In the 1950s, dance music and styles rapidly proliferated. Rock ‘n’ roll became one of the most popular forms of dancing music with its vibrant rhythm and uninhibited nature encouraging even those most self-conscious to get up and dance.
Group dances like the Madison emerged during this time period. This dance style featured couples walking side-by-side along a dance floor.
Rock and Roll
Rock and roll music has long been one of the most influential dance music genres. Its consistent beat makes it ideal for dancing to, while its uninhibited nature encourages even shy teenagers to take part. Therefore, teenaged dancers could often be found dancing their favorite rock and roll songs at local sock hops that were typically hosted in high school gyms.
Teen dancing at sock hops generally fell into two categories: slow and fast. Slow dances typically involved the Stroll from big band swing, while rock and roll dancing typically involved Jitterbug – which used some similar box steps but performed much faster.
Chubby Checker was a master of rock and roll dancing music with ten hits reaching the Billboard top 40 charts. At that time, the Madison line dance craze also gained in popularity resulting in several hit songs for Al Brown and Ray Bryant including “Madison Time”. This easy-to-follow dance line can accommodate dancers of any age group; its popularity made it a common feature in movies and television shows alike.
Motown
Berry Gordy had vision when he founded his small record company in 1959; he saw music as the catalyst to bridge disparate cultures through universal language and emotions. He knew his records would become part of everyday American life – not only being sold but influencing fashion, movies, Broadway shows and even language itself!
Motown music was energetic, catchy, and motivating for young people. Its songs inspired young people to move their bodies freely and express themselves creatively through dance. Motown artists performed dance numbers on television shows that introduced new moves and styles that encouraged an entire generation to embrace dancing as an expressive form of entertainment.
Motown revolutionized dance music through its upbeat tempos and catchy beats, most famously the four on the floor beat. This signature rhythm can still be heard today in modern hits like Martha and Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street”, initially written to address inner city violence but now considered one of the greatest civil rights anthems ever written.
Motown classics like Lionel Ritchie’s “Easy” and Gladys Knight and the Pips’s “Heatwave” continue to inspire us today, making for great party starters or slow dances at weddings; their warm, soulful lyrics speak volumes about love and romance!
Boogaloo
Boogaloo dance and music originated in New York and represented a fusion of styles including Latin, R&B and rock ‘n roll. The dance utilized syncopations within its rhythms to encourage triple steps and shimmies while drawing on percussive movements from earlier black dance forms like Watusi and Frug for additional jerks and wobbles.
Boogaloo (pronounced sh-ang-a-ling) in the US refers to both a musical genre and dance style that originated out of New York’s African American and Puerto Rican communities in the late 1960s, combining R&B, rock n roll and soul with mambo and son montuno rhythms.
Mongo Santamaria and Ray Barretto’s Top 20 breakout hits “Watermelon Man” and “El Watusi”, helped popularize boogaloo. Soon thereafter, many bands started performing its infectious rhythms, often featuring novelty English songs, group vocals, and fierce conga playing. While veteran Latin performers such as Tito Puente and Perez Prado recorded some boogaloo albums, most recordings came from younger, predominantly teenaged artists such as Joe Bataan, The Latinaires, Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers and the Lat-Teens.
While boogaloo quickly lost popularity in the US after several years, its influence continued to spread through South America and became known as Soul Boogaloo before eventually giving way to salsa music and dancing. Many salsa artists still incorporate elements of boogaloo into their performances along with rhythms common among mambo bands so the line between boogaloo and salsa music may become blurry at times.
The Bunny Hop
In the 1950s, Latin American music crazes flourished strongly with Mambo, Cha Cha, Rumba and Calypso rhythms becoming a mainstay in Rock and Roll radio broadcasts and pop songs alike. Line dance fads such as Bunny Hop first began trending around 1952; this line dance is similar to conga line dance where each person holds hands with those in front of them before tapping their feet before hopping forward one step and repeating before moving backward. Ray Anthony created hit singles called Bunny Hop that became so popular that TV show The Ray Anthony Show featured segment where stylish teenagers performed the dancerly.
This song is catchy and engaging, yet suffers from the same issue that many dance-oriented songs do – its backing horns don’t provide enough force to carry its repetitive riff and there isn’t an appealing bassline that compels dancers to move.
No matter its shortcomings, Bunny Hop remains an entertaining and energetic dance record that any 50’s party needs to include line dancing. Just make sure to have a few vintage cocktails beforehand!
The Hand Jive
The hand jive is an exciting group dance that can be performed to rhythm and blues music or other rock from the 1950’s, typically performed in line formation. Easily learned and executed with just your body weight moving along its trajectory, the hand jive will certainly impress both your friends and family alike!
The Jive is an exciting and vibrant dance that can be enjoyed by people of all ages, making learning it simple for even novice dancers. You can perform it solo, with a partner, or in groups; the pace can also be changed according to individual ability and comfort levels; for a greater challenge try performing double time jive – this will increase speed while maintaining rhythm with song beat.
At first, jive was popular among white teenagers and seen on dance programs for teenagers on television. However, after black artist Johnny Otis released a hand jive song it became more prevalent among African Americans.
Hand jive dance remains highly fashionable today, appearing both on screen and stage productions of hit musicals such as Grease. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John even included it as part of their performance!
The Twist
In 1960, several factors combined to propel song and dance performances to national phenomenon status. Baby Boomers put a unique spin on swing dance; rock ‘n’ roll drove parents crazy while nonstop radio broadcasts featured it; urban youth borrowed steps and moves from African-American teenage dancing; plus there were 67 million American households equipped with television sets.
Teenagers in Baltimore, Maryland heard Hank Ballard and the Midnighters perform and began dancing a new style dubbed the Twist. A business associate of Dick Clark, host of American Bandstand TV dance show, identified this trend and had Cameo Parkway singer Chubby Checker record an version of Ballard’s tune with added twist.
Checker’s word-for-word cover was first released in summer 1960 and became an instantaneous hit due to heavy promotion on American Bandstand and Dick Clark Show nationwide. It topped the charts and launched Cameo Parkway into a long run of dance hits such as Mashed Potato Time, Bristol Stomp and Twistin’ U.S.A.
The Twist dance style, unlike other popular new dances of the early ’60s such as Pony, Jerk, Sleepwalk or Mashed Potato, did not require couples but could instead be performed solo by teenagers. This breakthrough helped bridge generation gaps by making younger generations more accepting of rock ‘n’ roll music and dance that was seen as rebellious at first glance.