English 2

Final
5-11-16
Cultural Trends
When we turn on the radio, the most popular artists of the time
have their songs playing. The topics they discuss come down to four
major ideas: shallow sense of love, sex, identity and drugs. When this
music is broadcasted to millions of people it has to have some kind of
affect on the way our culture is shaped, the ideas we have about
relationships, current events, and ourselves. My paper will discuss the
affect that pop music has had on every generation from the 1960s till
now. I will be giving examples of how music had affected the American
identity.
Music wasnt always so shallow. There was a time in American
music where people disagreed with the government, found free love
and though for themselves. This time period was known as the 1960s
and this movement was the counter culture. Music was a huge
influence on the youth at that time because people were coming
together to protest the war in Vietnam, fight for civil rights and shed
the strict identity of the 50s. This cultural movement came as a
backlash to post WW2 America where music was black or white, stale
and clean, until Elvis Presley set the standard for breaking the mold
with his outrageous outfits and swinging hips. This was the beginning

of America music being diversified. As America moved into the 1960s

the blindfold over culture began to lift. Woman and African Americans
began to penetrate music and folk, rock became the means to
communicate political messages.
While rock and roll was becoming pop, folk music was the sound for
antiwar anthems. Musicians like Peter Seegar used music as a
gateway to get people involved in political, racial and gender
movements, he performed the song We can Overcome before Marin
Luther King Jr. Gave his speech South Thinking Ahead on a hot
summer day in Tennessee. The civil rights movement started in the
50s an continued into the early 60s. African Americans faced
segregation, Racism and Jim Crow laws, southern African Americans
started the movement to end oppression. Southern African Americans
boycotted buses for more than a year after rose parks refused to give
up her seat and students began having sit ins as a non violent way to
protest. This student organization was know as The Student Non
Violent Coordinating Committee, and they helped organize protests all
over the country and because of the success of in Birmingham and
protest like the March on Washington had over 200,000 participants
which lead to the 1964 Civil Rights Act making segregation illegal and
work place discrimination illegal. This was just the start and protests
continued through the 60s.

The youth in the 60s also fought against the war in Vietnam.
Man were randomly being drafted and dying in large numbers there.
Artists like Bob Dylan were coming out with anthems for antiwar
movement. In 1963 Bob Dylan write A times, They are a changing to
demonstrate that social change is inevitable and CCR wrote Fortunate
Son, which talks about how the rich avoided the draft but it was the
poor who went and fought. Ultimately, the most notorious act for
antivietnam music was when Jimmy Hendrix played the Star Spangled
Banner At Woodstock and smashed his guitar. His performance was
sarcastic and had the vibes of the of angry youth. Woodstock had a lot
of musicians who protested the war in Vietnam.
Music in America during this time has part of the movement that
helped fight for civil rights, protest war, and gender equality. As we get
into the 1970s we can see a change in the seriousness of music.
The peace and Love movement began to die off with the Manson
murders and May 4th shootings. The war in Vietnam ended, Jimmy
Hendrix died and the beetles broke up (Cough*Yoko Ono). Things were
winding down and San Fransisco was filled with homeless people not
hippies anymore. The movement had ended and people were moving
on.
Anything can be a star if it looks like on Andy Warhol (Lenig4)
The 1970s were quite different that than earlier decade.
Musicians bean to talk about drugs, sex and self and the music

