Music+in+the+1950s+-+p5

__**Music in the 1950's**__
By Brian

Rock'n Roll Music was reaching a new age in media. Artists such as Elvis Presley, Buddy Holley, Ray Charles, and Fats Domino made records of a new type of music called Rock'n Roll. Rock' n Roll was about sex, good times, and freedom from parents. Teens really liked the music because they could dance to it, they liked how it sounded, and what it was about. Elvis first made rock popular with his looks and rolling voice. After Elvis, plenty of other rock musicians came out with their own music. With Elvis being the one who made rock popular, he was named "The King of Rock'n Roll". Advancements in technology helped recording these catchy, Rock'n Roll beats. The studios were able to mass produce the music and advertise it all around the world to make it popular. The electric guitar allowed musicians to play their music louder. Teens loved the intensity of performances on stage.

Bands were starting in other countries as well as the U.S.A. One of the biggest Rock countries was Britain. A rush of new Rock bands in Britain was called the British invasion. A few of the most popular bands from Britain were The Rolling Stones, The Byrds, and The Beetles. The Beetles are argued to be the most important push on Rock popularity with over thirty songs on the top ten with twenty that hit number one.

Jazz Another type if music called Jazz became popular with artists such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillepsie, and Sonny Rollins. African Americans were the most prominent people to sing and play Jazz music. It was also called bebop or what we call R&B now. It was payed in big city nightclubs and had a prominent beat to it. Jazz bands usually had trumpets, saxaphones, trombones, and most importantly drums. Drums were what controlled the beat of the music. They could control the flow of the music and the way it sounded.

Outcome of Jazz In the beginning of the Birth of the cool sessions, some small jazz groups could be found using a cool sound. One example is the fleet, long interplay of the George Shearing Quintet, which made a few best-selling records. The Red Norvo Trio was also part of the cool persuasion. The most varied and the most durable of all the small groups to emerge in the cool tradition was the Modern Jazz Quartet, led by pianist, composer, and theorist John Lewis. Skilled in both classical music and jazz, Lewis showed his quiet but unchanging will on his responsive cohorts to get a blend of piano, vibraharp, bass, and drums, with all four instruments playing equal, rather than bigger or supportive roles. Though the group showed worry with structure, they didn't lose touch with the sensation of being better. Both Lewis and the Modern Jazz Quartet's best soloist, vibraharpist Milt Jackson, came out of the Charlie Parker groups and the Dizzy Gillespie big band of the 1940's, another instance of cool jazz's debt to bop.

The Birth of the Cool sessions spawned a working alliance of Los Angeles-based musicians—the West Coast School—that nearly finished the jazz market in the early 1950's. With hindsight, it can be seen why certain traits of cool jazz would sound good to this group. Many of these musicians were casualties of the breakup of one or another of the bands of the 1940's; almost all were alumni of those bands. They were drawn to Southern California by the climate and, the possibility of getting jobs in the motion-picture and recording studios. For the most part, these musicians, most of whom were white, had received more formal musical training than blacks. Not surprisingly, the theoretical and disciplined approach of the Miles Davis Nonet appealed to them. When they began recording, they reflected a similar approach in their performances.

"Davis' Recordings Spawn 1950s Cool Jazz, 1949-1950." DISCovering World History. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Gold. Thomson Gale. Cook Memorial Public Library. 7 Feb. 2007
 * __Citations__**

"Youth in the 1950s, 1950-1959." DISCovering U.S. History. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Gold. Thomson Gale. Cook Memorial Public Library. 7 Feb. 2007

"The 1950s: Era Overview." DISCovering U.S. History. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Gold. Thomson Gale. Cook Memorial Public Library. 7 Feb. 2007

"Arts in the 1950s: Overview, 1950-1959." DISCovering U.S. History. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Gold. Thomson Gale. Cook Memorial Public Library. 7 Feb. 2007

__//1950’s//__ by Duden