Overview
From its raucous beginnings to the time of its mainstream acceptance, Rock and Roll was youth music. More exactly, it was the music of the teenager. Born of postwar affluence and the increased leisure time such affluence afforded young Americans, the teenager was a thing new to the American landscape. If for some they were an object of anxiety, this had everything to do with the fact that teenagers defined themselves in opposition to the parent generation. Rebellion was a part of being a teenager. And Rock and Roll was an expression of that rebellion and of the growing gap between generations. From the teen surf culture celebrated in the music of the Beach Boys to the mini-melodramas of the Shangri-Las’ Girl Group sound and teen dances including the Twist, the Stroll, the Mashed Potato, and the Watusi, the world of the teenager was made larger and more powerful through the music itself. As 60s Soul and the British Invasion demonstrated, it would be the teenagers, inspired by their music, who would define American life moving forward.
Chapters
chapter:
The Italians
Throughout the early years of the music's development, whether at independent labels or among performers themselves, Rock and Roll culture was a meeting place of various racial and ethnic groups. Different from the world of American business and the emerging corporate environment, the world of Rock and Roll held...
chapter:
Invitation to the Dance
American culture has a long and rich tradition of popular dance. From the folk dancing of Appalachia to the urban dance crazes that animated New York City in the 1920s, dance has been an important facet of social life. But dance is more than just boy-meets-girl on the floor. Dance...
chapter:
The Brill Building and the Girl Group Era
The Girl Groups chapter and its related lessons, most coming in phase two of this project, investigate both the groups of the era, including the Shirelles, the Shangri-Las, the Ronettes, and others, and the institutions behind those acts. In particular, the legendary Brill Building, located in New York City,...
chapter:
Surf
Surf music went from a regional phenomenon in the early 60s to a national craze by the mid-60s to a Pop sound loved around the world that continues to attract listeners. If any one group is associated with Surf more than others, it is the Beach Boys, a five-piece combo that brought together...
chapter:
Sixties Soul and Civil Rights
The sound of Sixties Soul was built on elements of Gospel, R&B, Blues, and Country. These ingredients, drawn from across the American musical landscape, paralleled the mixing that was happening in the recording studios as black and white players cross-fertilized musically and culturally. In the years prior to the...
chapter:
The Blues Explosion
The lessons in this chapter, coming in the second phase of the project, will explore the scenes in Britain and the United States that found young, white musicians studying American Blues music, learning its style, and creating something that was related but not entirely so, as is often the case...
chapter:
British Invasion I: The Beatles
No other Rock and Roll band has achieved the stature accorded the Beatles. They remain the most celebrated act in the music’s history. Their recordings, their performances, their songwriting, their singing: taken together, the band's output is widely considered unmatched in the history of popular music. How, then, did it all...
chapter:
British Invasion II: The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones began their life as an act dedicated to playing the Blues. They were, in effect, a cover band. In the world that Alexis Korner, Cyril Davies, and others helped to create, wherein a "purist" approach to the Blues was the mandate, the Stones came together. But...
chapter:
British Invasion III: The Rest of the Family
With whole chapters dedicated to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, much of the work of studying the British Invasion is left for this unit. The British Invasion is, after all, a thing with many sides. The Kinks, the Who, the Animals, the Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermits, the...
chapter:
Latin Rock
In an effort to recognize the profound influence of African-American music and culture on Rock and Roll, scholars and educators sometimes fail to acknowledge that a wider set of influences inform the character of the music, no matter the magnitude of the African-American borrowings. Not to say that it's...