idealisms of the 60s became a distant memory with the new

movement of music. Soul, Jazz, and funk started to become popular,
but the biggest musical movement to come out of the 70s was glam
rock. This movement began with marc Bolan from T-Rex. Bolan was the
first of his kind to Marc Bolan really made a splash with his flashy
sense of style. He would wear makeup and womans clothes and
perform wearing boas. Music began to get harder and rock and roll was
mixed with glitter. T-Rex became the biggest band in the UK with the
release of the song to ride white swan and then the release of the
album The Slider in 1972 which topped U.K charts at number 4 and
climbed to number 17 in the united states. Though their success never
took off in the United States like it did in the U.K, T-Rex will forever be
the godfather of Glam Rock.
Following right behind Bolan was David Bowie and Gary Glitter,
Roxy Music, Alice Cooper and the New York Dolls. David Bowie took off
in the Unites States with his release of 1969 album Space Odyssey
where he first introduced his space theme by talking about Major Tom.
A few years later he really hit his success with The Rise and Fall of
Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars. The character of Ziggy
stardust was none for his exploration of sex. The release of this album
went along with the glam rock themes of the 70s. Music was no longer
focused on politics, but the creation of characters that turned into
stars. This goes along with the concept that music started to shift form

the focus of an entire band to the focus of just the lead singer. David
Bowie was also a huge advocate for sexual freedom, drug use and
rebellion, all of which are the foundations of glam. Glam Glitter wasnt
the only thing to come out of the early seventies. The stooges were
hard, early punk with an underground following. In a sense they were
one of the first shock rock groups because Iggy would cut himself and
smear things all over his body and then proceed to jump into the
crowd. His antics and primitive rhythm sound gave them a cult
following. The band had their ups and down, but the height of their
career was their first two albums before the band fell into a heroin
addiction. David Bowie met Iggy pop at the height of Ziggy Stardust
and helped him make a few albums and played keyboard in his band.
Following with a grungy sound, but a glitter look was the New York
Dolls, though their success wouldnt last long, they were a corner stone
of gender bending. They wore womans clothes and high heels when
they performed. Glam rock also affected funk music. Parliament
Funkadelic was known for their stage performances, way of dressing,
and their music included themes of sex, outer space and being funky.
Ok, so we looked at how this music developed, who they were
and how they acted but how did this affect the cultural trends of the
70s? The themes of music started to evolve and so did the way it was
presented. Stage shows started having lasers, and artist would dress
up as character they created, which more often than not were

androgynous. The lines between genders started to blur together and

there was a lot more expectance of homosexuality among the youth.
Older generations though this movement was very strange and almost
scary, especially with bands like KISS. After the 1960s American
needed a new identity and thats what glam rock gave to pop culture
and music.
First the first time in history a music channel came out that was
devoted to music. MTV came out with the first music video Video
killed the radio star by The Buggles. The 80s were time of
experimental hair metal, New wave, pop, and the emergence of hip
hops. This melting pop of music developed New waves of style of dress
for each genre of music.
Hair metal was one of the emerging genres of music that was
very successful, especially on MTV. This music was popular because of
its big hooks, catchy melodies, guitar solos, and of course, sexual
themes. This genre of music became popular from the L.A strip. When
hair metal music was played in strip clubs. Their main fan bas came
from strippers. Their support was not only for their music but for them
as well. Metal singers would stay with strippers and perform at the
clubs and that how their music became known (Olding 2016) . Bands
Like twisted Sister, Motely crew; Posion and Ratt had developed lived
up to the hair metal style with big boots, large hair, makeup, an

androgynous style that was more grungy than glam. This style was
more about tight leather pants, open chested shirts and open sexuality.
Pop music was emerging with bands like Madonna, Prince, Cindy
Lapper, and Michael Jackson who set the standards for pop music then
and for the next generation of pop stars. Their music had a heavy
influence over fashion. Madonna started fashion trends with her black
punky pop fashion. She was notorious for wearing black lace, gloves,
studded belts, and corsets. Woman all across the nation got hip to this
style. Another chart topper and fashion icon was Michael Jackson.
Thriller was the most famous music videos ever to hit the screen and
created the biggest dance craze of the 80s. Michael Jackson was a
chart topper throughout the 80s and a fashion icon with is red leather
jacket, glove and curly hair. This style was very popular among,
especially with popped colors, leather shoes and bold colors. Michael
Jackson was the most influential of all pop musicians of the 80s, his
music, along with many other pop artists started a pop craze that
would last decades. Thank god the style didnt.
Hip Hop started to emerge in the 1970s with African American
Cultures from New York City. Blcok parties were very popular and so
where turntable beats. Artists began speaking with sampled beats,
because creating beats with drum machines was affordable. Popularity
was beginning to rise with the acceptance of African American music
on a mainstream music. Rap artists that were popular at that time

