Shook Up Rock \'N\' Roll and Revolution

Shook Up

Rock 'n' Roll and Revolution

As a distinctly American form of cultural expression, Rock 'n Roll may be our nation's greatest global export. Its influence on popular, social and artistic mores on a global basis is incomparable. Indeed, one could make the argument that most modern forms of popular music derive from the basic components, if not the underlying attitude, or Rock ' Roll. However, this observation should not be at the expense of considering the yet more powerful influence that this musical form has had on our society as a whole. This is the premise driving Glenn C. Altschuler's 2003 text All Shook Up: How Rock 'N' Roll Changes America. According to the Altschuler text, Elvis Presley and his contemporaries would not just alter the musical landscape but would create a stark generation gap, a deconstruction of racial barriers and dismantling of sexual taboos. In this regard, the text argues, Rock 'n Roll would do nothing less than alter the course of American life.

Dividing the text into separate sections identifying the relationship between the burgeoning phenomenon of RNR and the patterns of social rebellion that were undermining the conservative establishment, Altschuler shows how this mode of musical expression really did extend from a growing sense of disaffection, discontent and disenfranchisement. In fact, Altschuler does a tremendous job of showing the sharp divide between the conservative guard and the youth culture gravitating to the new form of music by using a wide range of primary sources. Many of these newspaper and magazine articles from the 1950s show the unabashed disapproval of the establishment. According to Altschuler, "the Times printed dozens of articles linking destructive activities at, outside, or in the aftermath of concerts to "the beat and the booze" or the music alone. Public interst in rock 'n' roll was so great, Times editors even viewed the absence of a riot newsworthy." (Alschuler, p. 3)

Indeed, Altschuler tells that newspapers would report peaceful and incident-free rock concerts as an anomaly. The clear entrenchment of sides in the early emergence of rock 'n' roll demonstrates that America was truly divided at the time. In a large part, the text indicates, the form of music did not cause but ultimately came to reflect that divide. Certainly, the fact that the form of music was so directly influence by black culture helped to feed this divide. No small amount of racism played a part in the conservative mainstream war of impression against rock 'n' roll. Older, and in many cases explicitly racist, Americans, feared the impact this music would have on their children.

This argument is confirmed in the review by Peterik (2003), which indicates that "Altschuler's first section starts off with a headline from an article in a 1957 New York Times that really gives the reader a first impression of rock 'n' roll at the time. Some newspapers even called rock 'n' roll a 'communicable disease' that was sweeping the nation. Parents and community members could not begin to understand why the youth of America were so drawn to this music. They even started to ban rock shows from coming to their towns in order to prevent the chaos that usually accompanied before, during, and after the shows." (Peterik, p. 1)