American popular culture

1950s

MUSIC
Popular music in the early 1950s was essentially a continuation of the crooner sound of the previous decade. Frank Sinatra,
Tony Bennett, Frankie Laine, Patti Page, Judy Garland, Johnnie Ray, Kay Starr, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney,
Dean Martin, Georgia Gibbs, Eddie Fisher, Teresa Brewer, Dinah Shore, Kitty Kallen, Joni James, Peggy Lee, Julie London, Toni
Arden, June Valli, Doris Day, Arthur Godfrey, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Guy Mitchell, Nat King Cole, and vocal groups like The Mills
Brothers, The Ink Spots, The Four Lads, The Four Aces, The Chordettes, Fontane Sisters, The Hilltoppers and The Ames
Brothers. Jo Stafford's You Belong To Me was the #1 song of 1952 on the Billboard Top 100 chart.
The middle of the decade saw a sudden, volcanic change in the popular music landscape as classic pop was swept off the
charts by rock-and-roll. Crooners such as Eddie Fisher, Perry Como, and Patti Page, who had dominated the first half of the
decade, found their access to the pop charts significantly curtailed by the decade's end.[3] Doo Wop entered the pop charts
in the 1950s. Its popularity soon spawns the parody "Who Put the Bomp."
Novelty songs come into popularity, such as "Beep Beep"
In the mid-1950s Elvis Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll
Rock-n-Roll emerged in the mid-50s with Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Gene Vincent, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard,
James Brown, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, Bobby Darin, Ritchie Valens, Duane Eddy, Eddie Cochran, Brenda Lee, Bobby Vee,
Connie Frances, Johnny Mathis, Neil Sedaka, Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson being notable exponents. In the mid-1950s, Elvis
Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances
and chart-topping records. Chuck Berry, with "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957)
and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), refined and developed the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, focusing on
teen life and introducing guitar solos and showmanship that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music.[4] Bill
Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Johnny Horton, and Marty Robbins were
Rockabilly musicians. Doo Wop was another popular genre at the time. Popular Doo Wop and Rock-n-Roll bands of the mid to
late 1950s include The Platters, The Flamingos, The Dells, The Silhouettes, Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers, Little Anthony &
The Imperials, Danny and the Juniors, The Coasters, The Drifters, The Del-Vikings and Dion and the Belmonts.
The new music differed from previous styles in that it was primarily targeted at the teenager market, which became a distinct
entity for the first time in the 1950s as growing prosperity meant that young people did not have to grow up as quickly or be
expected to support a family. Rock-and-roll proved to be a difficult phenomenon for older Americans to accept and there were
widespread accusations of it being a communist-orchestrated scheme to corrupt the youth.
Jazz stars in the 1950s who came into prominence in their genres called Bebop, Hard bop, Cool jazz and the Blues, at this time
included Lester Young, Ben Webster, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Charles
Mingus, Art Tatum, Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal, Oscar Peterson, Gil Evans, Jerry Mulligan, Cannonball Adderley, Stan Getz, Chet
Baker, Dave Brubeck, Art Blakey, Max Roach, the Miles Davis Quintet, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles,
Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, and Billie Holiday.
The American folk music revival became a phenomenon in the United States in the 1950s to mid-1960s with the initial
success of the Weavers who popularized the genre. Their sound, and their broad repertoire of traditional folk material and
topical songs inspired other groups such as the Kingston Trio, the Chad Mitchell Trio, The New Christy Minstrels, and the
"collegiate folk" groups such as The Brothers Four, The Four Freshmen, The Four Preps, and The Highwaymen. All featured
tight vocal harmonies and a repertoire at least initially rooted in folk music and topical songs.
On 3 February 1959, a chartered plane transporting the three American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens

Clips and images of musicians

TV/Film clips
Photos of fashion

 Frank sinatra
frankie laine

tony bennet

Fashion
Perhaps one of the things which most characterizes the 1950's was the strong element of
conservatism and anticommunist feeling which ran throughout much of society. One of the best
indicators of the conservative frame of mind was the addition of the phrase "under God" to the
Pledge of Allegiance. Religion was seen as an indicator of anti-communism. Fifties clothing was
conservative. Men wore gray flannel suits and women wore dresses with pinched in waists and
high heels. French fashion designers such as Dior, Chanel and Givenchy were popular and
copied in America. Families worked together, played together and vacationed together at
family themed entertainment areas like national parks and the new Disneyland. Gender roles
were strongly held, girls played with Barbie dolls and Dale Evans gear, boys with Roy Rogers
and Davy Crockett paraphernalia. Drive-in movies became popular for families and teens.
Cars were seen as an indicator of prosperity and cool-ness. Highways were built to take people
quickly from one place to another, by-passing small towns and helping to create central
marketing areas or shopping malls such as Sharpstown Mall, Gulfgate Mall and Meyerland Plaza
in Houston.
Fashion successes were Bill Blass and his blue jeans, poodle skirts made of felt and decorated
with sequins and poodle appliques, pony tails for girls, and flat tops and crew cuts for guys.
Saddle shoes and blue suede loafers were popular. Teenagers were defined as a separate
generation and were represented by James Dean who wore blue jeans in Rebel Without a Cause
and created a fashion and attitude sensation. Activities we liked were flying saucer watching ,
and watching and dancing to Dick Clark's American Bandstand . Fad hits with kids were toys
like hula hoops and Hopalong Cassidy guns and western gear, Davy Crockett coon skin hats and
silly putty .

