Influence Of American Bandstand And The Ed Sullivan Show On Rock And Roll

Influence of American Bandstand and The Ed Sullivan Show

On Rock and Roll

During the 1950’s the musical genre of rock and roll was becoming vastly popular (Charlton). The television helped increase this genre’s fame by broadcasting new rock and roll music to the country. By 1954 about 83.2 percent of American households owned a television set (Baughman). TV was a fast and effective way of reaching millions of people which became quite useful to up and coming musical artists. Two television shows that dominated the air in the 50 's were, American Bandstand and The Ed Sullivan Show. These two shows greatly influenced rock and roll, because they changed the perception of rock and roll, provided performers with a large TV audience, and left a

The show featured teenagers dressed in nice clothes, behaving and dancing appropriately, while a clean-cut and responsible adult, Dick Clark, supervised the event (Nathaniel). Parents were able to accept the musical genre more knowing that their children were not being exposed to a bad influence. Overall American Bandstand opened the country’s mind to rock and roll which ultimately helped the genre to develop and become more diverse as time progressed. The television show showed that teenagers could have fun dancing to rock and roll but also be well mannered and

Elvis Presley was able to capture the essence of African American rhythm and blues yet modify them in a way to appeal to a large white audience, however he added a lot of sexual hip gyrations which drove young fans wild and gained parents disapproval (Charlton). When he performed on Ed Sullivan the 60 million people who tuned in that night saw those, now famous, dance moves which resulted in CBS only filming him from the waist up in his next two appearances (Ed Sullivan). Overall Presley established the foundation of rock and roll but the Beatles took it to the next level. Debuting in 1964 on Ed Sullivan, The Beatles broke the stereotypical rock and roll image by dressing in suits with mop-top haircuts, and writing songs not just to dance to but that also had personal and relevant meaning (Sneed). With an audience of 73 million The Beatles impact was nothing less than huge (Ed Sullivan). The Rolling Stones, were the next British band to invade American however they were quite different than their predecessor. They exposed the rebellious side of rock and roll by representing a "bad boy" image and using rhythm and blues, American country music, soul music, and reggae elements in their songs (Charlton). The Ed Sullivan Show helped launch and continue the success of these performers and