1960 (Part I: Rock is Mass-Produced)

In last week's article, we witnessed the death of Early Rock. Early Rock had propelled rock to music's centre stage, with everyone suddenly buying into the somewhat corrupted image of rock being clean-cut and proper. American Bandstand, having avoided the payola charges that plagued every other major music promoter, put forth its new brand of young, mediocre-talented white artists. This, combined with the loss of Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, was the final polished nail in the coffin of rock's raw energy and seemingly the beginning of a new, more acceptable form of music. Certainly this is true, if you go only by what songs dominated the charts and the airways. On the forefront, rock was simpler and calmer, but new upheaval were getting started behind the scenes. With them would come a new social conscience and a desire to change things which had been clouded over by the energy of Early Rock.

The payola scandals pretty much cleared the way for a new, almost manufactured form of music. Payola was a term given for DJ's who received payment in return for promoting artists on the air. Almost all of the early DJ's went to court, including Alan Freed. Radio stations across the country had stopped playing "raw" rock and roll and started playing more docile and acceptable records. Payola cleared all the rough edges off rock and cleared the way for Dick Clark's teen idols to take over. Adults had won the struggle to regain control over their children. The new teens were open to accept this, however. Having never really known the freedom their older compatriots had, they were more than happy to buy into this image of the artist being not so much respected for his music, but more the entire package of his performance.

The industrialization of rock also began. These new teen idols weren't song writers, and needed someone to help them churn out the hits. Don Kirshner was one of the first people to realize this, who, along with his partner Al Nevins, started the recording company Three Suns. They rented the now famous Brill Building and reshaped the previously established Tin Pan Alley productions for the new teen market. A new breed of song writers appeared, who were able to sit down at the piano in the morning, and come out at five o'clock with ten new songs, just like any other job. This gave the commercial music industry a chance to exercise some control over the music and keep it respectable. The new songs were sent towards subjects that teens were interested in, but only those that could be discussed at the dinner table. The two most understated and probably most important writers were Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. They wrote countless songs for countless artists, from Elvis to the Platters to the Coasters. Their brand of songs were simple, non-controversial ballads and slightly upbeat tunes that they could produce on a quota basis. Although they didn't really receive much recognition at the time, today their influence is known to almost all students of rock.

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