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Essential Question
How has “the beat” been an object of both celebration and concern in the history of popular music?
Overview
1950s America often appears to have been a conservative decade. The image of what might be called the “ideal American” circulated widely through the popularity of fifties television shows such as Father Knows Best, The Ozzie and Harriet Show, and other such family programming. The image these programs quietly promoted was that of a white, suburban family life in which gender roles were fixed and difficulties were few. Issues of racial discrimination, Cold War anxiety, and, really, conflict of any substantial kind was left at the door of television’s dream world. Alternately, in that same time period Senator Joe McCarthy’s campaign to stamp out the “Communist threat” also promoted a vision of “the ideal American.” But in McCarthy’s case, he established a vision of the “ideal American” by arguing what one should not be if one wanted to attain such an ideal.
Senator McCarthy used his political position to rail against the possibility of Communists “hidden in plain sight,” going on to associate Communism with whatever else he believed to be “deviant” behavior. His list of those who threatened American life included anyone with an interest in Socialist ideas but also artists, homosexuals, labor organizers, and more. Ultimately deemed a “witch hunt,” McCarthy’s campaign to rid America of “Un-American activity” was one in which fear of the Other threatened to undo the principles of democracy as many Americans understood them. But in some fashion, McCarthy’s anxieties, extreme in nature, were not his alone. McCarthy’s “witch hunt” and its seemingly unlikely success as a political effort revealed the intolerance and anxiety about Otherness that was indeed a part of American life. Widespread concerns about the categories “normal” and “abnormal,” “American” and “Un-American,” “insider” and “outsider” revealed themselves across the fabric of the country.
Into that historical moment came Rock and Roll. Rock and Roll included the music of groundbreaking African-American artists such as Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard, whose uptempo, Southern, church-inspired beats caught the attention of both fans and those who worried that in these beats were the seeds of a kind of deviance that might itself be a threat. In that way, it was a time in which “the beat” became an issue in and of itself. This lesson explores the manner in which “the beat” in music has at different historical moments become a matter of contestation and anxious scrutiny. In 1950s America, it happened with Rock and Roll. So how does that struggle around a contested issue such as “the beat” reveal itself, and how is it managed? With Little Richard as a focal figure, this lesson will explore the ways in which the rhythms in Little Richard’s music elicited a strong response from teenage fans but also from pro-segregation forces. Equating “the beat” with a particular racial spirit and power, pro-segregationists railed against Rock and Roll as McCarthy railed against Communism.
As the lesson unfolds, students will get to investigate some of the ways listeners feel and relate to rhythms, focusing on the language used to describe “the beat,” and the manners in which rhythms connect to a deeper past and seem to anticipate particular futures. If “the beat” was a concern in 1950s America, it was again a concern for some, decades later, when Gangsta Rap began to dominate the Billboard charts. How far have we come? And how can we study the past to learn more about the future we’re making and the music we’ll make it with? This lesson gets to the heart of the conflicts that arise as particular rhythms get made, released, listened to, and loved.
Objectives
Upon completion of this lesson, students will:
- Know (knowledge):
- The history of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s campaigns against communism
- Statistics regarding televisions in American households in the 1950s and the significance of those figures
- An understanding of “the beat” as a contested subject in American life
- About Jim Crow laws and their effects in 1950s America
- About musician Little Richard’s roots and importance as an African-American Rock and Roll musician
- About “covers” of African-American music recorded by white musicians in the 1950s
- How opposition to Rock and Roll music in the 1950s sometimes focused on “the beat” and its connection to African-American culture
- Be able to (skills):
- Characterize social, economic, and cultural change over time
- Interpret how public reaction to popular music reflects the social norms and values of a particular historical era
- Analyze statements from historical materials to arrive at a better understanding of the past
- Understand connections between popular culture and the time, place and social circumstances in which it was created
- Integrate and evaluate information presented visually, quantitatively, and orally in diverse media and formats
Activities
Motivational Activity:
- Ask your students:
- In music, what is a beat? What do you think of when I say “a beat” or “the beat” in relation to music? (Students may suggest it’s the drums in a song, the rhythm of a song, or the “groove.” One formal definition of “a beat” is: “the organization of sounds and silence in time.”)
