How Rock N Roll Changed America Essay - 1241 Words

Rock ‘n’ roll has played a major role in some known historical developments post World War 2. Music plays a significant part in America s Cold War culture. Music gave us a sense of new technologies and helped the world to prosper. It also is linked with African Americans living in the South. Music was known for shaping the lives of the people during the 1950s and 1960s. Music was geared towards the youth, race, ethnicity, gender and class. â€Å"All Shook Up: How Rock ‘n’ Roll Changed America† by Altschuler, Glenn C, tells us the story of the birth of rock and roll during the concrete years of 1955 to 1965. Altschuler gives us a overview of how rock ‘n’ roll has an historical context. â€Å" For two years the Times printed dozens of†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"The rise of rock ‘n’ roll and the reception of it, in fact, can tell us a lot about the culture and values of the United States in the 1950s. According to historians James Gilbert, there was a struggle throughout the decade ‘over the uses of popular culture to determine who would speak to what audience, and for what purpose†. At the center of that struggle, rock ‘n’ roll unsettled a nation had been â€Å"living in an ‘age of anxiety’† since 1945† (p.15). Altschuler talks about how music and race interlock with one another. Rock had become a â€Å"highly visible and contested arena for struggles over racial identity and cultural and economic empowerment in the United States† (p.35). Other chapters within the book state the battles involving sexuality, generational conflicts, as well as other social issues. The author states ideas that are somewhat problematic. For example, he states that there is a myth that rock ‘n’ roll went into a â€Å"lull† following the payola hearings (the practice of record promoters paying DJs or radio programmers to play their label s songs) of 1959 and did not come about again until the arrival of the Beatles in 1964. Rock ‘n’ roll presented us with the emergence of a cultural phenomenon, which the book lays out for us. Altschuler sees rock as a â€Å"metaphor for integration, as the focal point for anxiety that cultural life in the U.S. had become â€Å"sexualized†, a catalystShow MoreRelatedRock And Roll : Rock Roll1169 Words   |  5 PagesRey Marinas Mus160 CRN 10962 Homework # 2 Rock Roll Rock music has come a long way since its development in the early 20th century. The genre, defined â€Å"as a merger between rhythmblues and country† (Scaruffi, The History of Rock Music:1955-1966), started out more as an underground market, but ended up becoming a significant aspect of American popular music history. 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