Elvis Presley and Bill Haley. Sam Cooke and the Shirelles. The Crows and the Chords. American Bandstand and Motown. From its first rumblings in the outland alphabet soup of R&B and C&W, rock & roll music promised to change the world—and did it.
Combining social history with a treasure trove of trivia, Richard Aquila unleashes the excitement of rock's first decade and shows how the music reflected American life from the mid-1950s through the dawn of Beatlemania. His year-by-year timelines and a photo essay place the music in historical perspective by linking artists and their hits to the news stories, movies, TV shows, fads, and lifestyles. In addition, he provides a concise biographical dictionary of the performers who made the charts between 1954 and 1963, along with the label and chart position of each of their hit songs.
| Cover Title Copyright Contents Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction to the Illinois Paperback Edition Part 1: Rock & Roll's First Decade 1. The Rise of Rock & Roll 2. Rock Styles Illustrations A 3. Rock & the Baby Boom Generation 4. Rock: Conflict or Consensus 5. Historical Records Part 2: Themes, Topics, & Hit Records 1. Rock & Roll Styles or Genres 2. Songs About the Youth Culture 3. Songs About American Society and Culture 4. Songs about American Politics 5. Miscellaneous Records Part 3: The Performers, A to Z Illustrations B Illustrations C Notes Bibliography Back Cover |"A nostalgic, trivia-laden book that looks at the early years of rock 'n' roll and the societal context in which it was formed. . . . A fine compendium on the subject, certain to make misty-eyed all those who came of age in the 1950s."—Booklist"[A] perfect bridge between the puff that often characterizes studies of the period and the scholarly tomes that can bore all but the dedicated student of the era."—Chattanooga Times
|Richard Aquila is a professor of history and American Studies at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. His books include Wanted Dead or Alive: The American West in Popular Culture.