Conformity In The 1950's

the 1950 decade began with approximately 25 million registered automobiles on the road, most of which were pre-World War II and in poor condition. By 1950, most factories had made the transition to a consumer-based society; in result, more than 8 million cars were produced that year. By 1958, there were more than 67 million cars registered in America, more than twice the number at the beginning of the decade. The car became the center of our collective success. We wanted everything about the car to be bigger, taller, more powerful, and covered with chrome. Just as the Europeans were spitting out sports cars, the American car manufacturers wanted to do something different; in result, “heavy metal” became the catch phrase for cars in the 1950s.

As the decade’s fashion and architecture of the day portrayed conformity, the American car represented the country's optimism and enthusiasm in a decade of hopefulness. Car manufacturers looked at conformity as a foreign concept and did everything in their power to excite buyers and bring crowds to their showrooms. The 1950’s American automobile culture has had a long lasting influence on the people of the United States. The American car manufacturing switched from producing war weapons to consumer goods at the end of World War II, and by the end of the 1950’s, one out of every six working Americans were employed by the automotive industry. The United States became the world's largest manufacturer of automobiles, and Henry Ford's goal that any man with a good job should be able to afford an automobile, was achieved. In result, a new generation of service businesses focusing on customers with their automobiles, like drive-through restaurants and movies, were created. Another contemporary entity that was established from the result of the booming automobile industry was the expansion of the National Highway System with Interstate highways. The wider, multi-lane highways allowed traffic to move at faster speeds with few or no stoplights. The automobile industry not only positively influenced people’s perspectives on travel and appealing machinery, it predisposed many other innovations and necessities that we still use in modern