In the 1960’s rock and roll spoke to the youth, rock was about youth and it was the pop culture wedge that divided parents and children. A younger audience began coming to the musical, because they were very interested by the music. Hair made musical theatre history by defining the genre of rock musical. The shows nudity was a first for a Broadway musical, as was its first full rock score. 5.
Consumerism increased in the 1960’s due to the rise of middle class income which increased the economy with new and more consumers. Due to the post-war era the spending for luxury increased by 50%, this led to people own automobiles and houses: they owned more than 1. All this happened because of working hours to 40 hours a week which gave people more leisure time that lead to people consuming more than usual. The creation of washing machines, lawn mowers, and vacuum cleaners during this period led to people buying these items so that they can save time in cleaning their houses that can be used for leisure activities. In the 1950s-1960s, the United States population had the highest rate of high school and college graduates in the world through
The United States during the 1950s and 1960s was an era of general consensus for the average middle class American. This was an era that saw the nation’s affluence grow tremendously. The middle class grew so much that the middle class had the ability to buy homes, buy cars, and live comfortably with their families. Cities began to sprawl throughout the nation, and suburbanization increased as well .
The major region which produced rock and roll was in the Southern area of the United States. Rock and roll is a style of music with a variety of music styles integrated within such as gospel, the blues, country, folk, and more. The influence of rock n roll originated through a merging of African American musical tradition and European instrumentation. 1950s rock and roll had a significant impact on the status quo of American society due to the conflicts of racial identity that were happening at the time.
“There was, after all, a new and burgeoning market: the American teenager. The country's approximately thirteen million teenagers had annual earnings,
I believe that there are plenty of both similarities and differences between the teenagers of the 1950’s and the 21 century. During the 50’s middle class youths were given opportunities that the generations before them hadn’t had. During this time money seemed to go further, and so both adults and kids had more spending money than ever before. People not only had more economic freedom, but they also had more free time to spend on frivolous interests. This included their music.
The economy was doing very well and parents were able to help their children achieve more. Parents tried to encourage their children to finish high school and go on to college. Young children began receiving allowances and had a lot more free time. They were able to form friendships and social groups. They were a generation of kids trying to have fun instead of being so serious like their parent’s generation.
Rock started out with the large amount of young adults getting established which helped spread rock and roll around the globe. Rock and roll not only
According to the text, “Middle-class consumers could afford goods once considered luxuries, such as convertible automobiles and televisions.” So, many people benefited from this service. This shows that during that time, people were able to enjoy goods and resources. Teenage culture expanded as teens gained more privileges to choose their own style. In the text
1. In the 1950s, the time when rock ‘n’ roll began to emerge and become popular amongst the youth of its time, parents feared that the U.S. was becoming over sexualized and the teens were becoming addicted to pleasure due to several reasons. For one, rock ‘n’ roll was associated with promiscuous behavior, such as inappropriate dancing. Also forms of contraception were becoming more available to the public.
Its fast paced tempo, element of rebellion in its lyrics and music, and its popularity amongst young people created a music genre and a way of life that would change the music industry and society forever. Rock and roll lead singers themselves are also known to have a great deal of onstage personality. They are usually physically attractive,
Rock was often related with sex, drugs, suicide, and violence, bringing kids and teenagers to have bad influences. Rock split two ways in the seventies and eighties, producing what is known as Soft rock and Hard rock. Bands like Aerosmith, Van Halen, and Lynyrd Skynyrd is widely known as being a soft rock appealed to the more educated and clean cut teenager while bands like Motley Crue, Alice Cooper, and Kiss known as hard rock and roll appealed to the so called dead head weed smoking angry teenager who has authority issues. Rock n’ roll has had both positive and negative impacts on the country and to many lives of Americans. It had greatly influenced daily life, fashion, attitudes and language.
The Leisure Class is a book written by Thorstein Veblen in 1899 which outlines the formation and critiques of the upper class in society and how their existence affects the rest of society. This book is very critical and condemning of the upper class whilst also providing basic economic education in a light, tongue-in-cheek manner. Veblen (1899) begins his book by showing how the leisure class originated in basic society before class distinctions and forms of ownership were established during the shift from primitive savagery to barbarism. He also does not openly state that the leisure class was the “rich” but does imply so in many ways.
After the World War II America found prosperity. Teenagers could work to satisfy their materialistic needs. Which added a new consumer entity to music, allowing rock to flourish. Rock and Roll was the start of rock, creating a musical and cultural revolution. Rock and Roll gave birth to band such as commits who music was featured in films such as rock around the clock.
In the 1950s, parents believed in two things: that Elvis Presley was the “devil incarnate,” and rock n’ roll would be a brief fad (Broeske). This was a time when most families were warming up to their new house in the suburbs, enjoying the middle class life, and welcoming their newborn child to its crib. To adults, that was truly perfect. To teenagers, however, they felt pressured. Pressured to join the workforce as soon as possible, pressured to go to college as soon as possible, and pressured to get married and start a family as soon as possible.
