The Rockin' 50's: The Decade that Transformed the Pop Music Scene

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (repeating a phrase that has been said so many times), this book by the late Arnold Shaw is a gold mine. Besides covering, in detail, the people and the music of that era, Shaw absolutely tells it like it was: The music that has become known as "Rock 'N Roll" was borne out of the musical creativity of African Americans, then called "Rhythm & Blues." I read this book during the late 70's and found it refreshing -- to say the least -- to read a respected white American musicologist simply giving credit where it's due. Unfortunately, for that reason, very few white Americans will read -- or perhaps even believe -- this book, for the now white-dominated field of "Rock 'N Roll," with it's blind insistance that Elvis is "the King," gives too many white Americans what they need: their own music, and a king. So this book belongs to the future, when a more honest, less self-diluted, generation of Americans search for the truth. Till then I reccomend this book be purchased and put on your shelf. Your decedents will love you for doing so.

Shaw's insider status in the music industry, and his openness to all kinds of music from all eras, puts the fifties in perspective to the decades before it, and sets the stage for what's come since.