- Play Clip 1, Soundbreaking – The Beat Throughout American Popular Music History, directing your students to focus on the sound of the beats they hear throughout the montage of popular music from different eras. Then ask your students:
- In the montage of music from the 1960s through the present in this clip, in what ways did you hear “the beat” change? Did it change drastically, or did you hear elements of “the beat” that remained somewhat constant throughout? (Encourage students to articulate ideas about “the beat” even if they don’t have formal music language to do so. How does it feel? Did it feel like the early Rock and Roll music was drastically different from later Rock? Or was there a common thread connecting the beats from different eras?)
- Now tell your students that you will introduce them to Reverend Jimmie Snow, an anti-Rock and Roll preacher from the 1950s. Play Clip 2, The Rev. Jimmie Snow Preaching Against Rock and Roll (1956). Ask your students:
- Why do you think Jimmie Snow was concerned about “the beat”?
- Reverend Snow seems to believe “the beat” is capable of causing something to happen, what do you think he is afraid of?
- Why do you think Snow and others might have been concerned about the effect of “the beat” on young people in particular?
- Is there a “Jimmie Snow” in our contemporary world? (Encourage students to consider if any of the media they enjoy has been targeted as “unsafe” or “unfit” for young people. How is this like or dislike Snow’s protests?)
Procedure:
- Distribute Handout 1: The Media and Mainstream Culture in the 1950s. Have students read the paragraphs out loud. Help them imagine what many historians have described as the generally conservative cultural climate of the 1950s. Then work through the questions at the bottom of the handout together
- Tell your students that you will now play a song by Little Richard, an African-American performer whose 1955 singles garnered national attention from multiracial audiences. Play Clip 3, Little Richard performing his hit “Tutti Frutti” in 1957. Ask your students:
- How would you describe the beat of “Tutti Frutti”?
- In what ways might you describe Little Richard’s energy as a performer?
- Play Clip 4, Soundbreaking – Describing the Beat of Little Richard and direct your students to write down the words they hear used to describe the beat and rhythms of Richard’s music. Ask your students:
- What words did you hear used to describe Little Richard’s beat? What do these terms suggest about how the music was perceived? (Students should recall the beat being described as “contagious,” having a “visceral power,” “tough” and “a pounding you could feel in your chest.”)
- How do you think Jimmie Snow might respond to the terminology used to describe Little Richard’s beat?
- How do you think this music might fit into the idealized family worlds of Leave it to Beaver or Father Knows Best?
- Considering what you’ve seen so far in this lesson from television in the 1950s, what did Little Richard represent that most Americans were not seeing on TV? (Students might answer: African-American life and music, nightlife, emotional freedom, etc.)
- Now distribute Handout 2: Jim Crow and Musical Integration and have your students take turns reading out loud. Ask your students:
- In what ways might have Little Richard’s popularity, especially his appearances on TV, disrupted nearly century-old Jim Crow laws? (Students might recognize that Little Richard was on TV, therefore he was in the living rooms of white households, despite the rigidly enforced public separation of blacks and whites.)
- How did the White Citizens Council feel about Rock and Roll? For what aspects of Rock and Roll does the WCC express distaste? What do they say about it?
- Why do you think the White Citizens Council focused on “the beat” of Rock and Roll? (Encourage your students to see how the WCC conceives of “the beat” as part of its general, racist stereotypes about African-Americans as “animalistic and vulgar.” To the WCC, “the beat” is black.)
- The White Citizens Council suggested that Rock and Roll would “mongrelize” America. What is a “mongrel”? What do you think the WCC might have meant by this? (Encourage students to recognize that the WCC sees the potential that “the beat” can bring white and black people together in ways they may not be able to stop.)
