Music To Work DX By

Nowadays, it’s common for the older generation to be unable to grasp the music of the younger generations. The 1950’s was the first decade that the act of listening to music became a form a teenage rebellion. The popular music that evolved to rock and roll first emerged in the mid- 1950’s, and exploded onto the commercial scene. The lyrics and dance moves were considered unprecedented and provocative. While the emergence of rock and roll defines the decade, it is not the only important form of music that was explored during the 1950’s.

            While parents were relaxing with jazz and big band tunes from the last decade, suburban teens were demonstrating their buying power as a previously untapped demographic. Parents were buying records from the likes of Ella Fizgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby. Their children, however, were using surplus allowance money and wages from the local Five-and-dime to buy wilder records from breakout artists like Elvis Presly and Chuck Berry. The teens heard raucous tunes that they could identify with, the older adults just heard noise.

            Wishing to capitalize on shock value, bands began to release ‘dirty songs’ that were packed full of naughty lyrical innuendo. Elvis played this up in the song “Baby, Let’s Play House”, a 1955 cover of Arthur Gunter’s 1954 song. Many risqué bands were banking on parents not understanding the duel meaning of their lyrics. This is technique is apparent in the Toppers’ doubled titled 1950 novelty song “(I Love to Play Piano) Let Me Bang Your Box”. With lyrics like, “I’ve banged everyone in the neighborhood, never banged one that sound so good,” parents were not fooled for long.

            In 1959, a tragic plane crash killed three pioneers of rock and roll, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper. Instead of putting a damper on rock and roll, this accident propelled the style of music into the new directions of musical exploration that defined the next decade.