Rock ‘n’ Roll

Rock ‘n’ roll, a music genre, emerged in the early 1950s and quickly became associated with the post–World War II teenage consumer market. Although often viewed as a synonym for all musical styles that have appealed to youth since 1955, rock ‘n’ roll concluded its course by 1963. It frequently is remembered nostalgically as lighthearted and lightweight, an innocuous fad that served as the soundtrack for a supposedly simple and carefree era.

Yet, like the time period from which it emerged, rock ‘n’ roll too often has been reduced to caricature. Although it may not seem as socially significant as the countercultural rock and folk sounds that symbolized the raucous and divisive 1960s, the rhythms of rock ‘n’ roll resounded loudly in a decade that was far from quiet. This was especially true in the American South, a deep-rooted region racked by conflict as it embraced modernity. The transition was not easy; tensions between rural and urban culture, adults and teenagers, and blacks and whites ultimately set in motion a monumental struggle pitting idealistic proponents for change against equally passionate defenders of the status quo. Only after much agony did the civil rights movement, arguably the greatest reform movement in American history, achieve partial victory in the tumultuous 1960s.

Beneath the surface of this seismic shift lay rock ‘n’ roll. With one foot planted in a rural past and the other in an urban present, socially invisible and angstridden southern teenage migrants sought novel ways to craft requisite identities. Their often-uncertain endeavors within an unfamiliar modern environment included a turn to popular culture and music, actions that regularly defied regional convention. Especially in adopting rock ‘n’ roll, a working-class and biracial art form that flouted traditional racial mores, they implicitly challenged the interminable codes of southern segregation. In hindsight, it was no accident that rock ‘n’ roll and the civil rights movement emerged at approximately the same time and in the same space. That they likewise coincided with the region's peak period of upward economic and social mobility also proved instrumental. Both reflected an optimism for [Page 1232]integration and inclusion that signaled the South's long-delayed entry into the national mainstream.

To make such a comparison, of course, does not suggest that the rock ‘n’ roll revolution magically cured the South of its racial ills. Nor does it contend that all who tuned into rock ‘n’ roll suddenly developed into civil rights crusaders or even casual critics of racial discrimination. And it certainly does not diminish, overlook, or trivialize the many people whose efforts and sacrifices ensured the success of the black freedom struggle. Such an assessment, however, does raise questions concerning the relationship between popular culture and social change.

While rock ‘n’ roll certainly was not restricted to the South, most first-generation artists who performed in the genre hailed from below the Mason-Dixon Line or were the children of southern natives who had migrated to northern and western cities. The music would represent a response to urbanization that retained a distinctive regional character. This regional quality is evident in the demographic composition of the artists and the historical function of the music they performed. In Dixie, a land legendary for racial and class oppression, vernacular music traditionally consisted of a mixed West African and British ancestry that flowed from proletarian sources. Music had customarily provided a means for the region's working classes, despite their lacking power, status, or affluence, to create a space for themselves that indulged self-expression, psychological release, creative sustenance, and personal satisfaction. The first generation of rock ‘n’ roll performers were well-versed in this tradition; figures such as Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, LaVern Baker, Gene Vincent, Ruth Brown, Sam Cooke, Carl Perkins, and Clyde McPhatter all shared a common regional, class, and generational background. Before establishing themselves as successful entertainers, all had been truck drivers, dishwashers, tenant farmers, sharecroppers, or sundry blue-collar laborers. Significantly, all emerged from the same audiences they later entertained.

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