{"id":25,"date":"2022-04-18T12:18:24","date_gmt":"2022-04-18T16:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus122-sp22-08\/?page_id=25"},"modified":"2022-04-25T23:28:12","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T03:28:12","slug":"historical-context","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus122-sp22-08\/historical-context\/","title":{"rendered":"Historical Context"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mid-1900s in America was a time of great change\u2013 the advent of new movements in pop culture, music, entertainment, and technology molded the course of the remainder of the century and brought the nation to its current political, social, and civil state.<\/p>\n

As it relates to 1950s America, the musical scene was heavily influenced by previous movements in country music and rhythm\/blues music, facilitating the creation of rock n\u2019 roll music and its ability to capture the attention of the nation\u2019s youth. Characterized by instrumentation including electric guitars, bass, drums, and strong vocals, rock n\u2019 roll was a dominant musical force of the time. Rock n\u2019 roll persisted throughout the 50s and into the 60s.<\/p>\n

With the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in late 1963, citizens of the United States\u00a0were in desperate need of a uniting force, and when the English rock band, known as The Beatles, arrived in America in 1964, the band\u2019s \u201c\u2026joyous energy and invention lifted America out of its gloom\u2026\u201d (MacDonald, 77). Debuting their unique take on rock n\u2019 roll on television on the famous Ed Sullivan Show, The Beatles garnered unprecedented support and viewership.\u00a0Mid-twentieth century America also saw a sharp increase in the prevalence of household televisions, and \u201cthe Beatles came along just as television was becoming an affordable necessity in American homes\u201d (Leonard, 40). While television had been around for three decades prior to the Beatles\u2019 premiere, the technology was integral in delivering the band\u2019s unique sound to the ears of millions.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Associated Press. Ed Sullivan, center, stands with The Beatles during a rehearsal for the British group’s first American appearance, on the “Ed Sullivan Show,” in New York on Feb. 9, 1964.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Beatles\u2019 1964 performance of \u201cI Want to Hold Your Hand\u201d on The Ed Sullivan Show helped facilitate the shift from ‘rock and roll’ to ‘rock’ with the help of television; the television broadcast, with its use of new camera and sound advancements, made The Beatles\u2019 unique style accessible to a wide audience and motivated the ongoing sexual revolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mid-1900s in America was a time of great change\u2013 the advent of new movements in pop culture, music, entertainment, and technology molded the course of the remainder of the century and brought the nation to its current political, social, and civil state. As it relates to 1950s America, the musical scene was heavily influenced by previous movements in country music and rhythm\/blues music, facilitating … Continue reading Historical Context<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5589,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"coauthors":[216730],"class_list":["post-25","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus122-sp22-08\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus122-sp22-08\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus122-sp22-08\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus122-sp22-08\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5589"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus122-sp22-08\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus122-sp22-08\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus122-sp22-08\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25\/revisions\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus122-sp22-08\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus122-sp22-08\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus122-sp22-08\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}