All Shook Up: How Rock 'N' Roll Changed America (Pages 80-136)

Title: All Shook Up: How Rock 'N' Roll Changed America
Author: Glenn C. Altschuler
Pages: 80-136
Chapters: 3-5

SUMMARY: With teens and their raging hormones, Rock 'n' Roll brought the sexuality out. Around the '57s Pat Boone and Dick Clarke became the messenger sent by God for the parents. They tried to put a lid on Rock 'n' Roll by creating dance shows such as Bandstand ,which attracted lots of teens. This was the moment of tranquility for the parents. This sent out message to many shows that Rock 'n' Roll should be banned but once Elvis appeared on the Ed Sullivan's show, it gave the show 43.7 ratings and 82.6 percent of the television audience. There was no stopping to Rock 'n' Roll when Elvis's body moves were magnetic and sexually arousing, Little Richard was charging erotically with his sexual lyrics and Jerry Lee Lewis was raping his piano. This became an entourage of immense sexual force that communicated with teens and became inexorable. Teenagers did not even exist before the 20th century. After the population in U.S. saw puberty decline and increase in youth marriages and that certain age group were associated with violence; the term was added as a slang. During WWII, teenagers took out their violence in public and began to rebel against their parents. To this, J.D. Salinger responded in a form of novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951) to express the feelings and actions of adolescents; how they were struggling like the protagonist Holden Caufield.

QUOTATION: "Jerry Lee Lewis 'raped his piano. He would play it with his feet, he would sit on it, he would stand on it, he would crawl under it, and he would leap over it.' He did the same with his microphone" (Altschuler 96).

REACTION: That is some rock 'n' roll spirit. I feel sorry for the piano and the microphone, however, it did belong to Lewis. This humorous line does suggest the torture and misuse of a piano but the deeper meaning is the actions and feelings of Jerry Lee Lewis. It is incredible how rock 'n' roll music can move a person (teenagers particularly) internally and externally making them have mixed sexual vibes inside and making them basically act like an unleashed beast. This was happening and is still happening to most teenagers. The moment they hear the music, it was like a command that said "Dance, Jump, Have Sex And Break Things," which eventually got them in trouble but it was addicting and undeniable.