Inhaltliche Zusammenfassung: | "Dancing Black, Dancing White: Rock and Roll, Race, and Youth Culture of the 1950s and Early 1960s explores the phenomenon of rock and roll dance of the 1950s and early 1960s, a time of egregious racial prejudice and segregation in the U.S., through the lens of the popular televised teen dance program. Both dance history and social history, Dancing Black, Dancing White traces the experiences of Black and white teenagers as they traverse the enticing world of rock and roll music and dance. Several occurrences took shape during this time: the ascendancy of rock and roll music and recorded sound; the rise of the "teenager"; the beginnings of television, and the country's struggle with race. The shows were primarily segregated, and the book examines how white teenagers took Black dances and dance styles into their own bodies. At the same time, the book explores the few all-Black teen dance shows that existed-before Soul Train-and considers how both white and Black teenagers navigated the color line. While their experiences differed, in both cases the desire of the teenagers was to have a space of their own where they could be seen, heard, appreciated, and understood, and in many ways the teen dance shows fulfilled these aims"--
Dancing Black, Dancing White: Rock 'n' Roll, Race, and Youth Culture of the 1950s and Early 1960s offers a new look at the highly popular phenomenon of the televised teen dance program. These teen shows were incubators of new styles of social and popular dance and both reflected and shaped pressing social issues of the day. Often referred to as "dance parties," the televised teen dance shows helped cultivate a nascent youth culture in the post-World War IIera. The youth culture depicted on the shows, however, was primarily white. Black teenagers certainly had a youth culture of their own, but the injustice was glaring: Black culture was not always in evident display on the airwaves, as television, like the nation at large, was deeply segregated and appealed toa primarily white, homogenous audience. The crux of the book, then, is twofold: to explore how social and popular dance styles were created and disseminated within the new technology of television and to investigate how the shows both reflected and re-affirmed the racial politics and attitudes of the time. The 1950s was a watershed decade for American culture and dance. The era witnessed the ascendancy of rock and roll music and recorded sound, the rise of the teenager as a marketing demographic, the beginnings of television, and a new phase of the country's struggle with race. The story of televised teen dance told here is about Black and white teenagers wanting to dance to rock 'n' roll music despite the barriers placed on their ability to do so. It is also a story that fuses issues of race,morality, and sexuality. Dancing Black, Dancing White weaves together these elements to tell two stories: that of the different experiences of Black and white adolescents and their desires to have a space of their own where they could be seen, heard, appreciated, and understood |
