The History of Popular Music - From the 50's to Today

The 1950s were an unprecedented era in musical history. While it was truly the advent of radio that brought about much of what we know as "pop" music today, it wasn't until the 1950's that the genres and styles brewing beneath the surface flooded over into the mainstream market.

The Birth of Rock and Roll
Rock and Roll is a combination of so many elements, developments, and burgeoning genres that it's nearly impossible to trace its actual roots. All we know is that in the 1940's, blues, country western, R&B, and Gospel, among so many others, were exploding into new territory. In the early 1950s they all managed to find each other in Rock and Roll.

While Rolling Stone Magazine claims that Elvis Presley dropped the first rock and roll record with "That's All Right (Mama)" the debate rages on, with dozens of artists given credit for that first mighty stroke to the American musical consciousness.

hoever started it, the results were clear soon enough. By the mid to late 1950s, kids across the country were dancing in their basements and watching Dick Clark fervently for the next big dance craze. With segregation still in full effect, rock and roll was also an avenue through which the dance beats and rhythms of African American culture and music could finally reach the mainstream, even if it was covered and played by white musicians.

Rock and Roll Gives Way to Rock
Into the 1960's rock was going strong, but as with all art, there were soon fractures. The Beatles arrived amid much pomp and circumstance, and managed to push Rock and Roll as a popular music style to new heights.

Prosperity gave way to the free love movement, psychedelic rock, and the legendary drug culture of the 1960's. The rock genre was fractured into many different forms – psychedelic rock, alternative rock, and the beginnings of progressive rock and heavy metal. Free love eventually transformed into war protest as the anti-war movement spiked. In the 1970s, the disillusionment of an entire generation of young people and the after effects of a monumental civil rights movement hung thick in the air.

Genre Explosion
Rock continued to grow into a darker and heavier style with bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and the anti-establishment bend of the punk movement with the Sex Pistols and the Ramones.

s rock found its footing and morphed into a separate genre of music, a void was left for other styles to develop. The 1970's saw the growth of dance infused music and hyper-pop music in clubs across the country, and disco artists like The Bee Gees and Donna Summers met great success. Hip Hop and Rap were also making their start. Rising out of the low-income neighborhoods of New York city, it wouldn't be long before the 80's saw a new genre climbing the charts.

The MTV Generation
MTV changed the face of music when it was launched in 1981. The image in front of the music had become a bigger selling point than it ever had. Popular music was gaudy and visually stimulating. Boy bands, pop singers, and glamour rock were all born to satiate the hunger for eye candy. Only a few of the older bands of the 70s flourished into the 80's and 90's.

y the 1990s, most people were done with the overblown big hair of the 80's. The pop music mentality that MTV had created was thriving as pop queens like Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera emerged, boy bands like N*Sync and the Backstreet Boys formed, and artists like Madonna and Michael Jackson continues to experience success. Rock music got a stark makeover when Nirvana exploded onto the scene, single-handedly bringing the alternative rock scene to mainstream audiences.

In the 2000's, we are graced with the widest selection of music the world has ever seen. Radio stations have their choice of playing Rap, Hip Hop, R&B, Rock, Alternative, Country, Punk, Pop, Grunge, Ska, and many other genres of diverse music.