Rock n' Roll: A Reflection of American Culture
Music and art are products of the society from which they evolved. History tells us about events that happened in a certain time, but the events themselves do no tell the whole story. Behind these events are thoughts and feelings. Music and art tell us about the passions that drove the events that shaped historical events. Music is one of the oldest mediums of expression available to human beings (Cross, 2001). According to Cross, music and language developed simultaneously in our evolutionary past. We can learn much about a culture through the study of their music (Blacking, 1995).
In America, the 1940s were turbulent times. The 1950s reflected a return to normalcy. Society needed a break from the chaos of war and they constructed a society full of rigid rules about how one should live their life, dress, keep their house and present themselves. Children born during this time period had a childhood full of rigid rules and the media portrayed a life of rigid rules and standards, this can be seen in shows such as "Leave it to Beaver," and later, "The Brady Bunch." These shows "told" people how they should try to model their lives.
The advent of Rock n' Roll represented a crying out of the youth. The children of the 1950s were the teenagers and young adults of the 1960s. Low and behold, America became embroiled in another war, but this war was different than the war of their parents, it seemed to have no purpose. World War II was popular and everyone saw the need for it. Vietnam was not popular and this was evident in the war protest songs of the youth of the time. This research will explore through example exactly what these songs tell us about the important issues of the time about racial injustice, poverty, and the Vietnam War.
Songs of the 1960s reveal the development of a sub-culture. Mainstream society sought to maintain the June Cleaver-like normalcy. Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the draft board and an emerging drug culture, this evolved into two combatant worlds existing simultaneously. The drug culture was a blatant rebellion against the ideals and institutions that had created the current situation. The day-to-day, work a day world, was a stark contrast to the carefree
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
Semiotically, however, the term evolved in the region to symbolize a characteristic aspect of shared cultural attitudes related very directly to the motivation for the murder of the civil rights activists. Finally, the 1970s counterculture heavily emphasized illicit recreational drug use: The birds flew off with the fallout shelter Eight miles high and falling fast Again linking the 1950s with the 1970s, the semiotic relevance of high very likely corresponds to
Franklin & Higgenbotham (2011) provide an Afro-centric view of history, albeit one that focuses on how Africa evolved vis-a-vis Europe and especially with regards to the slave trade. Salient points F&H point out include the diversity, richness, and complexity of African societies and their relationships with one another as well as with outside traders from Europe and the Middle East. Social stratification, hierarchy, and patriarchy all characterized the most powerful
And Rock 'n' Roll. Quite distant from the sounds of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and other groups that are firmly a part of the Rock 'n' Roll from the era, there is nonetheless a certain rhythm and feel to this song that makes it a peripheral form of Rock 'n' Roll, and of the more popular songs of the style and the era (Eder 2011). It is also somewhat
Blues music however did not cross racial lines, with the majority of famous blues musicians still residing in New Orleans and various other well-known black music entertainment venues of the South. Gospel music has been an African-American church tradition with influences from traditional African music and especially prevalent during the slavery era. Later (most likely because of those particular ignominious associations and all they implied, especially in the South) gospel
Pranksters and Intersubjectivity The Concept of Intersubjectivity in the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters were led by a kind of nouveau-culture that had sprung out of the Beat movement like Athena out of the head of Zeus when struck by a hammer. The hammer that struck the Beat poets, of course, was LSD -- better known as acid -- an integral (and legal) ingredient in the search
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