CrystalinaBalenaGalena's Blog

“Grow up to be whatever you want to be”
Sure, it sounds nice, but what parents, teachers, authority and society lack to mention are the conditions: “Grow up to be whatever you want to be ... as long as it complies with the rules we (society) warrant, so we can ensure order and power remain in our favor.”

Admittedly, society probably does not conspire methodically against its youth, however the conditions exist subconsciously. Young adults are not considered children, yet are debarred from “growing up." They are handicapped from contributing their beliefs to society, because society neither trusts the shift in power of young people’s voices nor care that young people feel trapped in an inferior position under the constraints of society. Young adults are cemented where society wants to keep them. Naturally, young adults react once they realize their existence is being undermined, and just as naturally, "authority" feels threatened and reacts back.

This division between the generations transcends time. The youth of the past, present and future all experienced it and are connected because of it. For the past 50 years, America’s young people have cultivated new beginnings, changing the course of societal norms. Each decade owns its own story, and each decade cries out to the future youth of America, and one way they did that was through rock 'n' roll.

Rock ‘n’ roll, man, rock ‘n’ roll
Dated back to the 1950s, rock ‘n’ roll provided an outlet for young adults to make their voice heard. In November 1955, Little Richard introduced his legendary "Tutti-Frutti" and set the pace for the rock world. Not only did it set the pace, it taught the rock ‘n’ roll world how to scream.

"The scream" is about making the “private public." The scream is “an ecstatic moment in which the shackles of everyday life are shattered and an individual human voice (heart, soul) achieves and celebrates freedom.../of unrestrained sexuality, spirituality and musicality”1. Screaming out, crying out was to find a sense of being in a senseless world. And it was that “scream” that drew in people.

Rock ‘n’ roll provided young people a chance to scream, to step out of the boundaries limited by society and opened them to realities society ignored. The ideology of rock ‘n’ roll was about believing in something and getting creative about it, which spoke to the hearts of America’s youth. Rock ‘n’ roll could be anything young people made of it. It was a personal endeavor, with personal meaning. Its energy provided a center for political, cultural and social change, and rock ‘n’ roll, at least for the youth of the early decades, was about self-existence. About their voice.

But immediately rock ‘n’ roll became a threat to “authority.”

In the 1950s, “so-called riots” had to be subdued. These “riots” were described as “kids dancing in the aisles at theaters; jiving in their seats; and stomping, clapping, and yelling a lot — having a good time”2. These concerts were policed, and kids who showed any emotion were reprimanded and forced to be imperturbable. This oppression boiled inside the youth of the 1950s, and so began a fire that descended through the decades.

In the words of Billy Joel: “We didn’t start the fire. It was always burning”
Adults and authority figures feared rock and roll’s impact on young people. Rock ‘n’ roll represented a power shift. Young people reigned over rock, because it was often sung, played and written only by young people3.

Young people, through music, were shaping, changing and molding the adult world to accommodate their lifestyles, desires and experiences. This left “authority” feeling paralyzed and trapped, so they retaliated.

Adults claimed rock impelled teenagers to “rise up and defy their elders, to flaunt their morality, to mock their ideals, to break away from adult control, to reject the adult world”4.

With adults voicing their opposition against rock, youth rebelled. But it seems that perhaps they were not “rejecting” the values of the adult world, they only were trying to incorporate their own ideas into society. But the constant tug of war caused animosity to surge. Adults viewed youth as defiant; and teens and young adults saw their ideas as antiquated.

Neither could “grow up” to be what they wanted to be.

For young adults, though, rock ‘n’ roll became their escape and allowed them to lean on each other for support. Rock was an “expression of a generation consciousness.../[an] experience of community and togetherness, wrenching teenagers out of their isolation in the family, school, at work, or in the universities and reflecting their own frustrations of their whole generation”5.

