Assignment
An examination of what caused the "death" of Rock and Roll and how big business played a part in appropriating the rock and roll youth movement for commercial reasons.
Instructions:
As we have studied the early development of rock and roll and the labels and artists that brought the genre to great attention in the 1950s, we see that rock and roll suffered a huge decline after the death of Buddy Holly in 1959. Other events coincided with this: Little Richard converted to Christianity, Elvis joined the Army and Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry each had their fall from grace. Other popular styles began developing in the 1960's to take rock and roll's place: R&B was pushing toward soul, Motown was rising in Detroit, Phil Spector was making his pop records on the west coast, surf music was rising out of California and teen idols were created in the Brill Building of New York.
From your own perspective, answer these questions:
Why did the decline of rock and roll take place when the genre was so young and vibrant?
What was the appeal of each of the new styles of music mentioned above?
How did commercial interests have influence over these developments?
And finally: Has a similar commercial appropriation of a youth movement happened more recently, in your own experience?
When answering these questions, keep in mind the social climate of the 1950s, racial relations in the U.S., the civil rights movement and the role of commercial interests and the record industry in the development of the new popular music.
There are no right or wrong answers, your teammates and I are interested in your honest opinion. I am more concerned about content rather than length, but all of this should take up roughly one typed, double-spaced page, using a 12 pt font . Use your team's discussion forum called "The Day the Music Died" to share your paper with your team members.
After all the students in your team (approximately 12 students) have posted their statements, read them. Then add at least one comment (can be as short as a sentence) about.