By the time Elvis, The Beach Boys, and other legends of 50’s and 60’s rock came on the scene, the innovations in American technology had started to effect not just the record business but the production of music itself. New sounds could be produced, and new ways of reaching the audience with those sounds became part of every big-time performer’s repertoire.
Television
Though invented back in the dark ages of 1930, the 1950’s marked the ascendancy of TV, with 37 million sets in America broadcasting to all corners of the country. Taking advantage of the huge audience for popular music, showmen such as Dick Clark took Top 40 onto the screen, creating shows like American Bandstand to showcase new performers. Though the industry creating the stars was somewhat dampened by the 1959 investigations into payola (DJ’s playing records for bribes), the use of television could create stars out of nothing but a pearly smile and some teenage love songs. Frankie Avalon and Bobby Rydell, and later bands such as the Monkees, rose to fame through the popularity of the new medium.
But the stars on TV weren’t the only influence on rock music. With many former radio shows shifting to television, the airwaves were free for more musical content, even that beyond the usual Top 40 format. Niche stations playing rock of all kinds could spring up, creating the music scene which made the rise of performers from Elvis to Bob Dylan (Coleman 7, 71-76; Szatmary 46, 56-59).
Radio and Record Players
Radio technology was also shifting to keep up. In 1957, Sony introduced an affordable portable radio, suitable for consumption by the growing numbers of young music enthusiasts. This increase in radio consumption culminated in the Top 40 format, which set radio programming to prevent more cases of payola. This strict control couldn’t last. In 1953, Columbia released the portable record player, which used transistors rather than vacuum tubes to decrease the weight and fragility (Bower).This made music affordable to almost anyone, taking some power away from radio and putting it in the hands of consumers. The people’s choice came to rule the day: radio could introduce people to music, but it was not the main form of consumption after higher-fidelity speaker technology reproduced the sound quality of radio records in the home (Coleman 79-87).
Demo of a suitcase model record player. Video: “Record Player Play ‘Rinka Tinka Man’ by Guy Lombardo (1956)” by Bryan Mullins/ BY CC 2.0)
Instrument Innovations
What most influenced the sound of rock, however, were the new instruments and hardware which gave birth to rock as we know it. In 1952, Gibson brought out the Les Paul electric guitar, which helped shift the style of music from crooning to strumming in less than a generation. Though R&B greats such as Howlin Wolf were the first to electrify their music, the addition of a new instrument to the lineup made it mainstream. With the addition of on-stage amplifiers, musicians could play for large crowds and still have their music sound record-quality. The era of arena concerts was born (Coleman 94; Szatmary 10).
TEchno Music: The Technology of Rock N' Roll 
2 Comments