1954: Comets, clocks, and rock’n’roll
As young people entered a new decade, their music choices basically remained the same. Ellie Fitzgerald, Muddy Waters, and Hank Williams still sounded on the radios of the country. However, in 1954, that was about to change. Some artists paid attention to the genres that young people liked, such as rhythm-and-blues and swing, that had been produced by other artists for years, and found a way to combine them to create a new sound. The pioneer in this genre was Bill Haley. Having renamed his band Bill Haley & His Comets, in 1954, he released his hit song Rock Around the Clock. With this historical recording, he began the craze for a genre that already existed but that was now being heard by the white community for the first time: Rock n roll.
Bill Haley was a revolutionary musician. He found a way to popularize an understimated musical style and turn it into something new. Later musicians such as Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Jerry Lee Lewis, began using new instruments such as the electric guitar. Rock n’ roll wasn’t only music: It was a new form of expression for young people and a true revolution in the postwar world.
1954: The king is born
A new musical genre was born, and with it would come new artists. In 1954, the same year Rock Around the Clock dominated the Billboard Bestseller list, a 19-year old from Mississippi recorded his first tapes with the Sun Studio. His name was Elvis Aaron Presley. Between 1954 and 1955, Presley recorded a total of 24 songs of a variety of genres: Blues, rhythm-and-blues, country, bluegrass, etc. Those recordings play a fundamental role in the foundation of rock music. Due to their significance and revelance in American pop culture, they made it into the official archives of the Library of Congress in 2002. Of the 24 tracks, only 22 of them remain intact and available for the public.
Elvis Presley started as a humble artist without much money or fame. However, a couple years later, he would enamore generations with his hip movements, his charisma, and his talent as a musician. He would even make it into national television. His first recordings may not be much remembered, but at the same time they represent a fundamental moment in the history of music. From that simple tracks, Elvis would become one of the most fundamental and remembered artists of the 20th century.
1950s: Pop till you drop
As Elvis and other musicians helped rock n roll grow in popularity with their talent, another musical current, known as pop (popular music), was also becoming popular thanks to other talented musicians. By the late 1940s, vocal-oriented doo wop and pop have replaced big band and swing as the popular musical genre. Artists such as Perry Como, Doris Day, and most importantly, Frank Sinatra, dominated the charts and became the maximum representatives of popular music. As rock n roll music entered the mainstream and became a major force in American culture, classic pop began to wane in popularity, but in the 1960s, it would make its comeback, from the hands of four young European men.
Pop music at the time was dominated by some of the most influential musicians of the century. Frank Sinatra, in particular, is perhaps the most influential classic pop musician from the time. He sold more than 150 million records. Pop music may have waned in popularity with the rise of rock n roll, but in later years it would find new forms and become a dominating current in the postwar era.
1950s: Pop till you drop
1959: The Day The Music Died
Despite the fact that there were great musicians at the time, some of them didn’t live for so long. On February 3rd, 1959, a Beechcraft Bonanza crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa, producing multiple fatalities. Along the passengers were three rock and roll musicians and best buddies: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson, alias The Big Bopper. They were embarking on a tour across Midwestern U.S. at the time, and unfortunately none of them survived the crash. The aftermath of the crash was a shocking moment for the music industry and for American history in general. That fatal day came to be known as The Day The Music Died, due to the loss of three fundamental musical figures.
The event was so memorable that it became a principal part of the remix culture. It has been parodied in multiple films and TV shows. Regardless of the parodies, the event became a memorable, tragic day in music history.