock n' roll and its role in social conformity. Paul Friedlander and Richard Aquila both agreed that teens were bonded together by the music. However, through rock n' roll, they did not dissent or protest against society. Rock n' roll was a socially acceptable vent and source of group identity for teens. Leisure, such as the purchase of records, was far more important to them than social protest.[11]
Friedlander agreed with the early historians that rebellion specifically existed as a construct of the negative reaction from parents and the press to sexually charged Afro-American music. This was a threat to family hegemony and society.[12]
Richard Aquila, in That Old Time Rock and Roll" eliminates any element of rebellion from the music.
He states "adherence to rock & roll music signifies their acceptance, not rejection, of society and culture during the 1950s and early 1960s. The music may have sounded strange to some adult ears, but its message should have sounded quite familiar."[13] Rock n' roll's themes reflected traditional American values like marriage, family values, religion, car obsessions and patriotic sentiments. It also echoed sexual standards and stereotypes.[14] While Aquila makes no reference to racial matters, it is clear that, through his interpretation, the racial element of rock n' roll is replaced by white middle-class
norms.
Douglas T. Miller and Marion Nowak, in The Fifties: The Way We Really Were, agree that rock n' roll served as cohesion for the teen generation. Moreover, they state that juvenile delinquency was the biggest preoccupation of American society in the 1950s, more so than poverty, racism, or sexism.[15] However, in the constraints of 1950s society, it was not hard to rebel against what was considered normal. They state: "given the closely defined and superficial propriety of the era, [the high level of juvenile delinquency] was not too surprising: any norm that excludes much of the range of humanity guarantees alienation and rebellion."[16] Rebellion was rooted in something far deeper than rock n' roll. They agree that the music served to enforce societal conformity. In fact, they state that rock n' roll could have been the perfect opiate had not adult and press reaction created the rebellion.[17]
Historical accounts of the origin of rock n' roll most often pay tribute to the contributions Afro-American music has made to the formation of rock n' roll. Before the mid-1950s, radio stations were segregated in their racial audience. A handful of rhythm and blues stations catered to the Afro-American population. The music was distinctive for its harsh vocal styles, emphatic dance rhythm, and the dominance of saxophone, piano, guitar and drums. The lyrics were also more sexually explicit than the subtle popular music of the time.[18] White teenagers began to listen to rhythm and blues stations, fed up with their parents' crooners and seeking music that they could consider their own.
Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed is revered for making R & B accessible to the white audience. The story is mythical in its own proportions: the sight of a mob of white kids buying R&B records inspired him to host an after school show entitled "Alan Freed's Moon Dog Rock and Roll House Party." He renamed the music "rock n' roll" to remove the racial connotation held by R&B and set the new white audience at ease.[19] Radio station across the United States followed suit.
Historians credit Afro-American artists such as Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Little Richard, along with country singer Bill Haley, for the establishment of the rock n' roll style. Here, the Afro-American singers reach heroic proportions. Nik Cohn called Chuck Berry the "poet laureate [of] the whole rock movement."[20] As "pioneers of rock n' roll," they paved the way for a multitude of white artists, who adapted the R&B sound into their country music roots. Thus began the movement of Afro-American artists into the pop charts, as well as some white singers into the R&B charts. Above all, white rock stars owed their style to Afro-American music.[21] Through these stories, early Afro-American artists are venerated for heralding an end to boring white popular music. Thus the Afro-American roots are praised.
Miller and Nowak place a different spin on the veneration of rock n' roll's Afro-American foundations. They outline the racism implicit within the music industry. Until 1956, hit songs that were written by Afro-American musicians were only made bestsellers when performed by white artists, because black performance style was considered crude and offensive.[22] A rhythm and blues superstar was needed, but he could not be black; Elvis Presley fit the bill perfectly. By 1957, there was open hostility and violent attacks on Afro-American performers.[23] This seems a more realistic view of the fusion of Afro-American and white musical styles.
