1950's Youth Culture Research Paper

461 Words2 Pages

easybibGrace Adams

Laura Davis

History Paper

4/16/2018

Youth Culture in the 1950's

In the 1950's, a group of people defined a new literary movement that was later coined as the beat generation. Beat poetry truly evolved in New York and San Fransisco. The start of the beat generation was just a small group of friends that were also new writers coming into the literary scene. The original group consisted of four men that met each other in the 1940's. The group later expanded into about eleven writers all together. “The Beat Generation.” Literary Kicks, 12 Mar. 2013, www.litkicks.com/BeatGen.

The beatniks where a up and coming youth culture that were heavily influenced by the beat generation. They were fans of the …show more content…

In the 40's, country artists had begun experimenting with blues like rhythms. By the early 1950's, this "rockabilly" style of music had become what is now known as Rock n Roll. Many Rock n Roll songs had themes such as young love and being free from oppression. These themes really resonated with the 1950's teens in America.

Tennessee had a large impact on America's youth culture in the 50's. Tennesse is the home of Stax records, a record label founded in 1959. Originally called Satellite, Stax records is the most popular soul music record labels in America. Rock n roll developed at Stax records, with the stylings of artists such as Steve Cropper, Charlie Freeman, Terry Johnson, Don Nix, and many many more.

The youth in the 50's were heavily influenced by things such as beat writers and rock n roll. They gathered together reading poetry and listening to the new music that was developing before their very eyes. They were passionate for a change after the war and they were passionate about self-expression. They felt like they were able to relate to the themes in the poetry and music that they were experiencing. This was a good thing, as the youth were able to discover themselves instead of going along with what the norm