Changes in Music, Entertainment, Media & Literature (WJEC Eduqas GCSE History): Revision Note

Summary

The second half of the 20th century saw American popular culture transform beyond all recognition. The rock’n’roll that emerged in the 1950s was an enormous break with what had come before. Things continued to change and evolve, and disco, heavy metal and hip hop, amongst others, would all become hugely popular styles of music as the decades passed. 

The American movie industry continued to be successful despite the popularity of television from the 1950s onwards. The development of video cassette recorders (VCRs) enabled film studios to sell and rent their movies after they had appeared in cinemas. The Information Technology revolution began towards the end of the 20th century, with computers and games consoles commonly found in American homes. As the century came to a close, computers connected to the internet became increasingly common.

Literature also changed during the 20th century, and the search for the Great American novel led to a more realistic and less glamorous portrayal of American society in novels.

Changes in Music in the US

Rock’n’roll and the 1950s

• Rock’n’roll was a new style of music and dance which developed in postwar USA

  • It had strong links to rhythm and blues (R&B) music

• Rock’n’roll appealed to young people

  • Artists sang about love and the experience of youth

  • Artists influenced the fashion that young people wore

• Older generations did not approve of rock’n’roll

  • They believed that rock’n’roll artists were a bad influence on young people because:

    • The lyrics promoted promiscuity

    • The music encouraged disrespect towards authority figures

    • They believed that artists encouraged young people to commit criminal activities

    • Young people drank alcohol and used drugs at rock’n’roll concerts

• Popular rock’n’roll musicians in the 1950s and 1960s include:

  • Elvis Presley

  • The Beatles

• The Black American rock’n’roll artists who became popular with white audiences included:

  • Chuck Berry

  • Little Richard

The ‘British Invasion’ and the 1960s

• British rock’n’roll bands became popular in America in the 1960s, such as 

  • The Beatles

  • The Rolling Stones, 

  • The Animals

  • The Who 

• Rock’n’roll began to evolve and develop, and hard rock and folk rock artists began to emerge

  • These new styles, sung by artists such as Bob Dylan, became associated with protest and rebellion

Disco, Heavy Metal and Hip Hop from the 1970s to 2000

• The late twentieth century saw an explosion in creativity and experimentation in American music

• The development of electronic music and synthesisers developed in disco music in the 1970s

  • Millions of Americans went out at the weekend to dance to songs by artists such as 

    • Donna Summer

    • Chic 

    • The Bee Gees

  • Disco was especially popular with women and was seen by many as a reaction to the male-dominated hard rock

• The hard rock of bands such as Led Zeppelin got even harder during the 1970s and 1980s, and bands such as Black Sabbath, Motörhead and Iron Maiden had millions of fans

  • This type of music became known as heavy metal

• In the late 1970s and early 1980s, rap and hip hop music emerged from Black American communities in cities on the East Coast 

  • Hip hop soon became mainstream and wildly popular with Black and white audiences in both America and around the world

Changes in Entertainment in the US

Cinema

• The American movie industry continued to thrive throughout the second half of the 20th century

  • The development of widescreen colour movies and drive-in theatres and multiplexes meant that a night at the movies was still enjoyed by millions of Americans

• In the 1970s, studios began producing expensive ‘blockbuster’ movies such as Jaws and Star Wars

  • The development of the home video cassette recorder (VCR) meant that film studios could make more money from renting and selling video cassette tapes

  • By the 1990s, over 75% of American homes had VCRs

Changes in Media in the US

Television

• A visit to the cinema remained very popular despite television becoming increasingly popular as the 20th century progressed

• Television was invented in the early 1900s

• By 1960, 87% of US homes owned a television

  • Television became more affordable after the Second World War

  • Television replaced radio in popularity

• In the 1950s, popular television shows included

  • I Love Lucy 

    • A sitcom starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz

  • Perry Mason

    • A legal drama following a criminal defence lawyer

  • The Twilight Zone

    • A fantasy science fiction horror show

• Many US families watched cartoons

  • They were made for both children and adult audiences

  • By the 1960s, television had colour technology

  • In the 1960s, the most popular cartoons were:

    • Top Cat

    • The Flintstones

• TV shows reflected the key American values of:

  • The American Dream

  • Traditional family structures

• Long-running dramas known as soap operas, such as Dallas and Dynasty, became hugely popular in the 1970s and 1980s

• Chat shows, such as Donahue and the Oprah Winfrey Show, gathered audiences of millions and made their hosts household names

• TV shows had sponsors and used product placement

  • People had more money to buy consumer goods

  • If their favourite character used the product, they would be more likely to purchase it

  • This increased consumerism

Information Technology

• The end of the 20th century saw the arrival of personal computers (PCs) in millions of American homes

  • Although PCs were made by a large variety of companies, such as IBM, the software they operated on became dominated by Microsoft

  • Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates, and by the 1990s, nearly all computers ran on Microsoft Windows

• In the early 1990s, user-friendly interfaces were developed that enabled many Americans to access the internet for the first time

• Use of the internet grew enormously throughout the 1990s and drove the sales of even more PCs

• Game consoles first became available in the 1970s, but the arrival of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985 led to gaming becoming extremely popular

  • By 1989, over 20 million NES consoles had been sold in America

  • Nintendo’s success was followed in the 1990s by Sega, and then Sony and Microsoft with their PlayStation and Xbox consoles

• Information technology had an enormous impact on both business and leisure in America

  • American companies such as Apple, Amazon and Google were all founded at the end of the 20th century

  • They were soon to become some of the biggest and most valuable companies in the world

• The move to spending so much leisure time on computers and games consoles has led many people to blame them for an increase in obesity levels in America

Changes in Literature in the US

• During the 20th century, there was a growing belief that American culture had fully developed

  • Americans started to believe that their arts, music and literature were now as good or better than those of Europe

• In literature, this led to the quest to write the ‘great American novel’

  • This was a work that would be seen to define what it meant to be American and reflect America’s unique and diverse society

• No single book was ever declared to be ‘the great American novel’

  • However, many novelists became world famous for their novels, such as 

    • Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

    • F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

  • After the Second World War, novelists were given great praise for their novels, such as

    • J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

    • Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, which dealt with themes of rebellion, mental illness and racism