In The Triumph of Vulgarity: Rock Music in the Mirror of Romanticism, Robert Pattison created an image of rock n' roll that is vital to the discussion of race in the music. The book examines "the convergence of elite and mass culture in our age," as played out by the dominance of Romanticism in elite culture.[24] As such, Pattison explained the origin of rock n' roll not by historical fact but by popular perception the Romantic myth. This is the myth of rock's "primitive" roots in Afro-American music. Pattison defines the common story of Alan Freed's move to R&B broadcasting and the explosion of Afro-American music onto a white music seen as "rock orthodoxy."[25] It is what those who revere rock n' roll's black roots choose to believe, whether true or not. The reverence of this myth displays the white audience's Romantic tendencies towards glorification of the primitive, like Rousseau's Noble Savage. "When white America turned to black rhythm and blues for its popular music, it embraced animalism and vulgarity' as virtues. It did so willfully and selectively."[26]
The matter of teen rebellion, then, lay explicitly in the difference between two visions of the Romantic myth. While adults were outraged at rock's "jungle rhythms," teenagers delighted in them. In both visions, "the black man is a libidinous jungle animal. The versions differ only in their judgment of what whites should do."[27] Furthermore, teens' love for Afro-American music was not a sign of social integration; the myth was and continues to be more important than reality.[28] Thus Pattison implies that the white audience exploited Afro-American music and there was no concern with social realities.
Pattison's work lays a foundation upon which to reinterpret the opinions expressed in the 1950s about rock n' roll and teenagers. Given that American society in the 1950s was inherently racist, the origins of rock n' roll and the birth of the teenager as a distinct generation must be reinterpreted to reflect this. If rock music's popular origin is a myth, then a more factual account could be given. In light of this, the teen's place in society as rebel or conformist could be established.
Methodology
The approach to this type of research would be exploratory, in which primary sources would be reread in light of the theory of rock n' roll's mythological beginnings. In rock history, the sources are limited to recordings and mass media, particularly popular magazines. Music charts, particularly Billboard, also provide vital information. These have been the sources for all rock historians. What follows is a list of primary sources to be used and their service in the reinterpretation of the racial element of rock n' roll.
1. Recordings The themes of popular rock n' roll songs reflect prevailing attitudes of the 1950s. As stated earlier, many songs spoke of themes that enforced white middle-class values. In addition, some also espoused ethnic as well as sexual stereotypes. Richard Aquila lists songs that stereotype Afro-Americans, Aboriginals, and Hispanics, as well as others.[29] Songs like "Witch Doctor" and "Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko-Bop" further the primitive jungle image of Afro-Americans that Pattison described.
Many original songs by Afro-American artists only received fame when copied by white performers. The performance style was changed; slurred vocals and hard rhythms were tidied up and softened. In many cases, the lyrics were replaced by less sexually explicit ones. For example, the original lyrics to "Shake, Rattle and Roll" by Charles Calhoun are "You wear low dresses,/The sun comes shinin' through." Bill Haley's version was revised to "You wear those dresses,/Your hair done up so nice."[30] Other cover versions could be compared to the originals to see what changes were made. This demonstrates the reluctance of white performers to maintain the Afro-American style that so inspired them, and the desire to go in the most profitable direction. White performers exploited Afro-American style.
2. Billboard and other music charts Billboard magazine is important in its comprehensiveness. Song popularity was listed by regional as well as national level. The charts also reveal the geographical area where a record first became popular and the duration of its popularity.[31] Other Billboard charts in the 1950s included Top 100, Best Sellers, Most Played by Jockeys and Most Played in Juke Boxes.[32] The examination of these charts could disclose where Afro-American performers had the most regional popularity. Miller and Nowak point out the hypocritical nature of north-south relations in the United States in the 1950s. Non-southerners believed that racism existed only in the south, despite their own very racist tendencies.[33] Not least of these, to be sure, was the idea that Afro-Americans were primitive, whose musical styles needed to be refined for white ears. The charts might reveal regional preferences for smoother sounding white rock n' roll songs. Regions where Afro-American performers gained more popularity could hint at the extent of racial attitudes in that area.
