Music+and+Mucisians

__//**MUSIC AND MUCISIANS**//__
 * __//**Top Ten African American Singers of the 1950's**//__
 * __//**10**//__ **__//Nat King Cole//__**
 * **__//9 Harry Belafonte//__**
 * **__//8 Chuck Berry//__**
 * **__//7 Fats Domino//__**
 * **__//6 Little Richard//__**
 * **__//5 Ray Charles//__**
 * **__//4 Duke Ellington//__**
 * **__//3 Dinah Washington//__**
 * **__//2 Sarah Vaughn//__**
 * **__//1 Ella Fitzgerald//__** **//__( Rine )__//**

(Cody Chapman) This music that helped birth early rock and roll. Featuring the great R&B and urban blues stars of the late 40s and early 50s, and those who stayed with the raw music even after rock took off.

The music of the 1950s flourished as a result of the previous decade. The 50s saw the emergence and rise of what would come to be known as **Rock ‘n Roll**, but it was also witnessed the popularity of **Country and Western music** in a variety of forms. Musicians like Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Hank Williams helped to redefine the entertainment industry with the types of music that they created during this time period. Following the detrimental effects of World War II, the United States was about to embark on a musical journey that changed the face of music for decades. 1950s music would not be complete without talking about the **King of Rock and Roll** – Elvis Presley. He is the epitome of the 1950s musical revolution and he set many records during his career. His **rockabilly** style followed in the tradition of Carl Perkins, but he had a great deal of success with every form of music he attempted, including **country, gospel, and R&B**. Elvis began his career by recording a song for his mother as a birthday present. Elvis emerged through many critics who told him he would not be famous after his performance at the **Grand Ole Opry**. Johnny Cash and Hank Williams defined the **Country and Western style** of music during this decade. Cash’s music was more of a country sound with a rockabilly influence and his songs often centered around a certain theme, including life, sorrow, and relationships. He also strived to integrate humor into his lyrics to make his collection well-rounded and respected by a variety of audiences. Because of his compassion for his fellow human being, he performed many times for inmates in several prisons across the country and his most famous performances resulted from Folsom Prison. In similar musical style, Hank Williams was a prominent singer and songwriter of the decade. He continues to be a country music icon and helped to popularize the Honky Tonk style of country music, characterized by the piano and ragtime sound combined with country and rockabilly harmonies. His most popular songs, including “Hey Good Lookin’” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” have come to define the country style of the 1950s. He also helped to create the Outlaw Country genre – a style which included songs about spirituality and rowdy times.

> (Cody Chapman) > (Josh Keenan) 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. (Josh Keenan)
 * **__More Popular Artists__**
 * Perry Como
 * Mario Lanza
 * Nat King Cole
 * Tony Bennett
 * Elvis Presley
 * Bill Haley and the Comets
 * Chuck Berry
 * Jerry Lee Lewis
 * Johnny Cash
 * Ella Fitzgerald
 * Dean Martin
 * Doris Day
 * Frank Sinatra
 * Connie Francis
 * Jim Reeves
 * Cliff Richard