- Tell your students that there were many responses to Little Richard and other black musicians, both positive and negative, and not all of which were as direct as the statement by the White Citizens Council. Play Clip 5, Pat Boone’s ‘Tutti Frutti’ and ask your students:
- Why do you think Pat Boone released a cover of “Tutti Frutti” so soon after Richard released his own version? What purposes do the people in this clip suggest Boone’s cover of the song served?
- Thinking back to what you’ve seen and heard of Little Richard and Pat Boone, what was visually different about Boone’s performance? (Students might observe that there are actors staged around him, all seated, and there is a relaxed “cool” to the performance, no one is sweating, dancing, etc.)
- Would you describe Boone’s beat as “visceral” or “contagious”? If not, what adjectives would you use?
- Why might this performance have seemed “safer” to White parents or even Jimmie Snow? Which performer do you think would have been more likely to appear on Father Knows Best?
- Would Boone’s performance have eased the White Citizen Councils’ fears of “mongrelization”? How so? (Encourage students to see that on one hand, to some Boone may have seemed a “safe” alternative to Little Richard, while on the other, he is assimilating African-American music, which could be called “mongrelization.”)
Summary Activity:
Ask your students:
- In the midst of concerns over segregation, why do you think “the beat” is what received the most attention from segregationists
- Given all you’ve just heard about “the beat” from the earliest days of American history until the time of Little Richard, what do you think “the beat,” as well as the dancing, feelings and reactions associated with it, represented to people like Jimmie Snow or organizations like the WCC? (Encourage your students to consider that, at the time, the association between “the beat” and black music meant that the beat was a lightning rod for anxieties around race. “The beat” seemed to have the potential to bring whatever stereotypes about Black culture a “concerned” White citizen harbored to life. It was “contagious,” and the WCC was worried about who might “catch” it.)
Writing Prompt/Structured Debate:
Have students break into two groups (or several units of two groups each). Using the below quotes as a guideline, Group A will argue on behalf of Little Richard and Group B will argue on behalf of Pat Boone. This project will work as either a short position paper or a verbal debate.
- Little Richard: “When ‘Tutti Frutti’ came out… They needed a rock star to block me out of white homes because I was a hero to white kids. The white kids would have Pat Boone up on the dresser and me in the drawer ‘cause they liked my version better, but the families didn’t want me because of the image that I was projecting.”
- Pat Boone: “Here’s the bottom line. [In 1955] there were lots of rhythm and blues artists and they were doing well in their genre and they were famous and they had [album sales] charts and everything. The only ones that anyone knows today are the ones that were covered. By the Beatles, by Elvis, by me, by many artists…it introduced them to a far larger audience that they didn’t have any access to at that point.”
© 2016 TeachRock
Standards
Common Core State Standards
College and Career Readiness Reading Anchor Standards for Grades 6-12 for English Language Arts
- Reading 1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text
- Reading 7: Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words
- Reading 8: Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence
- Reading 9: Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take
College and Career Readiness Writing Anchor Standards for Grades 6-12 in English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects
- Writing 1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence
- Writing 4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening for Grades 6-12
- Speaking and Listening 1: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively
- Speaking and Listening 2: Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally
- Speaking and Listening 3: Evaluate a speakers point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric
- Speaking and Listening 4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience
- Speaking and Listening 6: Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Language for Grades 6-12
- Language 1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking
- Language 2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing
- Language 3: Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening
- Language 5: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings
Social Studies – National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)
- Theme 1: Culture
- Theme 2: Time, Continuity, and Change
- Theme 3: People, Places, and Environments
- Theme 4: Individual, Development and Identity
- Theme 5: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
- Theme 6: Power, Authority, and Governance
- Theme 7: Production, Distribution, and Consumption
- Theme 10: Civic Ideals and Practices
National Standards for Music Education
Core Music Standard: Responding
Evaluate: Support evaluations of musical works and performances based on analysis, interpretation, and established criteria
Enduring Understanding: The personal evaluation of musical work(s) and performance(s) is informed by analysis, interpretation, and established criteria
Essential Question: How do we judge the quality of musical work(s) and performances(s)?
