Music in the 1950s

by admin - September 23rd, 2013

Whenever I think of music in the 1950s, I cannot help but imagine a bunch of high school boys in leather jackets with their hair slicked back, or high school girls in poodle skirts. Most of the time in my imagination they will be singing, “Grease Lighting” or “You’re the One That I Want”. For most people my age, it is hard to imagine music during that time, but even harder getting us to explore the music. We have this gut feeling that the music back then was boring and un-relatable, but all of this is untrue. What we do not understand is that today, modern music is closely related to the music of the 50s. In fact if it were not for the music of the 50s, many genres of music today would not exist.

In the year 1954, a teen from Memphis, Tennessee entered the music industry. His name was Elvis Presley. Nicknamed “the King of Rock and Roll”; Elvis is credited as being the creator of Rock and Roll. Without Elvis, and other 1950s rock and roll artists, many rock and roll genre inspired music would not exist today.

Along with Elvis, many other musicians contributed to modernizing music during the 1950s. Many of those musician belonged to the genre of Jazz. Some of those artists included: Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday. Today, Jazz may not seem important to music, but it is. A popular genre in today’s music is R&B; a type of music derived from Jazz. Therefore, Jazz is directly connected to today’s music.

Another type of music that is credited to the 1950s is Doo Wop. Doo Wop today is not nearly as popular as it was during the fifties, but one Doo Wop tradition has stuck around. That tradition is boy bands. That’s right, boy bands like One Direction or the Back Street Boys are just replicas of the Doo Wop bands of the 1950s. The only difference between the Doo Wop boy bands and today’s boy bands is that today’s boy bands are established on TV shows; One Direction.

One final type of music popular in the 1950s, related to today’s music, is country music. In the mid 1950s artists like Ray Price, Marty Robbins, and Johnny Horton began shifting country music. Country music began to be influenced by rock and roll. This caused the industry to become a multimillion-dollar success and created the sound that still exists today.

Whether today’s music listeners like it or not, the music of the 1950s influenced future genres of music heavily. Traces of 1950s music can be found in almost all genres of music today, from Rock and Roll to Country. In fact, I suggest that every listener of today’s music should take the time and explore the music of the 1950s. Perhaps you will discover a sound you enjoy, or maybe just appreciate your grandparent’s records more. The music of the 1950s isn’t just Grease, it’s classic, groundbreaking, and worth listening to.

–Kate M.

2 Responses to “Music in the 1950s”

  1. Julia D says:

    I never knew what doo wop actually meant, I thought it was some strange quote from a song or something! But I really liked the connection that you made between there being boy bands then and boy bands now. I would have never thought about how that tradition still continues to be around today. I also love One Direction so I’m glad you mentioned them as a boy band example!! 🙂

  2. Sarah says:

    I feel the same way as what you said in your opening paragraph. For me, I feel like I only think about the view of the ’50s Grease presents, even though that movie was made in the ’80s.