American Music From 1950 - 2000 I T Subject Guides webpage.
If you are researching the period, be sure and see our American Cultural History Decade
pages.
The Tuesday New
Orleans Music Show
Al Timke's Blues Ring Site Southern Music Network
THE FIFTIES
The 1950s offered a combination of sounds - for everyone.
Rock 'n roll , rhythm
and blues, love songs ,
jazz (first Newport
Festival ), calypso (Harry
Belafonte ), and musicals
were all popular. The music (for a change) was pretty a-political. Records
rather than air play began to determine the popularity of a song. Hit
makers were Johnny Ray (Cry ),
Patti Page (Tennessee
Waltz ), Nat King
Cole (Dream
a Little Dream) ,Teresa Brewer (Til
I Waltz Again with You ),
Tony Bennett , Perry Como , Pat
Boone (Love Letters
in the Sand ), Doris Day (Secret
Love ), Eddie Fisher , Frankie
Laine (Jezebel ),
Dean Martin
(Wow) ,Kay Starr ,
and Peggy Lee (You
Give Me Fever before Madonna :-) . Groups were popular including the Platters ,
Les Paul and Mary Ford (How
High the Moon ), Ames Brothers
(You,
You, You ), Four
Aces ( Love is a Many
Splendored Thing ), Buddy Holly (Peggy
Sue ) and many others made the huge number of decade hits. Elvis became
the first rock star Don't
Be Cruel , Heartbreak
Hotel , All
Shook Up , and Can't
Help Falling in Love . Black recording artists Chuck
Berry (Maybellene )
and Fats Domino
(I'm Walking ) became
rock 'n roll stars. Color TV became a major influence, stereos were offered for
sale, the first Grammy (1959)
was given. American
Bandstand had an audience of 20 million teenagers and 20 million adults. Stars
like Bobby Darin , Frankie
Avalon , Connie Francis
and Fabian were discovered on American
Bandstand . The
Grand Ole Opry with its country sounds was in full swing! Your
Hit Parade aired on TV from 1950-1959. B roadway
and movie musicals (Wow, this is a great
site for background about musicals) played an important part during this decade.
Hits included Guys
and Dolls , The
King and I , Pajama
Game , Singin' in the Rain ,
Bye Bye Birdie ,
My Fair Lady , West
Side Story , Gigi ,
and The Sound of Music .
He
tried to crossBURMA-SHAVE On curves aheadBURMA-SHAVE
Violets are blueBURMA-SHAVE
Henry the VIIIBURMA-SHAVE
1950s
R&R Hall of Fame by AT&T. Exhibits, info, and news.
Lyrics from the Fifties
Select alphabetically for lyrics with audio.
American Cultural History
- The Fifties
From the Kingwood College Librarians - that's us.
Fifties Website Spend time here! Contains information on everything fifties, good
links to popular music, televison shows, etc.
Oldies Music Good site for chronology of musical events from 50's and 60's , lists of
artists and bands.
The Sixties through Mid Seventies T he
sixties were the decade of Motown ,
Pop , Rhythm
and Blues , Protest
Songs , musicals ,
and the Beatles .
Musicians of these decades ranged from The
Beach Boys to Loretta Lynn to Barbra
Streisand to Elton John .
The Beatles (midis )
dominated the sixties.The Monkees and the
Rolling Stones and other
groups followed suit. After the Beatles split, Paul
McCartney
and Wings (Band on the Run ),
George Harrison
(Give me Love) ,
Ringo (You're
Sixteen ) and John
Lennon and Yoko Ono
( Whatever
Gets You Thru the Night) all had individual hits. After a quiet
decade, music once again became political. The country was in the midst of its
second undeclared war (Korea in the 50s followed by Vietnam in the late 60s),
Nixon and Agnew resignations, Kennedy assassinations, Charles Manson murders,
and the murder of Martin Luther King were all events instrumental in forming the
music of this period.B lack
music producer Berry
Gordy began the Motown music label in 1960. Hitting the charts were
Dionne Warwick ,
the Supremes , Stevie
Wonder , The Temptations ,
and the Jackson
5 ( Yes, that includes Michael). M usicals
included How
to Succeed in Business without Really Trying , Fiddler
on the Roof , and Hello
Dolly. The rock musicals Godspell ,
Jesus Christ Superstar ,
and Hair hit
broadway and the US like storms! The
Kingston Trio's Tom
Dooley in 1957 led the way for Bob
Dylan 's 'Blowing in the
Wind ' other protest
songs by folk singers including Joan
Baez and Peter,
Paul and Mary .Lyrics for
protest music )I n
1969, Woodstock was attended by 300,000.
A three day even for peace, love and rock took place. Performers included
Janis Joplin , Sly and the Family
Stone , Led
Zepplin , The
Grateful Dead , and Jefferson
Airplane . Counterculture
music , young people seekTom
Lehrer is a good example.Motown
About Motown Great background site
- by the decade - with links to music and the artists. Motown Story A little
history and an album discography.
Rock 'n Roll
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Based
in Cleveland. This is an excellent site for Rock music, soul, Motown, Disco,
etc... Pretty much any music ranging from 1950 to the present.Devil Music: Race,
Class, and Rock and Roll An excellent essay written by a college student.
