FREE ESSAY ON THE EFFECT OF ROCK AND ROLL ON THE AMERICAN ECONOMY

THE EFFECT OF ROCK AND ROLL ON THE AMERICAN ECONOMY

How has Rock and Roll Effected the American Economy?
Consider, if you will, the life of a teenager living in the 1940's. The Great Depression
was finally coming to an end, but the memories of the rough times would scar its
sufferers for a lifetime. Caused by a number of serious weaknesses in the economy, the
depression saw a rapid decline in the production and sale of goods, as well as a sudden,
severe rise in unemployment. Businesses and banks closed their doors, people lost their
jobs, homes, and savings; many people depended on charity to survive (**encarta**).
Teenagers were given a tremendous amount of responsibility. While their fathers were out
doing what little work there was, it wasn't unlikely for teens to be at home with their
mothers doing housework or caring for younger siblings. Life was less than easy, and the
emerging world war didn't make it any easier. As the U.S. became the last great nation to
join the second global conflict of the century, young men (many of them in their late
teens) at their physical peak were sent out to the battlefield where about 274,000 of
them would die for their country (editors of Time-Life books 29).
The 50's brought about a tremendous change for the U.S. It's no wonder that when rock and
roll came to be in the mid 1950's (encyclopedia Americana need page #) teenagers wrapped
their arms around it. The parents of these rock-loving teens were already fulfilling the
American dream. The average worker was earning and estimated $6,500 by 1954. With
paychecks fatter than ever, more and more Americans began moving to the suburbs, owning
their own homes and vehicles, as well as throwing and attending cocktail parties (a
popular pastime of young suburbanite couples). The young middle class family happily
kicked the frugal habits of the depression and war years and went on a buying spree.
Americans began filling their nests 
with a dazzling array of goods from power lawn mowers and hi-fi's (record players), to
pink flamingos and martini glasses. The young couples of America were settling down to
enjoy life, suburban style (editors of Time-Life books 53). Life was better than ever,
and for teens the fresh new music called rock and roll was an added delight. Rock music
was wild and crazy, everything that the 40's were not. 
The story of how rock and roll began goes a little something like this: One spring day in
1951, a Cleveland disc jockey by the name of Alan Freed had a conversation with one of
his drinking buddies that would shape history and forever change society. His friend, Leo
Mintz, owned one of the cities largest music stores, which catered primarily to the black
population. The store was stocked with rhythm and blues records. At the time, rhythm and
blues was know as race music. Mintz told Freed that hordes of white teenagers had
recently been coming into his store to buy rhythm and blues, and they were even dancing
in the isles of the store.
The beat is so strong, Mintz said, that anyone can dance to it without a lesson. 
The two clever buddies put their heads together and devised a plan for boosting Mintz's
profits and promoting Freed's career. Due to the fact that Mintz had aided Freed in
obtaining his position as host of a classical music program for a radio station, Mintz
asked freed to try to persuade the station to replace the classical program with rhythm
and blues. Mintz told his friend that he would pay for the new show by purchasing
commercials for his store. Freed really like the idea, but at the time there were not
very many white-oriented stations that dared to play black music. Nevertheless, Freed
smelled opportunity and decided that it was worth a try.
Freed, with his bosses permission, began blaring out rhythm and blues at the end of his
show. Because so many requests flooded in from teenagers in the white suburbs as well as
from blacks, Freed launched a late night show that played only rhythm and blues. Popular
records he spun featured performers such as the Dominoes, Joe Turner, Ivory Joe Hunter,
Ruth Brow, and Wynonie Harris.
Eventually, Freed really got into the spirit of the music. He began calling himself
Moondog (a creature of the night baying in the darkness). He sipped scotch and backed up
the beat of the music on a thick Cleveland telephone book. After a while, his palm became
so raw that he had to wear a glove.
The success of rhythm and blues lead Freed to promote the music outside of the studio. He
decided to put on his own show which he called the Moondog Coronation Ball of March 21,
1952. This event, at which Freed intended to be crowned king, was scheduled for the
Cleveland arena which had 10,000 seats. More than twice that number showed up, and the
event had to be called off when thousands of teenagers without tickets crashed the gates.

Freed gradually started referring to rhythm and blues as rock and roll. The reason he
decided to change the name of the music was because rhythm and blues was so closely
identified with the black community. Freed also wanted to make rhythm and blues more
acceptable to white listeners. What Freed knew, but few whites were aware of at the time,
was that the term rock and roll was widely used in black music as slang for sex (rock and
roll generation). 
Rock and roll was certainly responsible for a huge turning point in American society; it
came to serve as the rallying cry for a new generation of young Americans. Adolescence
for the first time became a separate subculture. Teens adopted their own clothing,
entertainment, idols, and even slang. Above all, they asserted themselves through a music
so distinctly theirs that it defined an entire emerging generation (editors of Time-Life
books 18). 
What wasn't obvious to teenagers at the time, was that they were more like their parents
than they were willing to except. Like their parents, the teens of the 50's didn't not
want to be 
different from the standards that society had set for them. A few marched boldly to the
beat of their own drummer, but the majority of teenagers did their best to dress like
everyone else, to have dates for football games and dances, and to cruise around town
with a carload of friends. The aim was to seem normal and to never be called square.
Girls had an added worry: their reputation. They didn't want people to say that they were
fast (editors of Time-Life books 68). To teenagers, rock and roll was and escape; a way
to be different from their parents and excepted by their peers at the same time.
Rock and roll succeeded in offending parents, religious leaders, musical old-timers, and
politicians just as much as it excited the younger generation. Some parents, accustomed
to the essentially bland style of the 40s and early 50s, were outraged by rock and roll.
Nevertheless, teens still rocked to the sounds of Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little
Richard, Lavern Baker, and Buddy Holly (***Encyclopedia Americana*** need page #). Even
when their disgusted parents shamed Elvis Presley for his outrageous dance moves,
thousands of teens still swooned over the young heartthrob.
Music is perhaps the most important creation in the history of human invention. No form
of art has been more instrumental in shaping the way we think, feel, and live. Throughout
history, music has been cherished, exalted, and at the same time condemned and despised.
No matter how we may think of it, music shapes the way we live our daily lives. Rock and
roll is a prime example of they way music effects our lives. Who knows, if Alan Freed and
Leo Mintz had not started the one of the biggest raves of the 20th century, the American
market may not have become what it is today; youth oriented. Rock music was aimed at the
younger generation, therefore; teens and young adults became the primary consumers of
rock and roll records. Teenagers were and still are more easily persuaded than adults due
to lack of life experience. 
When teens began buying rock and roll records by the millions, other companies began
advertising their products to teenagers. Rock music has played a key roll in helping to
keep the American economy booming. 
Rock and roll has been the most popular type of music for nearly 40 years. The music that
was listened to by the teens of the exciting decade of the 50's is still loved by the
generation 
X teens of today. It cannot be argued the Dick Clark explained it best when he said, The
beat of the Fabulous 50's goes on! (qtd. Editors of Time-Life books, 1998, p.6)