 Gray flannel suit

jeans

blue blass blue

FILM
European cinema experienced a renaissance in the '50s following the
deprivations of World War II. Italian director Federico Fellini won the first
foreign language film Academy Award with La strada and garnered another
Academy Award with Nights of Cabiria. In 1955, Swedish director
Ingmar Bergman earned a Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival with
Smiles of a Summer Night and followed the film with masterpieces
The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries. Jean Cocteau's Orphe, a film
central to his Orphic Trilogy, starred Jean Marais and was released in 1950.
French director Claude Chabrol's Le Beau Serge is now widely considered
the first film of the French New Wave. Notable European film stars of the
period include Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Max von
Sydow, and Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Japanese cinema reached its zenith with films from director Akira Kurosawa
including Rashomon, Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and
The Hidden Fortress. Other distinguished Japanese directors of the period
were Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi. Russian fantasy director Aleksandr
Ptushko's mythological epics Sadko, Ilya Muromets, and Sampo were
internationally acclaimed as was Ballad of a Soldier , a 1959 Soviet film
directed by Grigori Chukhrai
The "Golden Era" of 3-D cinematography happened during the 1950s.

TV
The 1950s is known as The Golden Age of
Television by some people. Sales of TV sets
rose tremendously in the 1950s and by 1950
4.4 million families in America had a television
set. Americans devoted most of their free
time to watching television broadcasts. People
spent so much time watching TV, that movie
attendance dropped and so did the number of
radio listeners.[5] Television revolutionized the
way Americans see themselves and the world
around them. TV affects all aspects of
American culture. "Television affects what we
wear, the music we listen to, what we eat, and
the news we receive."[6]

Fashion
After World War II, there were some
major fashion changes. The
1940s silhouette had wide shoulders
and a short skirt, but the 1950s styles
were hourglass in shape (fitted body
with small shoulder, small waistline,
full skirt and higher heels). Near the
end of the decade, a newer fashion
look was becoming popular, later
made popular by Jackie Kennedy. If
you're interested in dressing in a '50s
style, this article is for you

Fashion
The origins of 1950s fashion began with Christian Diors New Look, in 1947. The New Lookconsisted of a belowmid-calf length, full-skirt, pointed bust, small waist, and rounded shoulder line. The look became popular post WWII.
At first, the style was not well received by Americans; however, that quickly changed as the trend dominated
fashion magazines. Other styles that became popular during the post-war period were a tailored, feminine look
with gloves and pearls, tailored suits with fitted jackets with peplums, with a pencil skirt. Day dresses had fitted
bodices and full skirts, with jewel or low-cut necklines or Peter Pan collars. Shirt-dresses and halter-top sundresses
were also popular. Skirts were narrow or very full, held out with petticoats, while poodle skirts were a brief fad.
Gowns were often the same length as day dresses with full, frothy skirts, and cocktail dresses were worn for earlyevening parties. Short shrugs and bolero jackets were often made to match low-cut dresses.
Other trends seen in the 1950s are a result of the development of new synthetic and easy-care fabrics. Some of
these fabrics are drip-dry nylon, orlon, and dacron, which could retain heat-set pleats after washing, acrylic,
polyester, triacetate, and spandex. These new fabrics worked well with the increasingly popular ease of the
suburban lifestyle. Another lifestyle trend that emerged during the post-war era was defining the teenage years as a
true stage of development. As a result of this new development, and for the first time in American history, teenage
and young adult fashions became a new marketing niche.
As society moved to the suburbs and adapted to a relaxed lifestyle, fashion followed suit. During this decade, casual
sportswear was an increasingly large component of women's wardrobes. Casual skirts were narrow or very full;
pants became very narrow, and were worn ankle-length. Pants cropped to mid-calf called houseboy pants, while
shorter pants, below the knee, were called pedal pushers. Shorts were very short in the early '50s, and mid-thigh
length Bermuda shorts appeared around 1954 and remained fashionable through the remainder of the decade.
Loose printed or knit tops were fashionable with pants or shorts. Also seen during this decade was the swimsuit,
which was one- or two-piece. Some swimsuits had loose bottoms like shorts with short skirts.
In the 1950s mens styles were based in conservatism. Most men wore suits for work and the Ivy League style for a
relaxed occasion. Suits consisted of dark blue, dark brown, and charcoal; the ties were also uniform and dark. The
Ivy League style consisted of cardigan sweaters, which was used for the letter sweater and cherished among
athletes. Pink also became a color seen on men, which was a result of the 1950s casual menswear. Also popular are
cowboy inspired shirts, and hats became a trendy accoutrement.