Rock And Roll and American Culture
Christina Chi
Rock And Roll and American Culture
Rock and roll has been one heck of a ride so far. It’s an extremely interesting topic and a crucial genre of music. I always knew music has and continues to hold massive influence over each generation, but honestly never understood to what extent until this class. The fact that the roots of blues, folk, and country music essentially led to the creation of Rock and Roll, R&B, Jazz, and Psychedelia is still a bit unfathomable to me. Music has always been tied to pop culture, yet I was never certain exactly to what degree they were tied together/connected. There were huge cultural shifts between each passing decade, but in my opinion, the musical revolutions that happened in the 1950s and 1960s are crucial milestones in American history and pop culture.
The 1950s were a time of changes and the music of the decade both reflected the cultural changes that were happening while still holding on to the societal norms of the past. Following the detrimental effects of World War II, the United States embarked on a journey that would change the face of music for decades to come. After WW2, the economic state in America was much better than ever before, and teens had the opportunity to spend money on hobbies, being able to afford more music records than before. In the 1950s, blues had a huge influence on mainstream American popular music, and the decade started off with the slow but steady transition from the smooth blues towards the chaotic brilliance of rock and roll. The origins of rock and roll are messy. Music didn’t evolve in a linear fashion (still kind of doesn’t); and it’s never been clear who invented it, or what exactly the first rock and roll song was. However, pop culture’s transition from blues to rock and roll was a bit of a controversial one as the Rock and Roll genre challenged existing social norms including the segregation of the races, as it is a blend of African American and White musical traditions. Since Rock N’ Roll challenged common beliefs regarding cultural differences, it wasn’t well accepted by all US citizens (mostly adults) when it first emerged in the ’50s. Luckily, kids who grew up in the ’50s disagreed with the older generation on basically everything. This caused a major generational rift between both generations, and rock and roll soon became the soundtrack to the youthful generation’s angsty aggression.
Our weekly playlists not only provided me with phonetic integration of American music, but they have also introduced me to musicians I previously never had the opportunity to discover before. The artists that I’ve enjoyed the most this semester have been the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and Jefferson Airplane, who were featured in our week 6 and 7 playlists. The Beach Boys were incredible as their music were unique pieces of art that often changed the music industry; either by creating new genres or adding new techniques to already existing genres. I personally really enjoyed California Girls by the Beach Boys as the song had a classical feel while still managing to hold a traditional country melody. The Beach Boys were masters of rock pop and surf psychedelia as they drew on the music of traditional pop vocal groups, 1950s rock, and roll, and black R&B to create their unique sound often incorporating classical or jazz elements and unconventional recording techniques. They were often distinguished by their vocal harmonies, adolescent themes, and musical ingenuity; techniques that ended up making them one of the most influential acts of the rock era. The Beach Boys were also one of the few American rock bands to sustain their commercial standing during the British Invasion. To me, Jefferson Airplane was a revolutionary band with a transformative voice that embodied the intensity of 60’s psychedelia, as many of their songs, most notably White Rabbit, are almost hypnotic with their melody and lyrics. Jefferson Airplane founder Marty Balin was a key part of the San Francisco sound and its flight from the west coast across the nation, adventurous in bold political lyricism and freewheeling live shows.
The Beatles however, were probably my favorite band this semester. They are known to be one of the most infamous bands of all time, and obviously for a reason as their music is well, genius. They not only created music that had literally never been heard of before, many of which dominated our chapter six and seven playlists, but they also wrote their own tunes and were also massively influential on recording technology; especially in terms of multi-track recording. Corollary to that is their fearlessness in appropriating other musical styles/genres/instrumentation into many of their mid to late-career sessions. The Sound of the Beatles seemingly comes from their pop sensibility, as in almost every single song the chords also show an unconventional relationship with each other, just as there exists a close connection between harmony and melody. The smooth transitions between chords and the tight relationship between harmony and melody are inexplicably unique to the Beatle's music. But that is not all. The Beatle’s second, most important goal seemed to be emphasizing the relation between the style marks of beat music and the rise of autonomous youth culture in the sixties. While Rock and Roll began as a new style of dance music aimed at teenagers in the 1950s, by the time it reached the end of the 1960s it had transformed the American cultural and political landscape. The genre paved the way for the self-expression and free thought of the 1960s and it encouraged Americans to speak out on political issues; such as Civil Rights and the Vietnam War. Rock and Roll music helped teens integrate in the 1950s and 1960s and opened the door for black artists to be played on mainstream radio and television, all while influencing clothing, dance, and language. The early songs of the Beatles offered a splendid overview of the gradual, but quick evolution of the new musical idiom of rock music. Their songs seem to mirror the direct ways in which young people interact and communicate with each other in daily life, from their attempts to push out rambled reciprocity of feelings towards one another and how they communicate without any preordained system of norms and values. By modeling the contexts of conversation in its chord patterns, The Beatles offered an intermediary communicative structure in which rational considerations and emotional deliberations could be joined together into personal decisions. Their songs showed its listeners new ways of transgressing the emotional boundaries between the contexts of conversation. With the tools of music, The Beatles manufactured a genuine model for a more egalitarian communication of emotions and opinions. It created the preconditions for a new romantic outlook on social reality by pointing toward a sensibility for individual differences. Moreover, the songs themselves offered a means to become fluent in the necessary social skills. The melodic lines of the short songs could be sung along with the records, learned by heart, and kept in mind. By losing themselves in their favorite songs, the young fans of beat music learned new ways of communicating and flexible emotional control. In this way, the songs functioned as cultural contraptions, little machines for making decisions. They facilitated the acceptance of new ways of social communication and thereby activated the rise of youth culture in the sixties, which made this new way of living into a general pattern for social interaction.
Rock and roll in the 50s and especially the 60s was a rich, dynamic, and varied movement. The music captured the range of emotions and concerns of the 60s generation. At times, many of these performers seemed to both lead and follow their audience into new forms of expression. Many of the songs expressed the outrage of those protesting the war and what many saw as the stultifying culture of their parents. Long story short, Rock music rolled America into a musical and cultural revolution.
