As if rock didn't already have enough problems in 1959. Chuck Berry was in jail, Little Richard was in the ministry, Elvis was in the army and Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper (who we'll see later on) weren't anywhere. Rock's final pioneer, the only one who could save the music the kids loved was... marrying his cousin? Jerry Lee Lewis decided, poorly, that his thirteen-year-old cousin would be a suitable bride, and when the press found out about this, they had a field day. He was shunned, by radio stations, television stations, record labels and fans. In one the National Enquirer's "100 biggest scandals of the century", he had, with one astounding action killed rock (for the time being.)
The Ed Sullivan Show was a family show. That's why, when they found out Elvis Presley was going to be on, the were scared. Frightened. Terrified. They knew about him and his irrepressable hips. They knew they had to do something, or they'd lose their audience. So it came to them: why not just cut out his hips and legs? Just don't film them, and there will be no problem. For that reason alone, Presley was allowed to go to the air, creating an even larger following than the one he already had. They hadn't tamed Elvis, only made him more... appealing to the general public.
The Newport Folk Festival had always been a traditional affair, with folkies from far and wide coming to perform for folkie audiences. With the rise of protest music, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and many other modern artists were invited to perform. But in 1964, Dylan brought his electric guitar and a completely new sound that horrified the audience. He had "gone electric", and as one popular singer said, "when Dylan went electric, that was it. We could do anything we wanted. And we did." Purist folkies never forgave Dylan for it, and rock history never forgot him for it. He had brought folk into the mainstream and had spawned the main music of the hippie generation.
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