American popular culture 1950s

American popular culture 1950sMUSIC

Popular music in the early 1950s was essentially a continuation of the crooner sound of the previous decade. Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Frankie Laine, Patti Page, Judy Garland, Johnnie Ray, Kay Starr, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Dean Martin, Georgia Gibbs, Eddie Fisher, Teresa Brewer, Dinah Shore, Kitty Kallen, Joni James, Peggy Lee, Julie London, Toni Arden, June Valli, Doris Day, Arthur Godfrey, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Guy Mitchell, Nat King Cole, and vocal groups like The Mills Brothers, The Ink Spots, The Four Lads, The Four Aces, The Chordettes, Fontane Sisters, The Hilltoppers and The Ames Brothers. Jo Stafford's You Belong To Me was the #1 song of 1952 on the Billboard Top 100 chart. The middle of the decade saw a sudden, volcanic change in the popular music landscape as classic pop was swept off the charts by rock-and-roll. Crooners such as Eddie Fisher, Perry Como, and Patti Page, who had dominated the first half of the decade, found their access to the pop charts significantly curtailed by the decade's end.[3] Doo Wop entered the pop charts in the 1950s. Its popularity soon spawns the parody "Who Put the Bomp."Novelty songs come into popularity, such as "Beep Beep"In the mid-1950s Elvis Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll Rock-n-Roll emerged in the mid-50s with Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Gene Vincent, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard, James Brown, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, Bobby Darin, Ritchie Valens, Duane Eddy, Eddie Cochran, Brenda Lee, Bobby Vee, Connie Frances, Johnny Mathis, Neil Sedaka, Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson being notable exponents. In the mid-1950s, Elvis Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. Chuck Berry, with "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), refined and developed the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, focusing on teen life and introducing guitar solos and showmanship that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music.[4] Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Johnny Horton, and Marty Robbins were Rockabilly musicians. Doo Wop was another popular genre at the time. Popular Doo Wop and Rock-n-Roll bands of the mid to late 1950s include The Platters, The Flamingos, The Dells, The Silhouettes, Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers, Little Anthony & The Imperials, Danny and the Juniors, The Coasters, The Drifters, The Del-Vikings and Dion and the Belmonts. The new music differed from previous styles in that it was primarily targeted at the teenager market, which became a distinct entity for the first time in the 1950s as growing prosperity meant that young people did not have to grow up as quickly or be expected to support a family. Rock-and-roll proved to be a difficult phenomenon for older Americans to accept and there were widespread accusations of it being a communist-orchestrated scheme to corrupt the youth.Jazz stars in the 1950s who came into prominence in their genres called Bebop, Hard bop, Cool jazz and the Blues, at this time included Lester Young, Ben Webster, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Art Tatum, Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal, Oscar Peterson, Gil Evans, Jerry Mulligan, Cannonball Adderley, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Dave Brubeck, Art Blakey, Max Roach, the Miles Davis Quintet, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, and Billie Holiday. The American folk music revival became a phenomenon in the United States in the 1950s to mid-1960s with the initial success of the Weavers who popularized the genre. Their sound, and their broad repertoire of traditional folk material and topical songs inspired other groups such as the Kingston Trio, the Chad Mitchell Trio, The New Christy Minstrels, and the "collegiate folk" groups such as The Brothers Four, The Four Freshmen, The Four Preps, and The Highwaymen. All featured tight vocal harmonies and a repertoire at least initially rooted in folk music and topical songs. On 3 February 1959, a chartered plane transporting the three American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson goes down in foggy conditions near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all four occupants on board, including pilot Roger Peterson. The tragedy is later termed "The Day the Music Died", popularized in Don McLean's 1972 song "American Pie". This event, combined with the conscription of Elvis into the US Army, is often taken to mark the point where the era of 50s rock-and-roll ended.

Clips and images of musiciansTV/Film clipsPhotos of fashionFrank sinatra tony bennet frankie laine

Fashion Perhaps one of the things which most characterizes the 1950's was the strong element of conservatism and anticommunist feeling which ran throughout much of society. One of the best indicators of the conservative frame of mind was the addition of the phrase "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. Religion was seen as an indicator of anti-communism. Fifties clothing was conservative. Men wore gray flannel suits and women wore dresses with pinched in waists and high heels. French fashion designers such as Dior, Chanel and Givenchy were popular and copied in America. Families worked together, played together and vacationed together at family themed entertainment areas like national parks and the new Disneyland. Gender roles were strongly held, girls played with Barbie dolls and Dale Evans gear, boys with Roy Rogers and Davy Crockett paraphernalia. Drive-in movies became popular for families and teens. Cars were seen as an indicator of prosperity and cool-ness. Highways were built to take people quickly from one place to another, by-passing small towns and helping to create central marketing areas or shopping malls such as Sharpstown Mall, Gulfgate Mall and Meyerland Plaza in Houston. Fashion successes were Bill Blass and his blue jeans, poodle skirts made of felt and decorated with sequins and poodle appliques, pony tails for girls, and flat tops and crew cuts for guys. Saddle shoes and blue suede loafers were popular. Teenagers were defined as a separate generation and were represented by James Dean who wore blue jeans in Rebel Without a Cause and created a fashion and attitude sensation. Activities we liked were flying saucer watching , and watching and dancing to Dick Clark's American Bandstand . Fad hits with kids were toys like hula hoops and Hopalong Cassidy guns and western gear, Davy Crockett coon skin hats and silly putty .

