Summary of All Shook Up: How Rock N' Roll Changed America by Glenn C. Altschuler

Historian Glenn C. Altschuler's book, All Shook Up: How Rock n' Roll Changed America, is a fascinating analysis of the impact that rock n' roll music has made upon American culture. Altschuler introduces a stunning way of conveying the culture conflicts of the music, which arose from the introduction of the foot-tapping, hip-swaying music now known as rock n' roll. He not only draws examples from the popular artists of the time, but also incorporates the reactions from those who listened to and experienced the rock n' roll movement. Though rock n' roll music was the creation of young African Americans, its effects altered an entire nation.

Altschuler's book takes special caution to inform the reader of the unique events and people of rock n' roll, while exploring how the rock n' roll culture roughly integrated with, replaced and conflicted with preceding cultural values. This is especially apparent in his chapters regarding race and sexuality. Altschuler's chapter examining race relations during the rock n' roll movement is all-encompassing. He explains the vast majority of emotions, feelings, values and stereotypes that are hard to find from any one point of view on the subject. Altschuler strategically begins with the political context of the rock n' roll movement, noting it was a moment where Black people were beginning to identify and assert themselves racially (p. 35-37). Segregationist whites were threatened by a sweeping wave of Supreme Court judgments in favor of integration and the Black community in general (i.e. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas and a victory for the Montgomery Improvement Association in the desegregation of city busses.) Rock n' roll was a symbol of Black empowerment to White people, especially to racists. Many White people of the time were accustomed to and valued a separation of the races, but were now legally forced to operate against those segregationist values. The resistance to rock n' roll music, highly enjoyed by young White kids, was a culmination of all the hostility and tension of the Civil Rights movement. The resistance was manifested in two ways: some Whites used rock n' roll music as a focus-point for an open campaign of anti-Black sentiment and others excluded Blacks from public media outlets. The Ku Klux Klan and other White-supremacist organizations regained activity, openly preaching the exaggerated consequences of listening to rock n' roll music. (p. 37-8) The term "jungle music" was used to describe the rock n' roll beat, declaring it would cause the White youth to lose their sense of humanity and dignity while mixing races.

This kind of resistance to the rock n' roll movement often came to physical assaults on Black performers. Altschuler presents a stunning account of an assault on Nat King Cole, arguably one of the most docile African American performers of the time. (p. 39) While performing at a Whites-only venue, a mob rushed the stage and beat him. Nat King Cole not only suffered the bruising from the White audience who ambushed him, but also a tongue lashing from Black activists who scolded him for not demanding integrated venues to begin with (p. 41). The mainstream White response to the attack was a number of media slurs, accusing the attack was spurred by the wild "jungle music" and insinuating to readers Cole's intention of having sex with White concertgoers.

This kind of resistance to rock n' roll was violent and messy; the other resistance wasn't as blatant, but just as debilitating to Black rock n' roll artists. White radio producers were beginning to hide Black performers from White audiences. Altschuler uses the terms "bleached" or "Cloroxed" to describe covers of Black music. (p. 35, 51) White producers would pick a White singer, choose a tune with hit-potential from a Black artist, and have the White singer perform the song without the provocative dancing or emotive moaning of the original version. This was a multiple win for the White producer: the Black artist would be kept from mainstream, the White producer was still making the money from the Black artist's song, and White kids were idolizing the White singer. Iconic artists like Pat Boone, Elvis and Georgia Gibbs made their start by assisting in the exploitation of Black artists. (p. 51) Black artists were replaced by more-polished, White impersonators; that is, until the White disc jockeys had enough options to play rock n' roll music continuously without broadcasting a single Black voice.

The conflicts of rock n' roll music are direct reflections of both the institutional resistances of Whites to integration and the widespread exploitations of Blacks across the country in many industries. Altschuler exposes cleavage between rock n' roll and moral cultures: sexuality. He brings up another political consideration, regarding youths and contraceptives. He mentions that only two states kept laws prohibiting contraceptive circulation in the 1950s; once again, the rock n' roll revolution coincided with an institutional revolution, one that happened to acknowledge youth sex. (p. 67) The older generation viewed these new policies toward contraceptives as a condoning unscrupulous sexual behavior, and eliminating the punishments of immorality like pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Before this, the reigning values were that young people should abstain from sex completely. However, the value publically espoused in government eventually became that young people should engage in safe sex. The rock n' roll message was even more extreme, calling youths to forget the consequences and engage in sexual play. Young people felt they could relate to the rock n' roll stars, longing for a more passionate relationship than the censored ones shown in the movies (p. 68).

Sex in rock n' roll music was fronted as a new, fun activity and was presented as the norm of what happens when young people fall in love. The older generation used many tactics to resist the trend. Altschuler presents numerous ways adults tried to divert the message of sex from rock n' roll music. One way was "bleaching" the music as discussed earlier, replacing vulgar lines with wholesome ones. Another method was magazine campaigning; parental guides and "girl talks" were being printed to show the masses that people still valued pre-marital abstinence. (p. 69) There were petitions and requests for radio stations to not play sexually-explicit lyrics, but response was not as powerful as expected. The situation eventually escalated into full censorship, until disc jockeys and music hall owners refused to play Black records in general. (p. 73) The truth is that the White artists who impersonated the Black rock n' rollers saved the movement. They cleaned up both the sound and look of rock n' roll, until White parents would accept it. Parents did not want their sons and daughters listening to wild rocker Little Richard Penniman, but would let them listen to Pat Boone. The parental guard was let down by the White rock n' roll artists. Soon, White faces like Elvis Presley and Jerry Lewis were reintroducing the sexuality of rock n' roll music and launched it into mainstream legend. (p. 95-98)

Natural speculation suggests that rock n' roll would never had been so controversial had it not been for the sexual revolutions and conflicts going on throughout the mid 1900s. Altschuler gives striking descriptions of the conflicts of the rock n' roll movement. He argued rock n' roll, and its opposition, was reflective of the Civil Rights movement. He also pointed out that the severe resistance to the sexuality in rock n' roll was very likely started by a change in government policy to allow contraceptives. In both cases, rock n' roll music stirred up a whole generation. It shows that a culture conflict usually always has a deeper context to be found. It can only be imagined if and how the government could shake up today's pop culture like it did for the people of the 1950s.

Source:

Altschuler, Glenn. All Shook Up: How Rock 'n' Roll Changed America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.