This course, part 1 of a 2-course sequence, examines the history of rock, primarily as it unfolded in the United States, from the days before rock (pre-1955) to the end of the 1960s. This course covers the music of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Phil Spector, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, and many more artists, with an emphasis both on cultural context and on the music itself. We will also explore how developments in the music business and in technology helped shape the ways in which styles developed. Rock emerged in the mid 1950s as a blending of mainstream pop, rhythm and blues, and country and western--styles that previously had remained relatively separate. This new style became the music of the emerging youth culture and was often associated with teen rebellion. We will follow the story of how this rowdy first wave of rock and roll (1955-59) was tamed in the early 60s but came roaring back with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and then went psychedelic by the end of the decade.
Teen Idols
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From the course by University of Rochester
History of Rock, Part One
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From the lesson
The Demise of Rock and the Promise of Soul (1959-63)
Was this era the dark ages for rock music or was it a golden era cut short by the British invasion? The music of teen idols, the folk revival, early surf music, sweet soul, rockabilly pop, and girl groups. The Brill Building songwriters and the rise of the producer. Playlets and splatter platters.
Meet the Instructors
John CovachProfessor of Music and Director
Institute for Popular Music
Well now, it's time to talk about the teen idols or I think as I say in my textbook,
teen idols for idle teens.
Teen idols were a rather cynical move on the part of the music
business to take all the attraction of somebody like Elvis Presley,
but take anything that was threatening about it away.
So that young girls, preteens, very young teenagers,
could have a kind of ideal boyfriend who is absolutely non-threatening
with no danger of any kind of sexual advance or anything like that.
This is the kind of guy that young girls could sit and
listen to sing a song as if he was singing it only to them, but
maybe he would hold their hand or kiss them on the cheek.
But what he really wanted to know was to get to know their, what he
really wanted to do was get to know their personality and that's about it.
So these ideal boyfriends were marketed at teenage girls.
And so one of the most important things about these
teen idols is that they be really, really handsome.
That they could sing, well that would be okay,
but if they can't sing, we'll fix that in the studio, but they ought to look great.
So rather than being musicians who sort of rose to the top because they had
the ability and all that, they're really, sort of, chosen almost as kind of fashion
models first and worry about the voice and the music second.
But that's essentially what they were doing.
These teen idols were probably more modeled on somebody like Pat Boone,
in the kind of very, sort of, clean image, than they were on Elvis Presley.
Although, if you look at Elvis's career as he gets out of the Army,
remember, last week we talked about how he went into the Army in 1958.
Well, he was out by 1960 and there was a real attempt to mainstream Elvis.
We'll talk a little bit later about Elvis in the movies and
the various kinds of films he did in Hollywood during this period of the early
60s up through the mid 60s.
But Elvis even took a turn in the direction of teen idol,
there are a couple of tunes of his, especially,
Are You Lonely Tonight, which was a number one hit for him in 1960.
It's a song that goes back to the 1920s.
The first group to have a hit with it was the group called Blue Barron in 1950,
I don't know whether that was a group or an artist, I don't know that version.
But what I know about that version is that's the first version where there's
a kind of talking over the music, which Elvis does.
And if you find that music somewhere, that track somewhere, the Elvis track, and
listen to it, you'll see that not only is it kind of a slow song, but
in the center of it, he actually speaks some lines.
Sort of vaguely Shakespearean kind of lines, but anyway, they're lines.
It's almost like he's sort of speaking them into the ear
of the young girl who's sort of listening to Elvis Presley.
It is absolutely a kind of a teen idol record from Elvis.
And it was just about the right time for that to be happening in 1960,
as he's sort of leaving rock and roll behind, and
moving more in a direction of kind of a mainstream audience.
But here are some of the other big teen idols.
And some of these guys actually did have talent.
I mean, when I say they didn't have to have talent to do the gig, I mean it
was more about the look, but some of them actually were pretty talented guys and
went on to do some interesting things and had plenty of talent.
A guy like Frankie Avalon for example, he, and I'll talk in a minute about Fabian.
Both of these guys came out of Philadelphia and
were managed by Bob Marcucci.
Where on Chancellor Records, Bob Marcucci would a lot of time write the songs,
he would produce the record and he own the label.
He was sort of like, an awful lot like Phil Spector, and we'll talk about
in a minute, accepted that he was sort of grooming these teen idols.
And he had a stable of teen idols, not unlike Larry Parnes,
who we'll talk about next week when we talk about The Beatles in the UK,
he was doing a similar thing with teen idols.
But Frankie Avalon, one of his couple of big number one hits for him in 1959,
"Venus" is one of them, another one's called "Why".
But then, as the 60s unfold, Frankie Avalon not only has hits on the charts
as a teen idol, but he also starts acting in movies with Annette Funicello.
Who, before her career in movies, had been one of the Mouseketeers from
the Mickey Mouse Club, which was a popular show on television.
So, the Frankie and Annette beach party movies, like Beach Blanket Bingo and
some of these others became a very, very popular form of youth entertainment.
If young people wanted to go to a movie and see a movie that was really
directed at them, these Frankie and Annette movies would be part of that.
I mentioned before Fabian, another Philadelphia guy, under Bob Marcucci.
A couple of songs from 1959, "Turn Me Loose" and "Tiger",
again, the kind of guy who looks great.
Maybe Fabian had less vocal technique or ability or
natural aptitude than some of the others, but he looked great.
Bobby Vee is another one coming out of North Dakota, but here,
recorded with Liberty Records out of Los Angeles
had a big number one hit in 1961 with "Take Good Care of My Baby".
Written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, who we talked about
just in the last lecture with regard to the Brill Building approach.
Bobby Vinton, Epic out of New York City.
Epic was a subsidiary of Columbia.
He had a great big hit number one 1962 with,
"Roses are Red (My Love)", a whole series of hits in fact.
And then, Bobby Darin, interesting story about Bobby Darin,
not only did he have a hit in 58 with "Splish Splash" and
59 with "Dream Lover", but he had a hit with a song called "Mack the Knife"
which actually comes from a Kurt Weill opera called The Threepenny Opera.
So it was kind of a cross-over from a piece from classical music or
at least music theater into rock and roll.
And so, it gives you some idea of what was going on with the teen idols.
The ideal boyfriend,
the may be a little bit too cynically constructed product, right?
But one can laugh at it all they want but these guys sold lots and lots of records.
And from a music business point of view,
this was an extremely successful strategy for these years.
So let's turn from the teen idols now to talk about this rising role of
record producers and the girl groups.
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