Gray flannel suit blue blass blue jeans

FILM

European cinema experienced a renaissance in the '50s following the deprivations of World War II. Italian director Federico Fellini won the first foreign language film Academy Award with La strada and garnered another Academy Award with Nights of Cabiria. In 1955, Swedish director Ingmar Bergman earned a Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival with Smiles of a Summer Night and followed the film with masterpieces The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries. Jean Cocteau's Orphe, a film central to his Orphic Trilogy, starred Jean Marais and was released in 1950. French director Claude Chabrol's Le Beau Serge is now widely considered the first film of the French New Wave. Notable European film stars of the period include Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Max von Sydow, and Jean-Paul Belmondo.Japanese cinema reached its zenith with films from director Akira Kurosawa including Rashomon, Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and The Hidden Fortress. Other distinguished Japanese directors of the period were Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi. Russian fantasy director Aleksandr Ptushko's mythological epics Sadko, Ilya Muromets, and Sampo were internationally acclaimed as was Ballad of a Soldier, a 1959 Soviet film directed by Grigori ChukhraiThe "Golden Era" of 3-D cinematography happened during the 1950s.

TVThe 1950s is known as The Golden Age of Television by some people. Sales of TV sets rose tremendously in the 1950s and by 1950 4.4 million families in America had a television set. Americans devoted most of their free time to watching television broadcasts. People spent so much time watching TV, that movie attendance dropped and so did the number of radio listeners.[5] Television revolutionized the way Americans see themselves and the world around them. TV affects all aspects of American culture. "Television affects what we wear, the music we listen to, what we eat, and the news we receive."[6]FashionAfter World War II, there were some major fashion changes. The 1940s silhouette had wide shoulders and a short skirt, but the 1950s styles were hourglass in shape (fitted body with small shoulder, small waistline, full skirt and higher heels). Near the end of the decade, a newer fashion look was becoming popular, later made popular by Jackie Kennedy. If you're interested in dressing in a '50s style, this article is for youFashionThe origins of 1950s fashion began with Christian Diors New Look, in 1947. The New Lookconsisted of a below-mid-calf length, full-skirt, pointed bust, small waist, and rounded shoulder line. The look became popular post WWII. At first, the style was not well received by Americans; however, that quickly changed as the trend dominated fashion magazines. Other styles that became popular during the post-war period were a tailored, feminine look with gloves and pearls, tailored suits with fitted jackets with peplums, with a pencil skirt. Day dresses had fitted bodices and full skirts, with jewel or low-cut necklines or Peter Pan collars. Shirt-dresses and halter-top sundresses were also popular. Skirts were narrow or very full, held out with petticoats, while poodle skirts were a brief fad. Gowns were often the same length as day dresses with full, frothy skirts, and cocktail dresses were worn for early-evening parties. Short shrugs and bolero jackets were often made to match low-cut dresses.

Other trends seen in the 1950s are a result of the development of new synthetic and easy-care fabrics. Some of these fabrics are drip-dry nylon, orlon, and dacron, which could retain heat-set pleats after washing, acrylic, polyester, triacetate, and spandex. These new fabrics worked well with the increasingly popular ease of the suburban lifestyle. Another lifestyle trend that emerged during the post-war era was defining the teenage years as a true stage of development. As a result of this new development, and for the first time in American history, teenage and young adult fashions became a new marketing niche.

As society moved to the suburbs and adapted to a relaxed lifestyle, fashion followed suit. During this decade, casual sportswear was an increasingly large component of women's wardrobes. Casual skirts were narrow or very full; pants became very narrow, and were worn ankle-length. Pants cropped to mid-calf called houseboy pants, while shorter pants, below the knee, were called pedal pushers. Shorts were very short in the early '50s, and mid-thigh length Bermuda shorts appeared around 1954 and remained fashionable through the remainder of the decade. Loose printed or knit tops were fashionable with pants or shorts. Also seen during this decade was the swimsuit, which was one- or two-piece. Some swimsuits had loose bottoms like shorts with short skirts.

In the 1950s mens styles were based in conservatism. Most men wore suits for work and the Ivy League style for a relaxed occasion. Suits consisted of dark blue, dark brown, and charcoal; the ties were also uniform and dark. The Ivy League style consisted of cardigan sweaters, which was used for the letter sweater and cherished among athletes. Pink also became a color seen on men, which was a result of the 1950s casual menswear. Also popular are cowboy inspired shirts, and hats became a trendy accoutrement.