Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Beatles performed on Ed Sullivan in Feb 64. What was it like before? Did young Americans play their songs frequently or was it considered to be somewhat “cutting edge” to play Beatles records and hear their music on the radio?
Of course there was music before the Beetles. My parents liked big band, and my tweed jacket, pike smoking eldest brother liked folk music. He did like Buddy Holly, too.
Though it was a school night, mom and dad let me stay up to watch them. My sister was six years older and she was going to be allowed to watch, so there was no way that I was going to stay in bed.
I'm sure there have always been "cutting edge" young music listeners who have gotten tired of pop radio and were reading music magazines and hanging around record shops to find out about the latest new groups. Especially during the early 1960's when rock and roll was pretty much dead (for a brief time). Elvis, Jerry Lee, Chuck, Buddy, L Richard, etc. All those great singers had been temporarily shunned or taken out of the music scene. Pop music was very white bread before the Beatles appeared.
We had great folk music in between. The Kingston Trio, Joan Baez, Harry Belafonte, James Taylor, The Clancy Brothers, Bob Dylan, The Brothers Four, The Highwaymen, and a lot more. I loved them and thought it could never get better. But then we got the Beatles=the best.
Folk music was the real true music of the American people, lots of it was old time ballads revived, telling the stories of life.
Sometime late in the summer of 1963, NBC news ran a short segment on the Beatles on what is now the NBC Nightly News, but was then known as the Huntley-Brinkley Report; no music was featured, however.
Five months later, after the JFK assassination trauma, I can recall a Sunday noon-hour broadcast (again, a network program-- probably NBC Omnibus?, and probably the first weekend in January) with a view of a terrarium full of you-know-what, while She Loves You played in the background.
I guess the powers-that-were at Rockefeller Center just didn't know what to make of the phenoenon.
We had great folk music in between. The Kingston Trio, Joan Baez, Harry Belafonte, James Taylor, The Clancy Brothers, Bob Dylan, The Brothers Four, The Highwaymen, and a lot more. I loved them and thought it could never get better. But then we got the Beatles=the best.
Folk music was the real true music of the American people, lots of it was old time ballads revived, telling the stories of life.
I agree 100%. My dad was into both 50's rock, and then some of the early 60's folk like the Kingston Trio, which some people might find hard to believe. That was a very interesting time. I wish I could have been around back then at his age to experience that.
Personally I've always loved 60's electric folk-rock and the later music it inspired.
I'm sure there have always been "cutting edge" young music listeners who have gotten tired of pop radio and were reading music magazines and hanging around record shops to find out about the latest new groups. Especially during the early 1960's when rock and roll was pretty much dead (for a brief time). Elvis, Jerry Lee, Chuck, Buddy, L Richard, etc. All those great singers had been temporarily shunned or taken out of the music scene. Pop music was very white bread before the Beatles appeared.
Can you expand a little on this? I really have no idea what you're talking about.
Popularity of any given musical style or group has always been an ebb and flow. The Beatles were a phenomenon with no equal, but that doesn't mean there wasn't plenty of great music around in the early 60s before they exploded onto the scene. The early 60s were brim full of great music and the farthest thing from dead. The summer of '63, pre-Beatles for the vast majority of the US, was one of the most musically memorable ever. Most of it was rock - of a different age - but still rock. And rock never ceased to evolve until it slowly died a few decades later.
Can you expand a little on this? I really have no idea what you're talking about.
Popularity of any given musical style or group has always been an ebb and flow. The Beatles were a phenomenon with no equal, but that doesn't mean there wasn't plenty of great music around in the early 60s before they exploded onto the scene. The early 60s were brim full of great music and the farthest thing from dead. The summer of '63, pre-Beatles for the vast majority of the US, was one of the most musically memorable ever. Most of it was rock - of a different age - but still rock. And rock never ceased to evolve until it slowly died a few decades later.
You weren't asking me, but I'll chime in anyway.
At the end of the '50s the following things happened:
1957: Little Richard gives up rock and roll and turns to religion.
1958: Jerry Lee Lewis blacklisted after news comes out that he married his 13 year old cousin.
1958: Elvis joined the Army and never really returns to rock and roll music.
1958: Payola scandal takes down Alan Freed and other prominent rock promoters.
1959: Buddy Holley, Richey Valens, and the Big Bopper die in a plane crash.
1959: Chuck Berry arrested on Mann Act charges.
1960: Eddie Cochran dies.
After all this, the record companies chose to switch to safe, pretty boy types of artists. Ricky Nelson, Fabian, Frankie Avalon, etc. And surf music and girl groups take off in a big way.
At the end of the '50s the following things happened:
1957: Little Richard gives up rock and roll and turns to religion.
1958: Jerry Lee Lewis blacklisted after news comes out that he married his 13 year old cousin.
1958: Elvis joined the Army and never really returns to rock and roll music.
1958: Payola scandal takes down Alan Freed and other prominent rock promoters.
1959: Buddy Holley, Richey Valens, and the Big Bopper die in a plane crash.
1959: Chuck Berry arrested on Mann Act charges.
1960: Eddie Cochran dies.
After all this, the record companies chose to switch to safe, pretty boy types of artists. Ricky Nelson, Fabian, Frankie Avalon, etc. And surf music and girl groups take off in a big way.
Ok, that could well be what he meant. Thanks for chiming in.
But there were loads of other artists - many better than most of those listed above. Anyone who would suggest that rock and roll was dead in the early 60s as a result of these events is vastly over-emphasizing their effect on the big picture. With the possible exception of the tragic plane crash.
But even though Don McLean told us that the music died, it didn't. Life and the music went on. It always does. And Elvis, for one, went on to much better later work. Kentucky Rain made me a real Elvis fan....Hound Dog sure didn't.
At the end of the '50s the following things happened: [snips]
1958: Elvis joined the Army and never really returns to rock and roll music.
Agreed with most all of this, except the observation above. Elvis did have a down period of about two years after he joined the army, but to say he never really returns to rock and roll music after that is a dubious observation. He did get away from the style with some frequency, which was a new development, but singles like “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame,” “Little Sister,” “Return to Sender,” “(You’re the) Devil in Disguise,” “Bossa Nova Baby,” “Suspicious Minds,” and “Burning Love” showed he could still rock when he wanted to.
The Beatles were on Top 40 radio in Detroit in the summer of 1963. Lee Alan, then 7-12 DJ on WXYZ played two Beatles' records (one was Please, Please Me) in July (I think) on his Make It or Break It segment. Both were broken, but WKNR, CKLW, WJBK and other stations played them. By the end of 1963, the Beatles were on rotation at every station.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
