Remember
The Inspiring 50s And 60s Music ?
Paul McCartney
Does
The Baby
Boomers Remember it Too! - These
1950s and 1960s Tunes Still Live
Today!
Each
generation likes to have its own
heroes and a wide generation gap
appeared following World War II.
50s and 60s music brought on a
cultural revolution, not seen
before or since.
After the
austerity of the war, people
wanted to have fun. Dances were
popular and record shops did good
business.
Ballroom
Dancing To Early 50s
Music
The early
part of the 50s had its share of
crooners and balladeers. Perry
Como's relaxed style appealed to
the older generation and country
music fans enjoyed Frankie Lane's
cowboy songs.
Johnnie Ray
however, was the opposite of
relaxed and liked to belt out a
song to the back of the hall.
Mainstream popular music went on
unchallenged until Rock and Roll
burst onto the scene.
Enter --
1950s Rock And Roll Music -- Seen
Elvis Lately?
When Elvis
first wiggled his hips, he paved
the way for a very different kind
of 50s and 60s music. Teenagers
were jumping around to Hound Dog
and Heartbreak Hotel and nothing
would ever be the
same.
In addition
to Elvis, the airwaves were full
of Bill Haley, Chuck Berry,
Little Richard, Carl Perkins,
Jerry Lee Lewis, and Fats Domino.
Rock and Roll spawned new dance
crazes and radio DJs spread the
message. Elvis fans cried for
days when he was enlisted into
the army.
Did You
Know That John Lennon Listened To
50s Music?
During the
late 50s, many young English men
sat in their bedrooms, trying to
copy the songs they heard coming
from America. Amongst them were
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and
George Harrison. Hundreds of
groups were formed and would
reinterpret the music of the 50s
and 60s.
50s And
60s Music Gives Birth To The
Beatles And The Brits
The Beatles
and others burst on the scene in
the 1960s and led what was known
as The British Invasion to
America. They had absorbed the
American sounds and sold it back
to them! Groups such as the
Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The
Small Faces, and the Who
dominated the charts.
Music from
the 50s and 60s evolved into
experiments with different
instruments, influenced by many
genres, and hair got longer and
longer!
Guitar
Strumming In The 60s
Music
From the
mid 60s, lyrics became more
poetic and guitar solos more
expressive. Popular groups
included the Pink Floyd, Jimi
Hendrix Experience, Grateful
Dead, The Doors and Jefferson
Airplane.
The Folk
Music Explosion Of The
1960s
There was
also a big folk revival during
the 1960s, fueled by protest
songs from Bob Dylan. Many folk
artists came from small clubs
into the large theaters,
including Joan Baez, Tim Hardin,
Tom Paxton, and Tim Rose.
Dylan
shocked the folk purists when he
used an electric guitar. The
combination of electric guitars
and folk songs was dubbed folk
rock and one of the leading
exponents was The Byrds. Much of
50s and 60s music was
revolutionary but it took from
past traditions and gave them a
new twist.
The Jazz
Contribution To 50s And 60s
Music
Jazz too
was to undergo its own revolution
with the introduction of Be-Bop
in the 1950s, as exemplified by
Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie.
This kind of free jazz was a
shock to a lot of people but it
thrilled many others.
Classical?
Even
classical music, the last bastion
of tradition, went through
changes with music from the 50s
and 60s. Contemporary composers,
such as John Cage, were
controversial in their
experimental avant-garde
pieces.
The
1950s Music Era
The 1950s,
it seems like such a long time to
the 80s and the 90s child but not
so to old timers. One of the most
memorable things about the
fifties was the Beat Culture.
Hot-rodders and Beats provided
inspiration, even in music.
The 1950s
music scene reverberated to the
beat with names like Elvis
Presley, Frank Sinatra, Pat
Boone, and Patti Page among other
legends. This was the time of the
Franks, with such names as Frank
Sinatra, Frankie Laine and Frank
Loesser coming clearly to
mind.
This old
time music is well remembered for
a good number of hit songs with
such titles as
‘Sh-Boom’, ‘Earth
Angel’, ‘Cry Me A
River’, ‘Mr. Lee’
and ‘Rainbow’ coming in
mind. Dance hall songs by Fats
Domino, The Diamonds and Ray
Charles are also well remembered.
Stepping
back in time, we meet the famous
entertainer Frank Sinatra.
Becoming a successful solo artist
in the early to mid 1940s, Frank
Sinatra would later come to
change the whole 1950s music
scene by winning the 1954 Academy
Award for Best Supporting Actor
and signing with Capitol Records
to produce smashing hits one
after another.
He stirred
in such musicals as ‘High
Society’, ‘Pal
Joey’, ‘On The
Town’ and ‘Guys and
Dolls’. Sinatra’s
comeback in the fifties would see
him become an Oscar-winning actor
and one of the top recording
artists in the world producing
some of the finest musicals of
his time.
The 1950s
music scene is also incomplete
without a mention of Frankie
Laine. His hit singles
“Jezebel”, “Rose,
Rose, I Love You”,
“Granada”, “Hey,
Joe” and “moonlight
Gambler” were all top ten
hits in the early 50s.
Laine would
later come to sing the theme
songs for many Hollywood and
television westerns opening
credits. In fact, his popularity
in the United Kingdom surpassed
that in the States with minor
hits in the States like
“Answer Me, O Lord”,
“The Gandy Dancer’s
Ball” and “The Rock of
Gibraltar” becoming much
bigger hits abroad. His 1957
‘Greatest Hits’ album
is a perennial best seller that
does not seem to go out of print.
Pat Boone,
Patti Page and Perry Como were
other P artists that had humming
tracks as well. Much of the music
by the above artists can be
attributed to the feel good
feeling that the post war
optimism had on America. Since
the emerging teenagers had not
struggled much through the war
years, they wanted something
exciting and the 1950s music
seemed to provide that. Indeed,
the vitality of the 1950s music
lives on.
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