Rock And Roll's Influence On American Culture

Was Rock and Roll Responsible for Dismantling America’s Traditional Family, Sexual, and Racial Customs in the 1950s and 1960s?

Rock and Roll was the start of a new revolution in America. It introduced the world to many of the famous artists that continue to be a part of our lives today. "Artists who became popular in the 1950s such as Elvis, began to pave the way for others such as Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly" (The History of Rock 'n' Roll until 1960). With the introduction of rock 'n' roll, there came many new changes to the lives of many Americans. Rock and Roll was a major contributor for the change in teens' behavior in the 1950s because it encouraged new freedoms for teenagers, encouraged new fads among teenagers, and caused a generation gap.

Rock and roll was not just a new generation of music; it was music that created a new generation. Rock and roll had a transformative effect on American society because it encouraged younger people to break out of the more conservative American mold, increased the use of technology in daily life, as well as implemented civil rights movements that bolstered minority groups and races.

One of the most well-known things about the sixties is its music. Bands in the sixties started to break the conservative boundaries by talking about drugs and sex in their music; the drugs and sex revolution in this music also

The book All Shook Up: How Rock ‘n’ Roll Changed America is an analysis on how the music rock’n’roll has changed America. This book focuses on the culture of the music from then time period of 1945 to about 1963. In the paper I will show how the rock’n’roll made a large influence on the culture during the 1950s. In the early parts of the books Altschuler develops the concept of rock’n’roll by saying “…rock’n’roll was a social construction and not a musical conception” (23). During this time period of the fifties culture was deemed as more important than what it used to be.

“The rise of rock ‘n’ roll and the reception of it, in fact, can tell us a lot about the culture and values of the United States in the 1950s. According to historians James Gilbert, there was a struggle throughout the decade ‘over the uses of popular culture to determine who would speak to what audience, and for what purpose”. At the center of that struggle, rock ‘n’ roll unsettled a nation had been “living in an ‘age of anxiety’” since 1945” (p.15). Altschuler talks about how music and race interlock with one another. Rock had become a “highly visible and contested arena for struggles over racial identity and cultural and economic empowerment in the United States” (p.35). Other chapters within the book state the battles involving sexuality, generational conflicts, as well as other social issues. The author states ideas that are somewhat problematic. For example, he states that there is a myth that rock ‘n’ roll went into a “lull” following the payola hearings (the practice of record promoters paying DJs or radio programmers to play their labels ' songs) of 1959 and did not come about again until the arrival of the Beatles in 1964.

It was no coincidence that rock ‘n’ roll and the civil rights movement started at the same time. The genre originated from African American music and was greatly discriminated against. Traditional white Americans would target anything bad about it. But as the teenager demographic of the 1950s started increasing the sales of the music, the genre started gaining more popularity. It was the style of Elvis Presley and his new voice that made girls weak in the knees and boys want to be him. Artists such as Presley had enough influence to change the view of their devoted fans on civil rights issues. Soon as protest songs and rock ‘n’ roll became more popular and influential, it began a gap between the young adult generation and their parents

When the British showed up on the scene all chaos broke loose and Beatle fever made its way into every young girl’s heart of the generation. Britain had a very significant effect on the American music industry and the general population who listened and enjoyed their music. The main spearhead for this “Invasion” was The Beatles. One product of that invasion was Tom Petty who remembers it being “absolutely earthshaking," he also said "Culturally, it changed everything in America, and probably the world. The influence on every part of our lives was huge, from social issues to fashion issues to music issues.

The 1960’s was one of the most controversial decades in American history because of not only the Vietnam War, but there was an outbreak of protests involving civil and social conditions all across college campuses. These protests have been taken to the extent where people either have died or have been seriously injured. However, during the 1960’s, America saw a popular form of art known as protest music, which responded to the social turmoil of that era, from the civil rights movement to the war in Vietnam. A veritable pantheon of musicians, such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan sang their songs to encourage union organizers to protest the inequities of their time, creating a diverse variety of popular

By the band singing and performing these songs, they showed others that it’s acceptable to be diverse and made people realize that massive changes were brewing in America, which made the band more popular. The Rolling Stones sang about issues of this time period and expressed extreme emotions that the people of the 1960s were curious to discover and accept, making their popularity reach new

The Nineteen Sixties were a time of grand turmoil in the United States. The nation almost came apart at the seams many times throughout the decade. The government was involved in a plethora of things at the time that the general population did not agree with. The most important was the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was the most publicly protested war in the history of the country. There were many new forms of protesting used at this time. The most mainstream and effective way of protest was through song. The lyrics of the songs of the sixties were laced with anti-government and anti-war messages that were sometimes hidden and sometimes direct. The generation responsible for the new music was the Baby Boomers. These were the

The emergence of Rock and Roll was one of the most pivotal moments of our nation’s history. The impact that this genre of music made is still evident in our culture. However, before this genre was able to gain momentum, it faced many cultural conflicts. The book, All Shook Up: How Rock ‘N’ Roll Changed America by Glenn C. Altschuler analyzes the impact that rock and roll music has made on American culture. It explores how the Rock and Roll culture was able to roughly integrate and later conflict with preceding cultural values. This is especially apparent in chapters regarding race and sexuality. Overall, Rock and Roll was extremely controversial amongst parents and educators. This new music genre was condemned by the previous generation as

Rock and roll then became bigger and bigger. In the 1950’s you had Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, The Big Bopper, and etc. Then in early 1960’s a group from London known as the Beatles is introduced, along with Bob Dylan, Frankie Avalon, Paul Anka, Connie Francis, Mitch Miller and many more. Several people actually thought of Bob Dylan as a conspirator for the fact that he was “abandoning” his folk-music and legitimacy. There still were numerous people who knew that this thing called “rock and roll” was going to be around for a

Rock and roll has developed a long way throughout the years from a dance craze in the 1950’s to a political and cultural landscape that is recognized worldwide. Rock and roll has come to define the roots of teenage rebellion, people who don’t follow the norms, and have disrespect for authority. The style of rock and roll itself is a melting pot of music, a combination of sounds that include jazz, country, blues, ragtime, gospel, swing, classical, and ethnic music. It can be a simple variation of three chords to a complex chromatic scale combination. It can convey emotions such as love, hate, fear, lust, sadness, joy, disillusion, or a strong sense of reality. Many things can be said about rock but the fact is that it is the most widely

Rock and Roll has has had an impact on several decades of generations of people. It has also sustained itself throughout this period without dropping in popularity. Rock and roll has had a huge impact on the society we live in today because it affects other music genres such as hip hop and neo-soul. It has not only affected other genres but also opened up a way for originality, self-expression, and free thought. It also influenced artists to give political opinions through their songs which also influences the government and how it governs specific laws including many that were apart of the civil rights act. It has been given credit for integrating teens and adults through 1950’s-1970’s. It has also helped with equality with races being able to perform and be successful without being treated unfairly about their quality of music because of their race.