The individual interpretations derived from rock ‘n’ roll songs gave rise to a youth culture completely dissevered from the adult world and ultimately from society as well. Young people were being united by the melodies calling out for freedom; they simultaneously moved further away from an ideal co-existence with adults. Their suppressed emotions were starting to surface, and the youth felt ready to fight for a place in the world.

Hollywood’s projections
Young people’s rebellion created a state of instability and gave rise to questions like, “where and how do we go from here.” The media world, or probably more accurately Hollywood, was a separate predator from “authority” altogether.

Rock ‘n’ roll followers were “totally manipulated by an all-embracing ideology of consumption;” it was no longer clear whether they actually believed in the 'ideological meanings rock stood for or whether they had become 'spiritually enslaved to commerce'"6. Young people got caught up in the ideals the media presented and regurgitated the image media illustrated. The ideas presented seemed exciting. It seemed like the youth’s ideas were being voiced, but in reality the ideas young people had were only the ideas projected on them by the media. Young people were still being enslaved, but this time the extent of manipulation was seemingly concealed.

Young people were so determined not to be exploited that they made themselves vulnerable to be exploited. The media fostered young people’s uncertainties, so they could profit from the ignorant trust of America’s young people. In the movie "Blackboard Jungle," the opening song was "Rock Around the Clock."

Like said before, each young person personalized rock and roll songs, giving it his or her own meaning. However, once rock and roll songs were linked with a mass-marketed image, that image seemed to automatically become what the song meant. Consequently, the image associated with the song "Rock Around the Clock," were students behind a playground fence at a school. The playground fence suggested the kids were constricted by school rules and locked in by a “jail cell”7. This concept remained instilled for the rest of the movie where the kids set forth on renegade acts against authority, including smashing jazz records brought in by their teacher. The media marketed rock ‘n’ roll and defined what rock ‘n’ roll represented for both the youth and adult worlds.

Youth found these propaganda-type movies to be encouraging. They wanted to break out of their “jail cells,” too. But at the same time, the images secured the adults’ perception that rock ‘n’ roll was synonymous with juvenile delinquency. Hollywood used the mind-frame of young people as to manipulate them and fueled adults’ perhaps skewed perceptions. Alas, the media’s sole purpose was to make profits, but at the same time the images presented by the media encouraged young insurgents to continue their crusade against the norms, and in some cases, that meant rebelling disrespectfully.

Extreme rock ‘n’ roll
Rock ‘n’ roll became what authorities feared: inspiring acts of violent protest.

While authorities wrongly accused rock ‘n’ roll of being the cause of violence, the youth fulfilled the expectations. Their outcries became outcries against submission and oppression, while simultaneously submitting to a new jail cell. This jail was barred by hate, dividing the generations, and killing what rock ‘n’ roll originally strived to do. What once was a pursuit for freedom became a pursuit for destruction.

Times were moving forward, Vietnam and criticism of capitalism were under fire. People were changing. Experience and situations fueled young people to speak out ... and they finally felt like they were in the position to do so. A revolution was taking place. What once seemed impossible was happening. Young people were “celebrating their own impossibility in rock”8. Meaning their lives began to mean something through rock and roll, their voices began to be heard through rock and roll. Rock ‘n’ roll evolved into an ideology, all in itself. It was about “the control gained by taking risks of losing control” and people began to find their identity by refusing the identities society left for them9.

Young people were beginning to be brave in the position they held. And, even then, young people credited their bravery to rock.

In 1967, The Rolling Stones were welcomed into San Francisco by an elaborate manifesto established by college students professing their loyalty to rock music and what they thought rock music was striving for:
“Greetings and welcome Rolling Stones, our comrades in the desperate battle against the maniacs who hold power. The revolutionary youth of the world hears your music and is inspired to even more deadly acts. We fight in the guerilla bands against the invading imperialists in Asia and South America, we riot at the rock ‘n’ roll concerts everywhere...
They call us dropouts and delinquents and draft-dodgers and punks and hopheads and heap tons of shit on our heads. In Viet Nam they drop bombs on us and in America they try to make us make war on our own comrades but the bastards hear us playing you on our little transistor radios and know that they will not escape the blood and fire of the anarchist revolution.

