Post-World War II American music is what brought in the ultimate musical revolution the world needed.The ’50s was the time when people had to rely on the radio, television, and the record player to listen to music. And it was called the ‘Age of Rock N Roll’.The ’50s was not called the age of rock and roll for nothing. There are many reasons behind the popularization of this genre of music. For example, teenagers found their own identity through songs as they represented resistance. The new development of technologies, like the widespread use of television, enhanced the appeal of the music genre. Moreover, loud electric guitars were a new invention the youth liked very much. And most importantly, black artists found an identity in the field of entertainment. ‘Rock and Roll’ was a term used to describe the motion of a ship by seamen in the 17th century. But in the ’50s, it had a different meaning. During the age of rock and roll, the term referred to the motion of moving back and forth with the music of that genre. And rock and roll songs were something the audience could head-bang or dance to.Rock and roll was introduced to Americans when the racial tension among white and black people was at its peak. While many white people had racist reactions, many of them grew out of it and believed in destroying all social barriers based on color. This particular music genre also provoked social changes that were appealing to the teenage generation whereas the parent generation wanted everything to be the way they were. It deeply influenced fashion and people started dressing up as rock and roll artists of that time. It also changed people’s views on religion and god. And so conservative Christians referred to rock and roll as a sinful genre that was misleading the youth. Contemporary music always influences social interactions and movements. Rock and roll was no exception as it talked about and impacted the Civil Rights Movement that started in 1954.The idea of transgression portrayed through the strong usage of words in the rock and roll songs provoked the rebels in young teenagers. They had a sense of belonging to something that talks about them and the lifestyle they wanted. They started following the footsteps of the artists, which led to the parents trying to ban the genre altogether. But nothing could stop the youth from listening to what they liked the most, rock and roll.Even though rock music has had negative effects on American culture (for example, it brainwashed teenagers and pushed them towards misconduct to gain the freedom they desired), it has had and continued to have a good impact on the people of America as well. For example, rock music promoted self-expression and freedom of thought through songs. It has in many cases helped people speak up for themselves as well as influenced their political views and thus the government. It has made a lot of people overcome racial prejudices, and has brought people of different races closer. And last but not the least, it allowed people to talk about and discuss topics that were once labeled as taboo by society.Some popular artists and bands from the ’50s are Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Ruth Brown, Bo Diddley, Sam Cooke, Johnny Otis, The Crickets, The Teenagers, The Penguins, The Clovers, and many more. All in all, music from the ’50s changed the world and the purpose of music, forever. Thus, keep on reading to find out some more interesting facts about ’50s music.If you are enjoying this article on ’50s music facts, you might as well like reading about 1962 facts and ’60s music facts.Popular Artists From The ‘50sElvis Presley (the most popular one), Chuck Berry, and Little Richard were the three most popular musicians from the ’50s.Elvis, starting his musical journey in the early ’50s, brought rock music into the pop culture and became the most commercially successful artist since Frank Sinatra. Whereas Chuck Berry, one of the pioneers of early rock music, introduced guitar solos and visual performances to rock and roll music, which majorly helped the genre to develop. Ray Charles and Fats Domino helped include blues into the pop music culture, which hugely influenced the music produced in the United States during the ’50s. Little Richard on the other hand introduced the world to a new form of funky R&B that had an increased tempo. Perry Como and Nat ‘King’ Cole topped the pop charts throughout the decade with their timeless hits, without fail. Bill Haley had a huge role in the history of American music as well. He helped the genre Rockabilly emerge when he started combining jump blues and electric country in his songs. Songs under the Rockabilly genre were often sung and recorded not only by African-American musicians but by white singers like Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, and