Australian Rock N Roll

The immense recognition of rock and roll affected an exceptional level of social, political and cultural impact on Australian life in the post war period. Not just a musical style, rock and roll influenced lifestyles, fashion trends, dance moves, attitudes, haircuts, forms of language and political views. The influence of rock n roll, in the post war period of the 50s and 60s was indeed one of great significance to Americanised culture. Australia was also influenced by this seeing as Australia had grown to be close allies with America and it had inhabited American culture into aspects of its own. The origins of Rock N Roll are linked to the mixture of African American musical forms, such as blues, jazz and gospel, with traditional rural white musical forms, such as country music and western swing.

In Australia the social impact that Rock n Roll had, was an obvious change in fashion and hair styles. The tough, leather ensemble image of early rockers such as the Rolling Stones influenced a generation of young people. Mini skirts, loud printed fabrics, bell bottoms, and long teased hair, started a fashion trend that would last two decades. Rock musicians were early adopters of hippie fashion and introduced such styles as the Nehru jacket and the skin tight blue jeans with a nice pair of converse shoes; bands such as the Beatles had custom-made clothing that influenced much of '60s style, this style was called "Mod".

It was not only clothes that change, but also the way people danced at parties or discos, new moves had to be invited in order to go with the beat of this new "Rock n Roll" music scene.(list of dances) these dance moves were showed off to when the Disc Jockey (as we like to call it today DJ) played such classics as "Wild One" by Australia's first rock n roll star Johnny O'Keefe and of course unforgettable rock n roll bands like the Beatles, the Who, the Monkees, the Rolling Stones, which were bands from the British invasion. American artists such as Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis expressed themselves with suggestive lyrics that were not acceptable by older generations; this meant that the way teenagers spoke also changed. Attempts to control the influence of rock often turned comical; after several previous television appearances became controversial, Elvis Presley was famously shown from the waist up (to avoid offending viewers with his suggestive hip swivels) on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956.

The attitudes and desires of teens in the post war period were different from those of the parents' generation. Young people were creating their own culture. They were defiant, seeking excitement and something new from the conventional music of the '40s and they found it in rock n roll music, they felt a sense of rebellion. Parents and traditional people believed that rock 'n' roll was the cause of the nation's social ills and youthful rebellion; these youthful rebels were known as "bodgies" and "widgies" because they were inspired by rock n roll culture. Churches taught that rock n roll was a type of devil music, that it was evil and that is what made it even more appealing to teenagers.

Culture and politics was affected by rock music because it had moved on to drugs. The popularity and promotion of experimentation