Core Music Standard: Connecting
Connecting 10: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make music. Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills relate to personal choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding to music..
Enduring Understanding: Musicians connect their personal interests, experiences, ideas, and knowledge to creating, performing and responding.
Essential Question: How do musicians make meaningful connections to creating, performing, and responding? Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills relate to personal choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding to music?
Connecting 11: Relate musical ideas and works to varied contexts and daily life to deepen understanding. Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life..
Enduring Understanding: Understanding connections to varied contexts and daily life enhances musicians ‘ creating, performing, and responding.
Essential Question: How do the other arts, other disciplines, contexts and daily life inform creating, performing, and responding to music?
National Core Arts Standards
Responding
- Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.
- Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
- Anchor Standard 9: Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.
Connecting
- Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.
- Anchor Standards 11: Relate artistic ideas and work with societal, cultural and historical context to deepen understanding.
Career Technical Education Standards (California Model) – Arts, Media and Entertainment Pathway Standards
Design, Visual and Media Arts (A)
- A1.0 Demonstrate ability to recognize and integrate visual art elements across digital media design applications.
A1.4 Select industry-specific works and analyze the intent of the work and the appropriate use of media.
A1.9 Analyze the material used by a given artist and describe how its use influences the meaning of the work.
A2.0 Apply artistic skills and processes to solve a variety of industry-relevant problems in a variety of traditional and electronic media.
A2.2 Demonstrate personal style and advanced proficiency in communicating an idea, theme or emotion in an industry-relevant artistic product.
A3.0 Analyze and assess the impact of history and culture on the development of professional arts and media products.
A3.2 Describe how the issues of time, place, and cultural influence are reflected in a variety of artistic products.
A3.3 Identify contemporary styles and discuss the diverse social, economic, and political developments reflected in artwork in an industry setting.
A3.5 Analyze similarities and differences of purpose in art created in culturally diverse industry applications.
A4.0 Analyze, assess, and identify effectiveness of artistic products based on elements of art, the principles of design, and professional industry standards.
A4.2 Deconstruct how beliefs, cultural traditions, and current social, economic, and political contexts influence commercial media (traditional and electronic).
A4.4 Analyze the relationship between the artist, artistic product and audience in both an existing and self-generated project.
A4.5 Analyze and articulate how society influences the interpretation and effectiveness of an artistic product.
A5.0 Identify central industry competencies, explore commercial applications and develop a career specific personal plan.
A5.2 Explore the role of art and design across various industry sectors and content areas.
A5.3 Deconstruct works of art, identifying psychological content found in the symbols and images and their relationship to industry and society.
Performing Arts (B)
- B2.0 Read, listen to, deconstruct, and analyze peer and professional music using the elements and terminology of music.
B2.2 Describe how the elements of music are used.
B2.5 Analyze and describe significant musical events perceived and remembered in a given industry generated example.
B2.6 Analyze and describe the use of musical elements in a given professional work that makes it unique, interesting, and expressive.
B2.7 Demonstrate the different uses of form, both past and present, in a varied repertoire of music in commercial settings from diverse genres, styles, and professional applications.
B7.0 Analyze the historical and cultural perspective of multiple industry performance products from a discipline-specific perspective.
B7.3 Analyze the historical and cultural perspective of the musician in the professional setting.
B8.0 Deconstruct the aesthetic values that drive professional performance and the artistic elements necessary for industry production.
B8.1 Critique discipline-specific professional works using the language and terminology specific to the discipline.
B8.2 Use selected criteria to compare, contrast, and assess various professional performance forms.
B8.4 Use complex evaluation criteria and terminology to compare and contrast a variety of genres of professional performance products.