Rock 'N' Roll Music And The Civil Rights Movement

Since the founding of the United States of America, culture, religion, and race have always been interlaced. If one of these changed, the others struggled to adapt. There was never a time in America’s short history that these three matters collided more brutally or ferociously than during the emergence of rock ‘n’ roll. It is quite obvious that not one single event, action, or phenomenon caused the turmoil during this era, but rather a perfect storm of cultural and racial revolutions that collided head on with tremendous religious backlash.

The music of the 1960s and 1970s definitely had an impact on culture and society in the United States. Protest music, specifically, brought ideas, as well as problems, to the attention of many Americans. Radio stations across the nation were a big part of the spread of protest music. Radio experienced a boom after World War II. Stations started appearing all over, which meant more people could be reached. The messages written in popularized protest songs were heard over the radio by people who otherwise may not have gotten the chance to hear the artists.

The 1960s was a tumultuous decade for the United States. Along with the escalation of the Vietnam War, this decade was rocked by the Civil Rights movement and the second wave of the Feminist movements, creating an immense amount of social tension. As a result, people turned to politically-charged music, predominantly Rock n’ Roll, to release their frustrations. However, an equally important musical genre, Soul, was left in the background. Despite the fact that Soul music was not as popular in the United States, artists such as Aretha Franklin released many politically-charged songs that advocated for social justice.

In the 1950’s, America was just starting to develop a common culture. Platforms like The Ed Sullivan Show, were uniting Americans while maintaining the conservative values of the time. Many Americans tried to hold onto the lifestyle and values they were so used to, but the times were changing. The number of women in the workforce doubled, African Americans were fighting segregation, and a new teenage culture was developing. Music, rock n’ roll at that time, became a way to make up the differences between Americans. Elvis Presley, a poor southern boy, made major waves by singing what most considered solely race music enticing teenagers and angering disapproving parents. This changed the common culture of the time by breaking down at least some of the barriers between whites and blacks through teenagers love of music.

A new social and political wave came over the United States in the early 1960s. There had been many changes since World War II in domestic life, economic standing, and politics. 1960s America was much more economically stable and felt responsibility for global affairs. John F. Kennedy won the election in 1960 with an agenda of national prosperity and cold war internationalism. During Kennedy’s presidency America faced a few major events including increasing concern about the war in Vietnam, the Bay of Pigs (a major political and interventional failure), and the Cuban Missile Crisis. These events had quite a bit of controversy surrounding them. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson wins the presidential elections with a vision

The war in Vietnam to do this day has gone down as one of the influential and controversial wars in United States history. The war lasted from 1955 to 1975.The nation as a whole began to uproar over the war and the major consequences of the war. There were many reasons why so many Americans were against the war. Public opinion steadily turned against the war following 1967 and by 1970 only a third of Americans believed that the U.S. had not made a mistake by sending troops to fight in Vietnam (Wikipedia). Not to mention, many young people protested because they were the ones being drafted while others were against the war because the anti-war movement grew increasingly popular among the counterculture and drug culture in American society and

Altschuler discusses media commentator Jeff Greenfield’s opinion about the influences of Rock and Roll on American youth. Greenfield states, “Nothing we see in the counterculture [of the 1960’s], not the clothes, the hair, the sexuality, the drugs, the rejection of the reason, the resort to symbols and magic – none of it is separable from the coming to power in the 1950s of rock and roll music.” He continues with “Brewed in the hidden corners of black American cities, its [Rock-n-Roll] rhythms infected white Americans, seducing them out of the kind of temperate bobby-sox passions out of which Andy Hardy films are spun. Rock and Roll was elemental, savage, dripping with sex; it was just as our parents feared.” (Altschuler, 8) Rock and Roll stood as a powerful alternative to the conformist ideals Americans had valued. What was originally slang for ‘having sex’ became a new aggressive music genre. Innovations in musical instruments and technology, young fresh talent and savvy record producers created a young population of new consumers who helped change ‘race music’ into rock and

Larry Williams, the blues and rock and roll singer, once said, “Rock and Roll has no beginning and no end for it is the very pulse of life itself.” With this quote, he shows that rock and roll truly is an ever-changing enigma. Its lifespan is similar to that of a human’s life because it has consisted of many phases like rockabilly, doowop, and many others. It has had its ups and its downs with the appearance of young new talent that inspired people around the world, and the death of superstars has ripped fans apart as long as this historical music genre has existed. Legends of rock and roll such as Chuck Berry and Elvis Presleyhave taken the industry by storm altering it significantly.

African-Americans played an important role in the development of Rock ‘n’ Roll by infusing elements of the sounds hummed during cotton picking and Black gospel music with country music and other progressive styles of the time (Blues and Jazz). The music had an impact on people’s attitude by introducing an unprecedented level of confidence, especially among the youth. White people were also introduced to a new style of dance that required movement of the waist and the legs, which

Protest music was an effective tool used as a weapon in peaceful protest. Singers and songwriters would express their views through the lyrics of their songs, effectively spreading awareness and informing people about the changes that need to take place, and the ideas of peace over war. Protest music was a major contributor in the escalating support for the peace movements, as well as many other movements, against the horrors of the Vietnam War and increasing acts of sexism, racism and the lack of equality in America in the 1950s and 1960s. Many famous artists took the initiative to write protest songs to spread awareness about the cause, generating a broader impact and having different effects on the many different members of society. Protest

The years prior to 1969 were rigorous, but when 1969 arrived it all changed. This change was demonstrated with several events and developments that helped America thrive. 1969 was full of “firsts,” and life-changing events; for instance, the Moon Landing, Woodstock, the Vietnamization policy, and new scientific developments occurred because of people’s cooperation, decision-making, competitiveness, and pride in America.

The Harlem Renaissance took place during the 1920s through the 1930s, and is noted as the first point in American history when African-American achievements in art, music, and literature flourished and were widely accepted. In the early part of the 1900s, the American public was shifting its interests from the “minstrel show” format to that of vaudeville. This created a wave of changes in theater in egeneral, and one of the most interesting was the appearance of African American actors and purely African American “themes”. For example, the 1917 play “Three Plays for a Negro Theater” was a first of its kind and eliminated the stereotypical portrayal of “blackface” in favor of African American actors insteadMany view this as the birth of the

Rock N’ Roll was a new music genre accepted and loved by many teenagers of the time. While their parents felt that Elvis Presley ruined music, the teens disagreed, and with so many teenagers at the time, there were many to keep the genre alive. Teens wanted to release the tensions that bubbled beneath the smooth surface of postwar America. In a biography about Presley, a.k.a. the king of Rock N’ Roll, it writes a historical moment, when Presley was filmed from only the waist-up. At the time, his behavior was considered scandalous. It was a new concept that lived on through music for future generations. This genre can be pin-pointed as the reason elder generations of today point back to the 1950s as “the good ole’ days”, as it was a time of

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.

Auslander article gives in-depth analysis of how protest music affected the Vietnam War. It beings by describing the roots of how protest music started and how that played a huge factor in the Anti-war movement. Then, the author establishes Rock as the main genre for the movement. Auslander describes how Rock in the sixties evolved into something life changing. He goes into great detail expressing how Rock shaped and reflected the political attitudes and social attitudes during this time which was the foundation of voicing out against the Vietnam War. Finally, the author examines the songs used during the movement to protest the atrocities while depicting the effects of the involvement. Lastly, this source will be very helpful in evaluating