Author: Richard Aquila

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 430

ISBN-13: 9780252069192

From the huge success of the Chords' "Sh-Boom" to the arrival of the Beatles a decade later, rock 'n' roll influenced an entire generation of young Americans. Combining popular culture and social history with a sourcebook of lists and a biographical dictionary, That Old-Time Rock & Roll recreates the fun and excitement of rock's first decade and shows how the music reflected American life and thought in the 1950s and early 1960s. Richard Aquila provides an overview of the birth and growth of this pivotal genre and demonstrates early rock's links to both the youth culture and the dominant culture of the Eisenhower/Kennedy era. Year-by-year timelines and a photo essay place the music in historical perspective by illustrating the decade's top news stories, movies, TV shows, fads, and lifestyles. Complementing this topical summary is a concise biographical dictionary that details all the performers who made the charts between 1954 and 1963, along with the label and chart position of each hit. Both a history of the music and a history of the times, That Old-Time Rock & Roll is an outstanding source of information about the charter members of the baby-boom generation. In a new introduction, Aquila discusses how his long-time interest in rock 'n' roll came to fruition and surveys the progress of rock 'n' roll scholarship since his book's original publication.