All Shook Up: How Rock 'N' Roll Changed America (Pages 60-80)

Title: All Shook Up: How Rock 'N' Roll Changed America
Author: Glenn C. Altschuler
Pages: 60-80
Chapters: 2-3

SUMMARY: Little Richard and other black rock 'n' roll bands began to march and make history as their flamboyant shouts attracted many fans including white girls. Little Richard became famous with the hit "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Frutti," however, they had to change the lyrics simply purifying it for all audiences. Despite the purifying, Little Richard was still a hit even among whites. The people feared their uprising into the white society because white girls were all over him. Others simply stepped back because they thought he was homosexual. Little Richard used to do lots of make up which is why he was ambivalent about his homosexuality and danger to appear threatening to whites. Chuck Berry began to approach and adapt to his white listeners. This gave him and Little Richard a voice to black culture and social aspiration. Berry became one of the first rock 'n' roll superstar with his instant hits. He created his song in a way where it held different meanings of race and oppression. The racial innuendo went to another limit when Berry released his song "Brown-eyed handsome man," which lyrics' contained superiority of a brown-eyed man over other men, even doctors and lawyers. After a while, Berry began to cut down on the racial stuff so fans wouldn't view it as bias and stopped presenting his characters in the song as colored men. Unlike other rock 'n' roll era, '50s was a simple one which emphasized on love and marriage not teenage sex and pleasure. It was less formidable and opposite of what critics feared. This '50s rock 'n' roll music brought parents to the attention of sex. Parents magazines began to give instruction on talking to their kids about sex. Even high school sex courses began to attract more parents. This didn't feel like Rock 'N' Roll.

QUOTATION: "'By wearing this makeup,' he claimed, 'I could work and play white clubs, and the white people didn't mind the white girls screaming over me...They was willing to accept me, 'cause they figured I wouldn't be no harm'" (Altschuler 61).

REACTION: My reaction was also ambivalent as I dwelt upon a question. This whole makeup fabrication was clever but it came to my concern if Little Richard was homosexual. Was it his way to just cover up his homosexuality? If not, then it was very intrepid of him to put of silly makeups and perform. He became one of the first few black rock 'n' roll musicians to actually reach out to white listeners, more specifically, girls. Although, Little Richard did claim that he was doing all of this in order to appear as a non-lethal musician so he could be permitted to play in front of the white crowd, questions still raise about him hiding his ambivalence about his homosexuality. On the bright side, other musicians such as Chuck Berry received chances to approach white listeners then it grew on from there.