History of Popular Music from 1950- Summer post 3

The technology that delivered pop music in the 1950s has vastly changed. In 1950 there were not nearly as many opportunities’ of distribution there are today with the help of new media technologies such as YouTube to show trailers to their audience. This also aids artists to reach a wider audience.

Originally pre 1950s there was an era of jazz which was played mainly by African Americans. As America was still segregated and there were massive racial tensions arising, especially in the south parts of America. The style of music which is Rhythm and blues (R&B) was played by black Americans and was frowned upon in wider society by white people who mainly listened to artists such as frank Sinatra.

However everything changed in the 1950s. In Memphis Tennessee sun records had declared that you could record 2 songs for the price of 5 dollars. A young man named Elvis Presley came into record a song for his mother’s birthday. He recorded a song and the person recording him took a liking to the music that he recorded at sun records. He was asked back to perform a song m months later and then joined a band. He became successful and was the first white man to be singing black music.

Elvis’ fame came at the same time as the next big technological invention which was television. Elvis became famous mainly because of Ed Sullivan and another TV host competing to have Elvis on their show. Elvis made a controversial performance of the song hound dog on television which was televised to the nation. He was slammed by critics for his provocative dancing.

Due to the nature of a lot of his songs, he appealed to an African American audience. He has been seen to be a contributing factor to the civil rights movement. He began to illustrate that social change was inevitable. Elvis was photographed frequently with black Americans and he gave them status and a position.

For my media product applying it to the new media technologies today so that it is played on television as there are now music video channels where the best videos are played daily. This is a great way of advertising my product and applying it to audiences. Moreover like Elvis I would like to make sure my media product applies to all cultures such as African Americans.