HIST 4323 Soundtrack

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The Music of 1945-1980

The popular and even classical music of the era surrounded everyone everywhere. It gives us today a vivid aural record of the immense energy and creativity of the era. Musicians constantly experimented with new styles, new beats, new electronic musical instruments, and rapidly advancing recording techniques. Musical styles changed so rapidly that a listener can tell almost the exact year a song was recorded just by hearing it.

I have selected the music to present representative examples of popular styles and influential records. Listen to the pieces in order and you'll hear the progress of the era.

Late 1940s

COUNTRY

Singing cowboys like Roy Rogers or Gene Autry were very popular, as were cowboy songs. Vaughn Monroe had a giant hit in 1949 with "Riders in the Sky."

"Riders in the Sky"

POP

The late 1940s was the peak for such male "crooners" as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Bing Crosby. Nat King Cole made the transition from "race music" (soon to be renamed rhythm and blues) to pop with his big hit "Nature Boy" in 1948.

"Nature Boy"

JAZZ

The danceable Big Band jazz of the 1930s and early 1940s gave way to a new style of jazz, bebop, designed more for listening. It's faster and more harmonically complex. Ella Fitzgerald had some popular hits in the late 1940s, where she sang her signature scat lines. This is her big hit of 1947, "Oh, Lady Be Good!"

"Oh, Lady Be Good!" 

1950s

Early 1950s

Goodnight, Irene

FOLK

Folk music enjoyed a vogue before its revival later in the decade. The Weavers started it with a huge 1950 hit "Goodnight, Irene." However, all of them had been involved in singing for various labor and radical causes in the 1930s, so after a string of hits, the Red Scare ended their career in 1952. Some had to testify before HUAC. Two Weavers, Ronnie Gilbert and Pete Seeger, would be active in radical, antiwar, and environmental causes later. The recording here had strings and chorus added at the studio, the popular style of the day.

"Goodnight, Irene"

POP

Perhaps the most representative singer of the 1950s was Frank Sinatra. His career rose rapidly after the war, only to collapse amid Mafia and marriage scandals. A role in the 1953 movie From Here to Eternity revived his career. The 1954 LP Songs for Young Lovers contained many hits Sinatra would sing for the rest of his career, like "They Can't Take That Away From Me." Advances in audio technology allowed the vinyl long-playing 33-1/3 record (the "LP"), with about 40 or 45 minutes of music on each side, to replace the wax 78 record, with only room for one song on each side. The number refers to how rapidly the disk spins, measured in rpm. Smaller, vinyl 45 rpm records became the popular way to buy singles.

"They Can't Take That Away From Me"

RHYTHM AND BLUES

A new style of black music emerged in the late 1940s and 1950s, called "rhythm and blues" by the record industry. At first, no whites listened and it got no airplay on white radio stations. In the early 1950s, white teenagers discovered it and it gradually won wider popularity. By 1955, songs like Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame" became crossover hits on both R&B and pop charts. The roots of rock 'n' roll are easy to hear in it.

"Ain't That a Shame"

Rock 'n' Roll

BILL HALEY & HIS COMETS

Rock 'n' Roll was born out of the mixture of R&B, country, and pop styles. No better example exists than the song that set off the craze for rock 'n' roll, "Rock Around the Clock." This was a song in blues format that Bill Haley & His Comets, a country group, recorded in 1954. It went #1 in 1955 and was the best-selling rock song for many years. Note the use of electric guitar. Electric guitars had been around for about a decade, but they quickly came to epitomize the sound of rock 'n' roll.

"Rock Around the Clock"

CHUCK BERRY

In 1955, blues musician Chuck Berry had a huge hit with a country tune, "Maybelline." The song was the beginning of a string of hits for the musician, including "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Johnny B. Goode."

"Maybelline"

ELVIS PRESLEY

Elvis Presley, a white boy from Memphis, Tennessee, who could sing black music, caught the attention of Sam Phillips of Sun Records. His recording of "Heartbreak Hotel" was a hit in 1956. Other hits followed, like "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Hound Dog." Presley's singing delivery and dance motions caused parents and even the FBI to worry that he threatened the moral character of American girls. Nevertheless, when he appeared on TV, ratings went through the roof. An appearance on the popular Ed Sullivan Show drew a record 82.5% of the audience. His 1956 hit "Don't Be Cruel" illustrates rock 'n' roll's blend of styles: it was #1 on the pop, R&B, and country charts simultaneously.

"Don't Be Cruel"

LITTLE RICHARD

Born in Georgia to religious and mainly Pentecostal parents, Little Richard made a huge splash with his hit "Tutti Fruitti" in 1956. His high-energy performances and sexually-charged lyrics worried parents as much as they excited teenagers. (Little Richard was gay and the original lyrics were supposedly much more explicit.) Here's a movie clip with "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Fruitti." In 1958, Little Richard temporarily gave up performing to become a Pentecostal minister.

"Long Tall Sally"/"Tutti Fruitti"

JERRY LEE LEWIS

A poor boy from Louisiana, raised Pentecostal, Jerry Lee Lewis exploded the boundaries of rock 'n' roll beginning in 1957. His performances were so wild and his lyrics were so sexual that, as a religious man his whole life, he was sure his music would send him to hell. (His cousin was TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggert.) Here is his 1957 performance on television on The Steve Allen Show. (Allen was former host of The Tonight Show.)

"Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On"

BUDDY HOLLY

Lubbock's Buddy Holly played country and western music until opening for Elvis in 1955, when he switched to rock 'n' roll. He signed with a Nashville label but preferred to return to west Texas and record at Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico, backed by musicians soon called the Crickets. That record, "That'll Be the Day," was a huge hit. Many more followed. His 1958 tour of England contributed to his immense popularity there, profoundly influencing the Beatles (whose name honors the Crickets), the Rolling Stones, and even Elton John. He died at 22 in a plane crash in 1959.

"That'll Be the Day"

Early 1960s

FOLK REVIVAL

After disappearing into clubs and small venues during the Red Scare, folk music enjoyed a revival beginning with the Kingston Trio, who carefully avoided political songs. Coming out of the clubs in San Francisco, the group had a massive hit in 1958 with the traditional North Carolina murder ballad "Tom Dooley," from their first album. Here they sing on a program hosted by popular television comedian Milton Berle in 1958.

"Tom Dooley"

FOLK REVIVAL/PROTEST

The renewed popularity of folk music attracted music promoters without any interest in the purity of folk music or authentic styles. In 1961, a manager put three musicians together in a folk group that became more popular than any other, Peter Paul and Mary. Unlike the Kingston Trio, they did not shy from protest music. Their first album yielded a hit in 1962 with Pete Seeger's (of the Weavers) "If I Had a Hammer." In 1963, their cover of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" topped the charts, which none of Dylan's own recordings ever did. They were invited to sing at the March on Washington in 1963.

"If I Had a Hammer"

"Blowin' in the Wind"

FOLK REVIVAL/PROTEST

Robert Zimmerman, a Jewish teenager from Minnesota, wanted to play rock 'n' roll and was awed by a Buddy Holly performance two nights before he died. In college he found folk music, dropped out, changed his name to Bob Dylan, and moved to Greenwich Village in New York in 1960. Rather than only sing other people's songs, as most singers did, he began to write music with contemporary themes in traditional folk styles and pioneered the role of singer-songwriter. He was a prolific and gifted songwriter, covered by innumerable other singers, and deeply influenced a generation, especially with his protest songs of the early 1960s.

"Masters of War"

"The Times They Are A-Changin'"