Includes bibliographical references and index.

All shook up : popular music and American culture, 1945-1955 -- Brown-eyed handsome man : rock 'n roll and race -- Great balls of fire : rock 'n roll and sexuality -- Yakety yak, don't talk back : rock 'n roll and generational conflict -- Roll over Beethoven, tell Tchaikovsky the news : rock 'n roll and the pop culture wars -- Day the music died : rock 'n roll's lull and revival.

The birth of rock 'n' roll ignited a firestorm of controversy--one critic called it "musical riots put to a switchblade beat"--but if it generated much sound and fury, what, if anything, did it signify? As Glenn Altschuler reveals in All Shook Up, the rise of rock 'n' roll--and the outraged reception to it--in fact can tell us a lot about the values of the United States in the 1950s, a decade that saw a great struggle for the control of popular culture. Altschuler shows, in particular, how rock's "switchblade beat" opened up wide fissures in American society along the fault-lines of family, sexuality, and race. For instance, the birth of rock coincided with the Civil Rights movement and brought "race music" into many white homes for the first time. In addition, rock celebrated romance and sex, rattled the reticent by pushing sexuality into the public arena, and mocked deferred gratification and the obsession with work of men in gray flannel suits. As vibrant as the music itself, All Shook Up reveals how rock 'n' roll challenged and changed American culture and laid the foundation for the social upheaval of the sixties.