Ralph Carlson Blog

“Berry’s incredible success is due to his ability to articulate the concerns and attitudes of his audience in his music. At the height of his success, Berry was a 30-year-old black man singing to a mostly white, teenage audience. Dubbed the “Eternal Teenager,” Chuck Berry’s knowledge of the pop market made it possible for him to break color barriers and play to an integrated audience.”

In the 50’s, white kids like me didn’t know any black kids but we listened and danced to Chuck Berry‘s music. Segregation, whether formal in the Soiuth or informal in the North kept the races from mixing socially and this seperation was maybe the one failing of the 50’s. Both races benefitted from the ecomonic boom of the 50’s but even so blacks and whites still lived in very seperate and not very equal worlds. [continue reading…]