How TV
Changed our
Lives
TV Culture
• Mr. Johnson
• 1947 Regular Television casts
were broadcast in this country.
• 1950 most people only watched
TV at local places or outside of
department stores. Elvis Forrest
•By 1955 study showed that most
Americans spent more time
watching TV than in school or at
work.
• 1960 90% of all homes had at
least 1 black & white television.
• Watching TV as a family
became the “norm” practice
replacing all other family
activities.
• NBC & CBS were the two
major TV stations and by the
end of the 1950’s they were
making $$ at an furious rate.
• Several radio stars made it
big in TV:
•Milton Berle (appeared in drag
as Uncle and Auntie Miltie
•Ed Sullivan hosted a talk show
•I love Lucy YouTube - Uncle
Miltie IS Auntie Mildred!
•The Honeymooners with
Jackie Gleason and Art Carney.
YouTube - Best of the
Honeymooners 1
• Westerners actually became
the most popular TV genre.
•It allowed young boys a
chance to see gun play and
violence where it seemed
“noble”
•Westerns also highlighted our
democratic national culture
“Americanism”
• Westerns also tackled
communist ideas which helped
the fight in the Cold War.
Sports on TV
• Sports started broadcasting on
TV as well.
– Initially it was NOT well received
by teams.
– Attendance at games dropped
• Many Minor league teams had fold
because TV allowed people to just
watch the major league club.
– Single camera angles skewed the
images making distances appear
inaccurate.
Impact of TV
• Game Shows like the “$64,000
Question” and “Twenty One”
also became popular.
• Although to gain ratings often
times the games were rigged.
• Most networks started
broadcasting the nightly news.
Impact of TV
• The real importance came with
“commercials”
• TV became the largest and most
used medium to evoke what the
public needed, wanted, and
SHOULD have.
• TV currently does the EXACT
same today.
Impact of TV
• TV ADVERTISING THEN AND NOW:
– Shows us what the latest fashions are
– Highlights how products can save us
time and money.
– Shows us what the “rich and popular”
are doing which many of us copy
their trends…which is form of
advertising
– Highlights what businesses think we
“SHOULD” be doing/acting/being.
Impact of TV
• With the advent of the TV and
commercials a lucrative business
has been born.
• Example:
– Cost of a 30 sec. commercial during
Super Bowl I =$40,000
– Cost of a 30 sec commercial during
Super Bowl XLIV =$3.01 million
Rock-N-Roll
Rock & Roll
• 1951 Cleveland disk jockey Allen Freed termed
“Rock and Roll”
• He took the term from the song “My baby
rocks with me with a steady roll”.
• He decided to play “black music” to white
teenagers on his radio show, “Moondog RockN-Roll Party”
Allen Freed’s influence/decision
• Freed decided to play the “R&B” sounds to the
white teenage audience but called it “Rock-N-Roll”
to remove the race stereotype associated with
R&B.
– Rock-N-Roll was a slang term in black neighborhoods
for having sex! (Freed didn’t know)
• It highlighted the electric guitar and offbeat
rhythms and lyrics that were geared toward a
younger audience. It was edgy for the times.
Allen Freed’s influence/decision
• Freed’s decision to play Rock-N-Roll on the air
opened up the style of music to a HUGE
audience.
• In 1952 he organized the Moondog
Coronation Ball where he booked the top
black acts and the audience was mostly white.
• 1957 he had a Nationally Televised Rock N Roll
party show but it was canceled when Frankie
Lymon danced onstage with a white girl.
Rock and Roll
• Rock-N-Roll became wildly popular. (This was
a far contrast to the bland western tunes that
the parents wanted the kids to listen to)
• Most credit “Bill Haley and the Comets” as the
1st group to have a Rock-N-Roll hit (titled RockN-Roll)
– 1953 Crazy Man Crazy was his first Rock-N-Roll to
make the Billboard top 20. Crazy Man, Crazy
– 1954-1955 Bill Haley records “Rock around the
Clock” and it’s the 1st rock song used in a movie.