Links to Sites
Containing the Beatles Just what it sounds like. :-) Ultimate Band List Homepage Today's Bands! Links
to bands, magazines, lyrics, labels and much more.
Gospel Music
Wikipedia
entry about Gospel Music - golden age in the 40s and 50s.Elvis' Spiritual
and Gospel Songs - list, may play - but copyright guru's have removed
most Elvis midi's from the web.
Folk Music
Dirty Linen The Magazine of Folk, Electric
Folk, Traditional and World Music The Joan
Baez Web Pages Photographs, lyrics, information and tours.
Peter, Paul, and Mary Home Page
Great information on this 60's folk group. Contains links to song lyrics,
photos, bios, and more.
Bob Dylan Links Links to
Internet sources for Bob Dylan.
The Southern
Folklife Collection The Southern Folklife Collection at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill houses one of the world's largest collections
of Southeastern-tradition derived music. Photographs are wonderful.
Folk Music
of the 60s Essay from Canada.
Country Western, Blue
Grass, and Old Time Music
The Grand Ole Opry From Nashville
- it's all there. Visit with Patsy Cline, Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton
representing the new guard and Opry institutions like Grandpa Jones,
Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb, Little Jimmy Dickens and Flatt & Scruggs.
Ten Things
You Didn't know about Country Music Just the facts, m'am.
COWPIE Bunkhouse For country
music guitar players -- search by song.
Old Time Music Home Page
Collection of Links to OldTime music on the Web.
Cybergrass Great site - Bluegrass magazine.
Brandywine Friends of Old
Time music Promotes and sponsors bluegrass and old time music in the Wilmington,
Delaware area Oklahoma Opry Live from Oklahoma city,
the Opry features local and southwest country and gospel performers every
Saturday night.
Music from Texas - sorry, we are taking a little license
since we are Texans... Find the early music from your state. Austin City Limits Direct
link to performers .
Austin Music Connection Check in
here for info about Austin country, blues, rock and "uncategorizable" music.
Includes maps of the various music districts in the area.
Tejano Music Awards Awards for Tejano
Music - presented annually in San Antonio.
OndaNet - Tejano Music Site Selected
by Texas Monthly as one of the best 100 sites.
Willie Nelson
Willie's page by Sony - discography, history, background, the like.
Country Music Television New and
old - get the latest on country videos.
The Musical
Texas, the Outdoor Musical A musical
romance of the history of the Texas Panhandle. 35th year.
Broadway
Musical Lyrics Links to broadway musicals on stage today. Copyright warning.
Musicals Offers a list of songs, links
to other sites and a synopsis of many musicals, among other features.
Louisiana: Cajun Music Twangin'!
- American Music Good site for ethnic and traditional music links. Ranges
from Cajun to Tejano music. Good place to start looking -- not just for music
but for food, language, and history.
Historic New Orleans Collection
Houses the Russell Jazz Collection and many private collections of Louisiana
Info.
The Cajun Culture Dedicated
to the appreciation and preservation of Cajun and Creole cultures, excellent
links to sites.
Disco DeeT's 70s Page A tribute to the greatest
decade ever.[That's definitely a matter of personal taste :-) But, DeeT likes
disco, and we like her site.]
Disco Music 101 Leads to a ton of
info about disco - and some very good sites.
Skipping through the 1980s and
90s
Southern Music
Southern Music of the
1980s Southern Music of the
1990s
Punk/ New Wave/ Heavy Metal New Wave Outpost Links
to anything you want to know about the new wave phenomenon -- groups like
Culture Club, Duran Duran, etc...
The Punk Page One of the first
WWW web pages for punk music. Contains, lyrics, photos, etc..., an organized
list of all punk links on web.
Rock N Roll Photos
Hundreds of photos of concerts. This is an unbelievable collection of
R&R photographs of bands.
Rap/ Hip Hop
Mr. Blunt's Hip-Hop Great page with
links to performers, top numbers of the day and past, and radio netcast
links. Rap/ Hip Hop Lyrics Best
of Rap
Journals The best way to
find journal articles is to search an appropriate database. Kingwood
College students may search most of our recommended databases from any computer. Your password is your library card bar code number
Proquest Research Library This index to journal articles includes
some full text and some older articles you may not find elsewhere.
Academic Search Complete Index to journals articles, some full text. While similar to Proquest, it may have different articles.
American Popular Music before
1900 | American Popular Music from
1900-1950 American Cultural History by
Decade
To the Library | Research Guides | Author: Peggy
Whitley | Revised 7/2006pw
Kingwood
College Library 
In
1956, Elvis became
the first rock star with
hits including Don't
Be Cruel, Heartbreak
Hotel, All
Shook Up, and Can't
Help Falling in Love. Black recording artists Chuck
Berry (Maybellene)
and Fats Domino
(I'm Walking) became
rock 'n roll stars. Color TV became a major influence, stereos were offered for
sale, the first Grammy (1959)
was given. American
Bandstand had an audience of 20 million teenagers and 20 million adults. Stars
like Bobby Darin, Frankie
Avalon, Connie Francis
and Fabian were discovered on American
Bandstand. The
Grand Ole Opry with its country sounds was in full swing! Your
Hit Parade aired on TV from 1950-1959. 
Rock
& Roll Hall of Fame 
ing
a better world, used their music to protest. Tom
Lehrer is a good example.