3. Magazines Societal norms and racial beliefs are revealed in popular magazines. Issues of Life in the 1950s were particularly focused on the middle-class state of affairs in the United States, especially the teenager. For example, a 1959 issue reported on the teenager as consumer. It concluded "If parents have any idea of organized revolt, it is already too late. Teen-age spending is so important that such action would send quivers through the entire national economy."[34] Rock n' roll as a teen craze also garnished plenty of attention. Racial attitudes of the press and society at large could be observed. Furthermore, the supposed rebellion created by the two opposing views of the rock n' roll myth, as outlined by Pattison, would surely be evident. Life might provide a perfect source of the rebellion myth, and how it was spread through popular media.
Teen magazines of the time would provide insight in to which performers were marketed as teen idols. If any Afro-American performers were found in these ranks, the language used about them could disclose the popular image of the black performer. The "glorification of the primitive" might be prevalent.
Expected Significance
Rock n' roll has reached gigantic proportions in North American society. It is difficult to imagine it as dangerous since it dominates advertising and shopping mall muzak. Plus, most contemporary adults have grown up with rock music; its place in widening the generation gap seems irrelevent. Nevertheless, it is still used in this way. Current performers continue to glorify rock's Afro-American roots, often paying emotional tribute to their forebearers. The racial aspect has changed significantly. Since the 1950s, Afro-American popular music has found a life of its own through genres like funk, soul and hip-hop.
The reinvention of the birth story of rock n' roll and the part teenagers played in it is significant for a more accurate understanding of American society in the 1950s. The blind reverence for Afro-American style and performers should be redefined. Historians have avoided questioning this reverence despite obvious exploitation of black performers. If teenagers were in fact conforming to societal racial views of the Afro-American as primitive, and the nature of their rebellion was based on this, the history of rock n' roll will have to be retold. In the new version, racial issues will have to be in the forefront. In this way, a more accurate view of the social climate in which Afro-American music reached the white audience can be observed.
[1] Richard Aquila, That Old Time Rock & Roll (New York: Schirmer Books, 1989) 27.
[2] Robert Pattison, The Triumph of Vulgarity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987) 74.
[3] Arnold Shaw, The Rockin' 50s (New York: Da Capo Press, 1974) 45-46.
[4] Carl Belz, The Story of Rock (New York: Oxford University Press, 1969) 31.
[5] Charlie Gillett, The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll (New York: Da Capo Press, 1970) 13.
[6] Ibid. 11-12.
[7] Nik Cohn, Rock from the Beginning (New York: Stein and Day, 1969) 15.
[8] Donald Clarke, The Rise and Fall of Popular Music (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995) 414-415.
[9] Cohn 55.
[10] Clarke 415.
[11] Paul Friedlander, Rock and Roll: A Social History (Boulder: Westview Press, Inc., 1996) 21.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Aquila 21.
[14] Ibid. 22-31.
[15] Douglas T. Miller and Marion Nowak, The Fifties: The Way We Really Were (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1977) 280.
[16] Ibid. 279.
[17] Ibid. 304.
[18] Gillett 10.
[19] Miller and Nowak 295.
[20] Cohn 40.
[21] Friedlander 40.
[22] Miller and Nowak 297.
[23] Ibid. 300-306.
[24] Pattison v.
[25] Ibid. 33.
[26] Ibid. 36.
[27] Ibid. 49.
[28] Ibid. 64.
[29] Aquila 119-120.
[30] Miller and Nowak 298.
[31] Belz x-xi.
[32] Billboard Top 1000 Singles, 1955 to 1992 (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Corp., 1993) 6.
[33] Miller and Nowak 188-193.
[34] Quoted in Miller and Nowak 272.