Rock Around the Clock-Bill Haley-original song-1955
ELVIS PRESLEY
• 1956 at 19 years old Elvis
Aaron Presley became one of
the biggest Rock-N-Roll stars.
• He blended R&B with Country
and Rock.
• Elvis’s brand of music was
part music part
showmanship. His suggestive
dance moves were a big
reason he drew the attention
of teenage girls.
ELVIS PRESLEY
• His 1956 appearance on the Ed Sullivan show
where his dance moves were made public was
met with great resistance.
• He was seen as a modern day outlaw because
he bucked society’s acceptable norms and
decency.
• He had a record 14 consecutive hit recordings
such as Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog, Blue
Suede Shoes, Don’t Be Cruel, Love Me Tender
• YouTube - ELVIS PRESLEY "Hound Dog" on The
ELVIS PRESLEY
• Parents, churches, and teachers petitioned
against Elvis because he was too suggestive and
his music was edgy.
– They wanted the kids to listen to Pat Boone who was
more country and gospel and wholesome. pat boone
• Elvis “because he was white” paved the way for
such black performers like Chuck Berry, Little
Richard, Ray Charles, Chubby Checker, etc. to be
accepted by the white society.
ELVIS PRESLEY
• The media played Elvis as a Rebel and the kids
loved that stereotype.
• But in 1958 Elvis was drafted by the U.S. Army
and willingly agreed to serve his 2 year stint in
the military without any problems. Many kids
saw him as a sell out but he wasn’t really a
rebel in the first place.
• Elvis Presley In the Army
Rebels of the 50’s
Rebels
• Those who decided to go against the “norms” of
the affluent society in the 1950’s were termed
Rebels or “beats”
– Variation of deadbeats or beatniks which means
those who don’t care and are drifters.
• College kids dropped out of the “Rat Race”
– Rat Race is a term used for a pressured urban life.
Many saw it as self-deflating and a pointless pursuit.
– It left little time for leisure activities which the
“Beatniks” valued more than anything.
Rebels
• The rebels fell in love with “Beat Writers” such
as Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road”, and J.D.
Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” who wrote tales
of rebel youths who skipped around the country
doing “their thing”
• Some “Beat Writers” were even put on trial on
grounds of obscenity because their books and
poems focused and romanticized sex, drugs, and
drifting. (This backfired because it helped
liberalize what could be published in the USA.)
The Day the Music Died
1959
• Buddy Holly-- Was inspired by Elvis Presley.
– Took the idea of rockability and incorporated it into his
songs. Had hits of “Peggy Sue, Oh Boy, and That’ll be
the Day”
• Ritchie Valens-- An American songwriter of Latino
decent who pioneered the Chicano Rock
movement. He had hits of La Bamba, Donna, and
Come on Lets Go.
• The Big Bopper– Was originally a DJ and became a
songwriter with hits “Chantilly Lace” and The Big
Boppers Wedding”
The Day the Music Died
1959
• Feb. 3rd 1959 while on tour known as “The
Winter Dance Party” the 3 along with the
Belmonts were playing in a venue in Iowa.
• Their tour bus’s heat broke on the way to Iowa
and some of the band members had frostbite
and pneumonia so Buddy Holly decided to
charter a small 4 seat plane (for his band only)
from Iowa to their next venue in Minnesota to
get a good night’s sleep and to be off the
freezing cold bus. (BUT THE SEATS CHANGED)
The Day the Music Died
1959
• Buddy Holly chartered the plane so he got a seat
• The Big Bopper pleaded with Waylon Jennings for
his seat on the bus because Bopper had the flu
– DHTS
• Ritchie Valens won a coin toss for the last seat
with Tommy Allsup. (Valens also had a cold)
• Shortly after take off the plane went down
crashing into a field at 170 MPH.
• All 3 artists and the pilot (Roger Peterson) were
dead.
The Day the Music Died
1959
La Bamba