Rock & Roll at the FGS 2013 Keynote

“Music is the soundtrack of our lives.” This quote has been attributed to Dick Clark – and who would know better? We hear a song and we are transported in our minds to another time, place and set of circumstances, and our emotions follow – whether happy or sad, peaceful or anxious. Music is powerful. Music speaks for its generation, but music can also transcend the generations as younger people are introduced to the “oldies” of their parents’ generation or learn to appreciate the jazz or big band sound of their grandparents’ or great-grandparents’ generations. And middle-aged folks and senior citizens may be introduced to the popular music of today by their children and their grandchildren. Music reflects its time – and yet its message is not all it seems to be on the surface at times.

Richard Aquila, keynote speaker for the 2013 Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference, will present “Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixty: The Roots of Rock & Roll and 1950s America” following the conference’s opening ceremonies on Thursday, 22 August. When people think about early rock and roll, the images that come to most people’s minds are of switchblades and leather jackets, the rebellious nature of Elvis Presley and his shocking gyrating pelvis, the high energy of Jerry Lee Lewis as he pounded his piano and belted out suggestive lyrics with a lascivious smile on his face, and the wild, sweaty screaming style of Little Richard. But the real roots of rock and roll are far more complex. Aquila, professor of history and former Director of
the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Penn State University-Behrend College, will explain verbally and with musical illustration, how early rock and roll actually reflected 1950s conformity and consensus behavior at least as much as it did conflict and rebellion.

Aquila’s talk is sponsored by the Indiana Historical Society. He is appearing as an Organization of American Historians (OAH) Distinguished Lecturer. OAH facilitates lecture appearances by historians who have made major contributions to U.S. history. Prior to his tenure at Penn State, Aquila was chair of the History Department and director of the American Studies Program at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Aquila also was a fellow at the D’Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian at the Newberry Library in Chicago. He specializes in U.S. social and cultural history, particularly the American West, American Indians, popular culture and recent America. Among his articles and books is a recently-completed book manuscript titled American Beat: The Story of Rock & Roll’s Birth. He has written and hosted numerous documentaries on public radio, and his weekly radio show, Rock & Roll America, was syndicated on NPR and NPR Worldwide.