To some , think about life sentence in the 1950s harken back to a golden years of wives in heels and pearls . To others , it symbolizes the rise of suburban area and the percolation of TV into the living rooms of those far - sprawling abodes . To still more , the decade smacks of the Cold War and rising tautness in race copulation . But for many , nothing characterizes the ' fifty more than the auditory sensation of stone - and - gyre , the swirl of bird , the crinkle of lettermen ’s jackets and the soft rough-and-tumble of socked feet across a wooden gym floor .
For the 1950s was the height of the sock hops – a pop civilisation phenomenon interchangeable to the intimate high school dances of today . The hop beat their name because of the prerequisite that the frolicking teens bump off their shoes so they did n’t drag up the wooden floors of the school gymnasium that host the mixer .
Not everyone thought air-sleeve hops were keen playfulness , however . Despite the fact that schools condoned such activity , many parents were horrified by the idea since intimate taboos appeared to be shattering right and left : The medicine and the dances made pop at sock record hop were considered far too sexualized by the older , more buttoned-down set . Many of the most popular songs were also the work of inglorious musicians , and racial tensions were starting to simmer to the aerofoil during the fifties and in the years to follow .
The newfangled music and dances were copulate with an ongoing ethnical phenomenon – in part fueled by picture and other amusement medium – that deemed playfulness - seeking youth as dangerous . But if you were lucky enough to be allowed out of the house , what was it like to attend a sock record hop ? Find out about the sights and sound on the next page .
The Music and the Fashions of the Sock Hop
In the 1950s , a variety of groundbreaking fashions bust onto the scene , and their popularity swept the body politic . When teens planned to attend a sock hop , the girls would often suit up in sweaters and whirl R-2 skirts . The well remembered elan today was the mat up poodle skirt , first designed by Juli Lynne Charlot in 1947 [ source : Bramlett ] . Guys , meanwhile , would commonly sport jeans and T - shirts . Of course , subtle pinch in the simulation could create a whole separate look , and teens could fall into societal roles ranging from preppies to greasers .
medicine was the other major defining characteristic of a windsock hop . rock candy - and - roll had of late surge into the mainstream – the first use of the full term in its modern context had allegedly been in Cleveland in 1951 by disc jockey Alan Freed – and many teens quickly became possessed fans of the unexampled sound . With the spate in idiot box ownership and read like " American Bandstand , " teenager took to stone - and - roll euphony en masse .
The Culture and Coolness of the Sock Hop
Historically , the teenage years did n’t exist , at least not to the extent that they required an appellative all their own . That started to change , though , when psychologists began recognizing adolescence as a concrete aliveness stage near the start of the 20th 100 . From then on , society treated teens as a group psychologically distinguishable from children and grownup . The characteristic we often connect with today ’s teens , however , like defiance , obliviousness and gravitational force toward inner circle , did n’t really go mainstream until around the fourth dimension of the drogue grasshopper [ author : Marantz Henig , Platt ] .
As a demographic , young people ’s precedence , perception and practice typically tilt wildly from generation to generation . To read about 1950s America is to witness this giant generational mare’s nest in an extreme , with the honest-to-god sept often baffled and alarm by the manner of the youth ( despite their own Jazz Age teenaged age ) , while at the same meter serve to trigger the changeover .
Some historians consider the modern teenage mindset was take over out of attitude prevalent following the Great Depression and World War II , as 20th century consumerism and the hunt for the American Dream take shape . Determined to contort the most out of life , and often spoiled or pretermit by parents who had lived through such hardship and were now working firmly and prospering , the playfulness - loving teens of the ' L ( and to some extent , the ' 40s ) burst onto the scene with a payback .
And while the aftereffects of the Great Depression and World War II undoubtedly feign the propagation coming of eld following those social uplift , one ca n’t lowball the importance of TV for defining trends . In 1950 , there were approximately 6 million television in the United States ; by 1960 , that identification number had soared to more than 50 million – almost 9 out of 10 household had one [ source : Tamazashvili ] . The teens of the 1950s those that followed were suck in by the visual power and connectivity of televisions , which helped fuel conformity and fads .
Beyond simply listening and dancing to careen - and - roll – as teens could at sock hops – they now saw these musicians performing live on television , and a wild raw incarnation of fandom was forged . They were confronted by a bombardment of media meant to appeal to them from an advert perspective to angle out money furcate over by indulgent parent , which ramped up teens ' desire to connect with and mimic these real and fictional adolescent touchstone . Automobile sales took off , too , and many adolescent were given the freedom of the open route – which also meant the exemption of unchaperoned " parking " at the end of especially good dates . Even the drill of dating in and of itself drastically evolved from retiring conventions .
It was heady stuff , and all of these component fuel a culture of teens who could hit the gym flooring in socked feet and dance their tenderness out , swirling and hopping the night forth .
