Rock around the clock
The record, the film, and the last historic dance revolt
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v3i2.123Keywords:
ecstatic rock ’n’ roll, Jitterbug, Lindy Hop, rhythm and blues, Savoy Ballroom, social dance, swingAbstract
The unruly surge of enthusiastic mass dancing to rock ’n’ roll music became a defining event of 1956, a year packed with memorable political and cultural changes. Through detailed analysis of key films from Rock Around the Clock to Jailhouse Rock, this article locates 1950s rock ’n’ roll on the cusp between the remnants of the swing era, and the subsequent period of music industry control. After the shock administered by mid-1956 rock ‘n’ roll music and mass dancing to the then prevailing racially segregated social norms, Hollywood films downplayed the role of dance and refocused creative audience interest on the ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ vocal stars.
References
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Stearns, M. 1956. The Story of Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press.
Stearns, M., and Stearns, J. 1968. Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance. New York: Schirmer.
Stowe, D.W. 1994. Swing Changes: Big Band Jazz in New Deal America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Tilton, R., and Leacock, R. 1954. Jazz Dance. New York: Rhapsody Films.
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Viles, L. 1958. ‘Commodore Ballroom’. Dance Magazine (August): 66–7.
Wall, T. 2009. ‘Rocking Around the Clock: Teenage Dance Fads from 1955 to 1965’. In Ballroom, Boogie, Shimmy Sham, Shake: A Social and Popular Dance Reader, ed. J. Malnig, 182–98. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Ward, B. 1998. Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm And Blues, Black Consciousness and Race Relations. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Anon. 1953. ‘Jazz on Upbeat: From Dixie to Bop, Jazz Hits Comeback’. SHOW (February): 38–9.
Bayles, M. 1994. Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music. New York: The Free Press.
Blacking, J. 1973. How Musical Is Man? Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Brooks, D. 2007. ‘The Segmented Society’. New York Times, November 20: A23.
Connolly, R. 2008. ‘Unseen Elvis’. Daily Mail, June 28.
Dehn, Mura. n.d. Box 2 Folders 46–49 in ‘Guide to the Mura Dehn Papers on Afro-American Social Dance, ca. 1869–1987’ (S) *MGZMD 72, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Delamater, J. 1978. Dance in the Hollywood Musicals. Published PhD dissertation, UMI Research Press.
Denisoff, R. S., and Romanowski, W. 1990. ‘Katzman’s “Rock Around The Clock”: A Pseudo-event?’. Journal of Popular Culture 24/1 (Summer): 65–78. doi:10.1111/j.00223840.1990.00065.x
Doherty, T. 2002. Teenagers and Teenpics: The Juvenilization of American Movies in the 1950s. Philadelphia: Temple University Press,
Ehrenreich, B. 2007. Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy. London: Granta Books.
Erenberg, L.A. 1998. Swingin’ the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of American Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Frame, P. 2007. The Restless Generation: How Rock Music Changed the Face of 1950s Britain. London: Rogan House.
Gillett, C. 1983. The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll. London: Souvenir.
Haston, K. 1956. ‘Teenagers Can’t Dance?’ New York Daily Post, February 2 and 3.
Hill, C.V. 2009. ‘From Bjarata Natyam to Bop: Jack Cole’s “Modern” Jazz Dance’. In Ballroom, Boogie, Shimmy Sham, Shake: A Social and Popular Dance Reader, ed. J. Malnig. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Hubbard, K., and Monaghan, T. 2009. ‘Negotiating Compromise on a Burnished Wood Floor’. In Ballroom, Boogie, Shimmy Sham, Shake: A Social and Popular Dance Reader, ed. J. Malnig. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Lindsey-Johnson, B. 2006. Dance Party: The Teenarama Story. Philadelphia: Kendall Productions.
Marrs, J. 2008. ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’, 4–6, The Guide (section of The Guardian), October 11-17.
McGee, P. 1954. ‘Avenue Merchants Rap “Police Bias” ’. Los Angeles Sentinel, November 11.
Monaghan, T. 2000. ‘The Legacy of Jazz Dance’. In Annual Review of Jazz Studies 9: 1997—1998, eds E. Berger, D. Cayer, H. Martin and D. Morgenstern, 295–338. Maryland: The Scarecrow Press.
Mundy, J. 1999. Popular Music on Screen: From Hollywood Musical to Music Video. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Peterson, P. 2003. ‘The Mariners’. American Legacy 11/1 (Spring): 17–24.
Quirey, B. 1976. May I Have the Pleasure? The Story of Popular Dancing. London: BBC.
Rouke, M. 2007. Alex Romero obituary. http://articles.latimes.com/2007/sep/18/local/me- romero18.
Schonberg, E. 1956a. ‘You Can’t Fool Public, Says Haley’. Down Beat, May 30: 10.
—1956b. ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Helping Race Relations, Platters Contend’. Down Beat, May 30: 14.
Sharkey, F. 2008. ‘If I was King for a Day’. The Big Issue 825 (Christmas): 62.
Stearns, M. 1956. The Story of Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press.
Stearns, M., and Stearns, J. 1968. Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance. New York: Schirmer.
Stowe, D.W. 1994. Swing Changes: Big Band Jazz in New Deal America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Tilton, R., and Leacock, R. 1954. Jazz Dance. New York: Rhapsody Films.
—n.d. Production and publicity notes for the film Jazz Dance in the topics files, at the Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, NJ.
Viles, L. 1958. ‘Commodore Ballroom’. Dance Magazine (August): 66–7.
Wall, T. 2009. ‘Rocking Around the Clock: Teenage Dance Fads from 1955 to 1965’. In Ballroom, Boogie, Shimmy Sham, Shake: A Social and Popular Dance Reader, ed. J. Malnig, 182–98. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Ward, B. 1998. Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm And Blues, Black Consciousness and Race Relations. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Published
2009-07-17
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Monaghan, T. (2009). Rock around the clock: The record, the film, and the last historic dance revolt. Popular Music History, 3(2), 123-148. https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v3i2.123