were grand master flash, LLcoolJ, Run DMC, Beastie Boys, and NWA.
The golden age of hiphop was considered to be between the mid 80s
to early nineties with Juice Crew, De La Sol and public enemy. These
influential periods of hip-hop paved the way for the future of rap.
As music moved on through the Eras it has change because of
the influences of previous decades and the innovations of technology
and new artists. The 90s were very different than the upbeat pop
music of the 80s. There was huge surge of media attention and music
in the 80s, which led to the emotional deflation of the 90s, which
reflected how kids who listened to the music felt. This movement came
out of Seattle in the mid 80s but didnt gain popularity till the early
90s from Seattle based company Sub Pop records. This music became
popular from bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and
Sound Garden. The Style that emerged from this music is arguably
more influential than the music itself. Musicians did not want to be
glamorous rock stars, which was a style different compared to the style
of musicians from the 80s whose appearance mattered just as much
as they sounded. This new wave of music was sound based rather than
focusing on image. Lead singer of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, wore ripped up
jeans, greasy hair, flannels, and dirty t-shirts. He dressed like this
because he was broke, not because he was making a statement with
his clothing. Many musicians emerging from the Seattle scene did the
same. The clothes they wore were cheap, but durable and gave of the

impression like they did not care which only fueled the message behind
the grunge movement. Grunges style was quickly commercialized by
designers and lost its uniqueness to the designers who capitalized.
Grunge music wasnt the only genre making a splash in the 90s. The
return of shock rock came about when bands like The Genitorturers
and Marilyn Manson hit the hard rock scene and Goth fashion. Marilyn
Manson may have been the most hated person by parents of the 90s.
Parents blamed him for the having an influence on the way their kids
dressed. All black clothes, boots, makeup and piercing were the style
of the shock rockers. The 90s were filled with unique styles and new
wave of music that broke the mold from previous generations.
Ok, so this last part is a little harder to break down. So the
2000s went through many popular forms of music. It started in early
2000 with Blink 182, Brittany spears (thank god thats over), Baha Men
and NSync. The early 2000 were the boy band movement with NSync,
Brittany spears, Backstreet boys, Ricky Martin. This was the time third
graders had the tips of their hair frosted and horror movies were
terrible. Pop music was dominating the charts for mist of the early
2000s. But the artists changed over time. We went from the boy band
Brittany crazy towards rappers like Little Wayne, Usher, Chris Brown,
and Ludacris. Rap started to become more popular in the pop charts.
Little wayne After the Carter 4, opened the door for the shitty bitches
and money rappers we have today, we have the Young Money label to

blame for this. Aside from rappers, female artist rose as well. Artist
slike rhianna, Kesha, Lady Gaga, and Katey Perry began dominating the
pop music charts, and now you cant turn on the radio without hearing
one of those names.
I personally believe one of the biggest movements of music in
my lifetime has been the electronic movement. Granted this was
nothing new, techno was an underground movement in the 1990s, but
after the opening of EDC in 2010 electronic music began to take off in
mainstream music. Artists like Skrillex and Deadmou5 began
dominating music charts. Now the line between Electronic music and
pop has been blurred and commercialized. The electronic following
among young listeners has become so great that people spend can
spend up to 100,000 just to go to a three-day festival between tickets,
lodging, air fair, food, water, and other novelties.
By looking at the musical eras from the 1960s up until this point
it has become clear that the popular musical trends affects the cultural
trends of the youth. The 60s were filled with nonviolent movements
while the 70s gender bended. The 80s were filled with flashy rock
glamour, tight pants and a lot of hair spray, while the 90s cared less
about appearance and more about music. The last fifteen years has
been dominated by pop and the EDM movement has become a
commercialized facet of pop.

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