It has been said that music during the 50’s changed the world. One of the most significant activities that happened in this time period was the Civil Rights Movement. It was a long-term protests from the 1950’s to late 1960’s. African American gospel, spirituals, and folk music played an important role in the Civil Rights Movement. During that time, singers, musicians and producers collaborated to spread songs to activists, both at large meetings and through publications. They sang these songs for a few purposes which are to motivate them through long marches, for strength against harassment and brutality. Before the Civil Rights Movement, people of colors in the United States suffered from unequal rights because they were brought in from other countries, mainly Africa to be slaves. Thus, people are so used to the violent way of treating them that they do not even have basic human rights.
The basis of discrimination was formed when the U.S. Supreme Court sent out the “separate but equal” doctrine in 1954, drawing attention from all over the world. In the unstable decade and a half that followed, civil rights activists used nonviolent protest to ask for a change, and the federal government made legislative decisions with initiatives such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (History.com, 2009). Many leaders from the African American community rose to be important during the Civil Rights era, like Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, and others. They risked their lives for the freedom and equality of people of colors.
In the mid to late 1960s, expressions of unity and racial unanimity became the mark of the civil rights struggle in the United States. Young black activists saw the political and social struggle. Black artists faced two difficulties that time: first, artistic standards were set by the larger white community according to previous practices and these had been contrast to the experiences of black people. Second, many black artists thought that art should be separated from politics (Lawson, 1994). Thus, it was very hard for songs that black singers performed to be accepted by white.
The music that black people listened to were called race music and later changed to rhythm and blues in order to be more appropriate to the black consumers (Menand, 2015). Due to the racist problem in the United States, many singers performing rhythm and blues did not receive much recognition. Rhythm and blues were usually listened by black people but things started to change when rock and roll was discovered. The history of Rock and Roll dates back to 1940s when many migrate from South to North. It is the first type of music that start form the black and also being accepted by the white. It involves both black and white performers that cater music to everyone but there were still people that refuse to accept this genre of music. The major performers that make rock and roll so popular were Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, and Little Richards.
Rock and Roll is very different from other music genre is because the rhythm and lyrics are very self expressive. The music reflects the actual feelings of how people feel when listening to the music. Also, Rock and Roll songs have a fairly fast rhythm with unstructured lyrics in order to create unrestrained atmosphere for the listeners. It is also the type of music the exist when the introduction of civil rights occur in United States so rock and roll music release the tension of the whole nation. It is different than the music before because they separate people by their skin color, they did not help the country to improve. On the other hand, rock and roll music united different kind of people. People started to listen to the same music instead of having music that are being developed specially for people of color. All Fifties rockers, black and white, country and city born, were influenced by R&B (Rhythm and Blues). R&B was the hope and rubric for the sound of everything.
Rock and Roll music made a significant impact in the beginning of civil rights movement. It was the only form of popular music that specifically addressed and was tailored to teenager. Second, rock & roll gave opportunities for the listeners to express themselves freely. It was different than R&B, whose audiences were limited, but as a dominant force in the popular marketplace. Elvis was transformed from truck driver to idol of millions in less than a year by Sam Phillips from Sun Record Labels.
No one invented Rock and Roll. Sam Phillips claimed to be the one that invented it but people think that he discovered Rock and Roll. He liked imperfections in music because it is more authentic. So, Rock and Roll was discovered due to a spoiled amplifier when a band is performing “Rocket 88”. Many people think that this is the first Rock and Roll song. Thus, the spirit of Rock and Roll is to sing what you feel, not to be flawless.
Later, folk music came into play. It was first introduced in the 19th century and later during the 60’s, it evolved into something called folk revival. Folk music before the 20th century were popular among farm workers and factory workers. They acquired songs by memorizing them. Thus, the rhythm of these songs were usually soft and the lyrics were easy to be remembered. The music was often related to national culture. It was culturally particular, from a particular region or culture. In the context of an immigrant group, Folk music received an extra dimension for social cohesion. It is particularly noticeable in immigrant societies (Library of Congress, 2017). Folk music might seemed to be ridiculed to people now because they are so simple. Nevertheless, the songs still make an impact to racism in American music industry during the 50s and 60s.