Elvis Presley himself. ’50s rock music was deeply influenced by the versatile singer Johnny Cash, whereas country music was hugely impacted upon by Dean Martin.Popular Songs From The ‘50sBefore Billboard, the American music and entertainment magazine started publishing Hot 100 Charts in 1958, it used to publish several weekly charts and a year-end chart for popular songs based on their sales in retail stores, the number of times they were played on radio by disc jockeys and the number of times they were played on jukeboxes.The most popular song of each year of the ’50s, measured by retail store sales are hereby year-wise listed.The 1950 version of ‘Goodnight, Irene’, recorded by an American folk band called The Weavers, later ranked as the number one song of 1950, topped the Billboard charts for 25 weeks.In year 1951, Nat King Cole recorded the best-known version of the song, ‘Too young’ which is considered to be the number one song of 1951.‘Blue Tango’, an instrumental music composition by Leroy Anderson was the number one song of 1952, according to the Billboard charts.‘It’s April Again’, which is also called ‘The Song from Moulin Rouge’, and ‘Where Is Your Heart’ was recorded by Percy Faith’s Orchestra, with the vocals of Felicia Sanders. The song reached the peak of the Billboard charts in March 1953 and kept its position for long 24 weeks.Billboard ranked the single ‘Little Things Mean a Lot’ by Kitty Kallen as the number one song of 1954.Pérez Prado’s orchestral version of ‘Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White’, the most popular song of 1955 stayed on the number one position on the Billboard charts for 10 weeks.The ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ by Elvis Presley was a single that stayed on top of the Billboard charts for seven weeks, making it the most popular song of the year 1956.‘All Shook Up’ recorded by Elvis Presley was the number one song of 1957 according to the Billboard year-end chart.The Domenico Modugno song ‘Nel blu, dipinto di blu’, also known as ‘Volare’ became the number one song of 1958 after it topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts for five weeks straight.‘The Battle of New Orleans’ by Johnny Horton was ranked as the most popular song of 1959 by the Billboard Hot 100 charts.Some other popular songs from the ’50s are: ‘Mona Lisa’ by Nat King Cole (Traditional Pop, 1950); ‘Rock Around The Clock’ by Bill Haley & His Comets (Rock and Roll, 1954); ‘I’ll Always Love You’ by Dean Martin (Pop, Jazz, 1955); ‘Mary Ann’ by Ray Charles (R&B, 1956); ‘I Walk The Line’ by Johnny Cash (Rockabilly, 1956); ‘Learnin’ the Blues’ by Frank Sinatra (Pop, Jazz, 1956); ‘Maybellene’ by Chuck Berry (Rock, 1956); ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ by Elvis Presley (Pop, Jazz, Rock, 1956); ‘Tutti Frutti’ by Little Richard (Rock, 1957); ‘They Say It’s Wonderful’ by Perry Como (Pop, 1957); ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On’ by Jerry Lee Lewis (Pop, 1958); and ‘Blue Days, Black Nights’ by Buddy Holly (Pop, Country, Rock, 1958).Styles Of Music Popular In The ‘50sStyles and genres of music that were popular in the ’50s were Rock ’n’ Roll, Classic Pop, Country, and Rhythm and Blues.Rock and roll is a musical genre that has its origin in R&B, country music, and pop. It was the early ’50s when a disc jockey named Alan Freed began playing R&B music for a multi-racial audience, and coined the term ‘rock and roll’ to describe the music he was playing. But it was Chuck Berry who invented or in fact made the new music genre distinctive and popularized it in the mid ’50s. Rock and roll music usually sounds like the pentatonic scale we find in blues music, on an electric guitar, and is one of the most liked music genres to date.Popular music has its roots in the ’20s. But changing and developing with time, pop music dominated the music charts during the first half of the ’50s. It was popular mainly for the story being told through the songs or the emotions that were expressed in them. Unlike rock and roll, it focused more on the themes of love and relationships instead of challenging society with its lyrics. But the television performances of the pop stars also played a major role in the music genre keeping its popularity stable till the mid ’50s.Till the ’50s, R&B music was purchased largely by African-Americans only. But during the ’50s, rhythm and blues slowly started becoming popular among white teenagers. And African-American musicians, who were formerly not well known, gained a fan base all over the world.Country music was also pretty popular in the ’50s. And most country bands played a combination of western music, country beats, and honky-tonk back in those days. Other than these, jazz and folk music were two well-liked genres in the ’50s.Traditional Pop And StandardsTraditional pop is the music genre that dominated pop culture before ’50s rock entered the mainstream.One characteristic of traditional pop is that it is completely free from the influence of rock and roll music. Some of the popular traditional pop artists were Rosemary Clooney, Perry Como, Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, and Johnny Mathis. A lot of these singers performed on television and popularized the genre. They sang a lot of their own songs, but they were mainly famous for the pop standards they recorded. Pop or American standards are the songs that were released years ago and were well known to the audience. The traditional pop artists in the ’50s did not always copy the original artists of the simple, melodic standards, but added their own individuality into them. Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and Doris Day were some of the artists who took up old songs and made them more suitable for the new generation of listeners.Rhythm And BluesRhythm and Blues also known as R&B was a major part of the ’50s. This upbeat blues genre was hugely inspired by the jazz music of the ’40s. It was a blend of genres like blues, jazz, and gospel. And later on, it gave rise to two popular genres: rock and roll and funk music. Most R&B bands of that time had a piano, drums, guitar(s), bass, saxophone(s), and sometimes, vocalists.In the early ’50s when rhythm and blues was slowly starting to become popular among Americans, music producing companies like Atlantic Records and Savoy started signing R&B singers and bands to capitalize on the genre. And therefore, the genre once referred to as race music or negro music, became ‘rhythm and blues’. And this was an event that changed many lives as it helped with the racial issues America was dealing with. Black people (even though discriminated against to date), mainly musicians, gained a higher place in the white-dominated society in the'50s. Some of the most popular R&B artists of the fifties were Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, The Platters, The Drifters, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Lloyd Price, and Fats Domino.Did you know?In the past seven decades, music has evolved a lot. In the ’50s, the people of America saw the rise of rock and roll while genres like R&B, country, classic pop, jazz, and blues were still very popular. In the ’60s, people were introduced to pop-rock, psychedelic rock, beat, folk-rock, blues-rock, funk, and soul. During the ’70s, jazz fusion, smooth jazz, soul, disco, and funk music remained popular. In the ’80s, emerged EDM or electronic dance music and modern rock, a.k.a. new wave. On the other hand, ’90s music was dominated by jack swing, g-funk, hip hop soul, neo-soul, rap, contemporary R&B, and reggae. In the 2000s genres like hip-hop, house, indietronica, trance, chillout were the most popular ones. In the 2010s, there came various genres like alternative rock, progressive rock, punk rock, hard rock, and heavy metal. Since music is something that is never consistent, it keeps changing with time. Be it towards betterment or deterioration, as long as there are humans, music will evolve.Though the term ‘popular music’ refers to music that appeals to a big amount of audience, the music genre ‘pop’ is completely different from rock music. Pop songs focus more on vocals, whereas rock is mostly about instruments like bass and guitars. While pop is commercially aimed at all sorts of audiences, rock is meant for a specific subculture. Moreover, rock music is produced by a band where each individual plays different instruments, and pop songs are sung by single artists or a group of singers.Pop music was first popularized in the ’50s and it has kept on developing with time ever since. The ’50s music was dominated by traditional pop, whereas in the ’60s, pop split up into several subgenres like Bubblegum pop and Baroque pop. In the ’70s, the subgenres that emerged in the ’60s were replaced by country-pop and power pop. In the ’80s, the addition of synthesizer and electric sounds to pop songs led to the popularization of a kind of pop music people could dance to. During the ’90s, many girl groups and bands started producing pop songs and entered mainstream pop culture. Whereas in the 2000s, pop rock and power pop came back to the scene and dominated music with other genres like R&B and hip hop. The 2010s, on the other hand, experienced the dominance of genres like pop-rock, pop-punk, indie pop, power pop, psychedelic pop, and much more.Here at Kidadl, we have created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for ’50s music facts then why not take a look at 1965 facts, or 1955 facts?
Post-World War II American music is what brought in the ultimate musical revolution the world needed.