We will play your music in rock ‘n’ roll marching bands as we tear down the jails and free the prisoners, as we tear down the State schools and free the students, as we tear down the military bases and arm the poor ... and create a new society from the ashes of our fires.

Comrades, you will return to this country when it is free from the tyranny of the State and you will play your splendid music in factories run by the workers, in the domes of emptied city halls, on the rubbles of police stations, under the hanging corpses of priests, under a million red flags waving over a million anarchist communities...ROLLING STONES – THE YOUTH OF CALIFORNIA HEARS YOUR MESSAGE! LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION!!! 10”

Revolution, indeed. The search for peace was over. What once was rebelling against the onslaught of societal norms, became rebelling against the nation. Young people no longer stood for the arrogance their country seemed to convey. Young people were calling for action. And, rock led the way. Rock ‘n’ roll gave young people something to free themselves and satisfy their liberal desires. The youth of America were replying to the outcries of their hearts and using music as a tool for aggressive communication.

Each decade created another layer of rock ‘n’ roll, defining rock ‘n’ roll as a menace to society. Each decade defined rock ‘n’ roll so they could distinguish the classes of society. Rioting progressively took on a new criterion as each decade added the next layer to rock ‘n’ roll. Young people and adults both wanted freedom. But, their different methods of getting to that point caused them to move further from their freedom in a continuous cycle of fighting, rather than closer to acceptance. Some say the power to change society was granted to one “particular generation” of youth, referring specifically to the 60's and 70's 11. This notion cannot be entirely true, though. The youth of the past molded a future identity, and coincidentally, the present day youth is the result.
Classrooms, books, the ever-present media, knowledge, etc. become the outlet for contemporary young people. Every youth generation echoes a part of the youth generations past. The generation of today, still feels the oppression. However, what separates the generation of today is the attitude adjustment. It is not apathy, but empathy. Even though many may disagree, today’s youth feel compelled to unite, rather than disunite. They search for understanding and compromise.

But in the end … it’s still just rock ‘n’ roll to me.

Sources:
Epstein, Jonathon S., ed. Adolescents And Their Music: If it’s too loud, you’re too old. New York & London: Garland, 1994. Extracted from article: Grossberg, Lawrence. “The Political Stature of Youth and Youth Culture”

Martin, Linda and Segrave, Kerry. Anti-Rock: The Opposition to Rock ‘n’ Roll. Hamden: Archon, 1988.

Wicke, Peter. Rock Music: Culture, aesthetics and sociology. New York: Cambridge, 1990.

Williams, Paul. Rock and Roll: The Best 100 Singles. New York: Caroll &Graf, 1993.

Living out on my own for a little bit has made me realize that if I was married to Ricky Ricardo, he'd be shouting "Lucy!" in that Spanish accent of his all the time.

Here are some thoughts of the day (3-12-11):
- Fabric softener and laundry detergent are not the same thing.
- Whoops...I hope that's not broken. Better go see.
- Phew. It's not broken.
- My toast flies. Awesome.
- I'm pretty sure I just ruined a wooden floor. I shouldn't be allowed to water plants.
- "I'm going to go farm my milk."
- Happy Birthday Stephanie! Funny Steph quote: "I'll take this one since I coughed on it."
- Funny Jessica quote: "Did you get all the corners down?" pointing to a circular cookie cake.
- I ate tilapia. And, I liked it. Happy Red Lobster Day!
- The wait is an hour and a half? Solution: Shopping.
- I don't think I really got these clothes clean.
- Did I get the mail?
- Did I feed the cat?
- I hope I'm vacuuming right.
- Liz gets really funny if you talk about her not being able to get out of the parking lot at Kohls. bahahahaha!
- "Soutney"
- Nemo be sweet.