In The Groove: The Music Industry in the Late Fifties

The two producers leading the era were Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Lieber and Stoller started as producers when they were nineteen years old in Los Angeles, CA. They were two young liberal white kids with love for black music. They wrote “Hound Dog,” with Big Momma Thorton, which became their first number one hit. But, it was not Big Momma who was the successful artist, it was super star Elvis Presley. After the success of “Hound Dog,” Lieber and Stoller continued their relationship with Elvis by collaborating with him on several other projects.

Elvis was not the artist who was lucky enough to work with the two prodigy producers. They worked with Car Gardner and The Coasters. Leiber and Stoller wrote songs for The Coaster that combined theatrical concepts with a black sound. “Young Blood” became a smash hit for The Coasters and became a hit with white audiences. The Drifte

Besides Goffan and King, there was a mega power behind girl groups of the time. That power was Phil Spector. Specter seized the black girl group sound and combined it with an opera sound. He pioneered little symphonies for audiences. Behind Spector’s little symphonies was a method he fabricated called the wall of sound. The wall of sound was a production technique that Spector perfected in a twenty two by thirty one foot room at Gold Star Studios. The wall of sound was characterized by a rolling rumble in a small recording studio created by a huge instrumental sound. To create the wall of sound, Spector would use up to three bases, three guitars, two pianos, two drum sets, and different wind instruments.

While girl groups were exploding all over the nation, a musical style called surf rock was being born in Southern California. Surf rock had its own language and own musical method and embodied the surf lifestyle in Southern California. One of the pioneers of surf rock was Dick Dale, known as the “King of Surf Rock.” The biggest band to come out of surf rock were The Beach Boys. The Beach Boys were five kids raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Brian Wilson was the musical heart of the band. With Wilson as the driving force behind the band, The Beach Boys became a sensation from their second single on. In addition

Some topics in this essay:
Boys Wilson, Leiber Stoller, Spector Specter, Star Studios, Goffan King, Beatles British, Shoes” Beetles, Lieber Stoller, Ben King, Please Baby”, surf rock, wall sound, beach boys, goffan king, leiber stoller, rock roll, british bands, little symphonies, ronnie bennett, brian wilson,