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What were some differences between parent’s music vs. teen’s music in the 1950's?

The 1950’s were transition years from World War II when songs were about coming back home, missing you in your absence, etc.(ending in 1943) to a time of prosperity, domestic calm (augmented by innovations in appliances and household goods), and social togetherness, before the 1960's eruption of beatniks, flower-children, and anti-war activists.  Music from the 1950’s divided between the romantic, sentimental songs and singers such as Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Ray, and Tammy Wynette – ballad singers singing about the ups and downs of personal love (“Cry,” “Twas Just a Garden in the Rain,” etc.), popular with adults, and the emerging younger teen market whose idols were Elvis Presley, Motown (a strong emergence of Black singers and groups such as the Supremes), and the beginning of “Rock ‘n Roll.”  So the main difference was the target audience age group for the music business.  Add to this the popularity of 45’s vs. 33 rpms and the growing availability of television music programs, and the portrait of popular music changed drastically, paving the way for the British Invasion.

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