Synopses & Reviews
The beginning of rock and roll as a phenomenon was July 9, 1955, when "Rock Around the Clock" climbed to the pinnacle of the American pop charts to herald the arrival of the youth culture that eventually conquered the world. Rock Around the Clock is the inside story of the beginning of modern youth culture in the early 1950s, culminating in Bill Haley and His Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" the first rock and roll hit and one of the biggest-selling singles of all time and its explosive role in Blackboard Jungle, one of Hollywood's first films to deal with postwar youth culture gone wrong. The combination of uninhibited music and cinematic juvenile delinquency inextricably connected rock and roll with teenage rebellion in the public mind. The record also led to the making of Rock Around the Clock, the first rock and roll movie.
Synopsis
(Book). Music detective Jim Dawson reveals the real story of rock 'n' roll's beginnings like it's never been told before. It's all here, from the song's murky origins and Bill Haley's early struggles as a professional musician, to the record's explosion through motion pictures like The Blackboard Jungle and Haley's resulting success and eventual burnout. Dawson makes the case that "Rock Around the Clock" besides being the first national No. 1 rock 'n' roll hit killed Tin Pan Alley and heralded the beginning of modern youth culture.