COUNTER CULTURE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BEATNIKS GREASERS ART.

Presentation on theme: "COUNTER CULTURE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BEATNIKS GREASERS ART."— Presentation transcript:

1 COUNTER CULTURE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BEATNIKS GREASERS ART

2 Part 4: Counter Culture Definition: the values and behavior of a small group that significantly differ from those of the mainstream or what is considered “normal”

3 1950s Ideal Stereotypes shown in the media (TV) of the ideal life of the 1950s: typical white, middle class, suburban family dad worked, mom cooked, Billy played ball, and Suzie wore a poodle skirt.

4 Typical 1950s family

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9 MUSIC IN THE 1950s Musicians added electric instruments to traditional blues music, creating rhythm and blues (R‘n’B) Evolved from Jazz Jazz had become increasing popular after 1920s –cross over from African American culture Cleveland DJ Alan Freed was the first to play this music in 1951– he called it “rock ‘n’ roll” FREED

10 ROCK N’ ROLL Artists: Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and the Comets, and especially Elvis Presley Style driving rhythm, fast paced Electric guitar and drums featured lyrics featuring love, cars, and problems of being young Growing middle class gives teens spending money so record sales increase: million million Chuck Berry

11 Top Early 50s Songs 1. You Belong To Me - Jo Stafford 2. Harbor Lights - Sammy Kaye (1950) 3. That's Amore - Dean Martin (1953) 4. Because of You - Tont Bennett (1951) 5. Sh-Boom - Crew Cuts (1954) 6. Too Young - Nat King Cole (1951) 7. Cry - Johnnie Ray (1952) 8. Young At Heart - Frank Sinatra (1954) 1956: Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog by Elvis Presley (this was actually first a blues hit written by a Jewish composer named Jerry Leiber for an African American singer named Big Mama Thornton in 1953)

12 Elvis: THE KING 45 of his records sold more than 1 million copies
Songs like “Heartbreak hotel” and “Hound dog” were top hits Presley’s rebellious style captured young audiences TV appearances included questionable dancing

13 Reaction to Elvis on TV Milton Berle Show June 5, 1956
Elvis played “Hound dog” and “gyrated” - parents were aghast and the censors were frantic.  The San Francisco Chronicle called the performance “In appalling taste.”  The New York  Daily News said that Elvis “gave an exhibition that was suggestive and vulgar, tinged with the kind of animalism that should be confined to dives and bordellos.”  Berle said that 4 days after the show he received 400,000 letters that said that they would never watch his show again after he showed that disgusting young man.

14 Adult Response to Rock n Roll
Condemn it as immoral Said it would lead to teen delinquency and immorality Fast dancing was inappropriate Seen as inappropriate because of connection to African American culture In some cities rock concerts were banned

15 Top Late 50s Songs Mom and Dad Hated
1. Wake Up Little Suzie - The Everly Bothers 2. Great Balls of Fire - Jerry Lee Lewis 3. Tutti Fruitti - Little Richard 4. Rumble - Link Wray 5. Yakety Yak - Coasters 6. Love For Sale - Billie Holiday 7. Ragtime Cowboy Joe - The Chipmunks 8. Endless Sleep - Jody Reynolds 9. Standing On The Corner (Watching All The Girls Go By) - Four Lads 10. Tequila! - Champs

16 Greasers Working-class, urban, youth subculture
During the 1950s, often known as hoods. Name came from greased back hairstyle, which involved combing back hair using hair wax or pomade. Style: white or black T-shirts (with sleeves rolled) black, blue or khaki work jackets, Levi denim jackets; leather motorcycle jackets blue or black Levi's 501 jeans (with the cuffs turned up about four inches)

17 1955 – Rebel without a Cause http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048545/
Jim Stark is the new kid in town. He has been in trouble elsewhere and that's why his middle class family has had to move. But Jim must prove himself to his peers in switchblade knife fights and games of chicken in which cars race toward a seaside cliff.

18 Greasers in later popular culture
The Outsiders (1983) Grease (1978)

19 The Beat Movement The term "Beat" was reportedly coined by writer Jack Kerouac in the late 1940s slang term after WWII, meaning "exhausted" or "beat down"

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21 BEAT MOVEMENT early 1950s small group of young writers who were rebellious, care-free and reckless Opposed to "The Establishment” (traditional society and the government) Focused on social non-conformity The “Beat Movement” clashed with suburban views of the “perfect” life Philosophy was anti-materialistic and anti-consumerism and stressed the importance of bettering one's inner self over and above material possessions.

22 BEATNIKS Centered in San Francisco, L.A. and New York’s Greenwich Village Followers, called “beatniks” tended to shun work and sought understanding through Zen Buddhism, music, and drugs Beatniks often performed poetry or music in coffeehouses or bars

23 physical appearance Men: goatees and berets, rolling their own cigarettes, and playing bongos. Women: black leotards and wearing their hair long and straight in a rebellion against middle-class standards which expected women to get perms for their hair.

24 The Beat writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Lafcadio Orlovsky, and Gregory Corso in 1956.

25 Ginsberg POEM Howl by Allen Ginsberg I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night, who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz…

26 Beatniks

27 Mainstream Art Very popular: Norman Rockwell, who was one of the most famous illustrators of covers of The Saturday Evening Post magazine Traditional style depicted “American” themes that reflected the values of the white middle class

28 New Art: Abstract expressionism
American post–World War II art movement Starts in New York City Focus on conveying emotion through nontraditional depictions emphasis on spontaneous or subconscious creation  seen as rebellious & anarchic 

29 Jackson Pollock, American painter of the Abstract Expressionist movement. the “drip and splash” paintings emerged in 1947. Instead of using the traditional easel he put the canvas to the floor poured and dripped his paint; instead of using brushes he used sticks, trowels or knives. Although some saw his work as cutting edge, those who liked traditional art treated him with abuse and sarcasm

30 Jackson Pollock,

31 Jasper John’s False Start. 1959

32 Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1953 slide show: http://www. nga

33 Pop Art late 1950s Characterized by themes from popular mass culture such as advertising and comic books. Was in opposition to elitist culture in art and meant to be a commentary on consumerism Seen as “Kitschy” or ironic

34 Andy Warhol (1962)

35 Lichtenstein (1963)