Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Monograph

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Music

Supervisor

Ansari, Emily Abrams

Abstract

What can the musical sounds of childhood tell us about the cultural reality in which they have been created, transmitted, and reinvented?

This dissertation investigates the music and sounds that were considered to be “children’s” in the United States in the 1950s. This period in American history is marked by two significant new societal patterns: a strong emphasis on family and children and an acute awareness of the growing threat of Communism. In this context, children were understood to represent the idealized future of the United States, in which all ideological dangers had been eliminated. These societal patterns and this cultural understanding about who children were supposed to become were reflected in children’s sonic cultures as they evolved over the decade.

Children’s music and sounds in the United States in the 1950s, as this study demonstrates, were employed to resist the feared Communist indoctrination and, simultaneously, to reinforce nationally circulating ideas about the superiority of the family-centric, white middle-class lifestyle. Each chapter examines a specific category of children’s sonic cultures. Chapter 1 engages with music in animated films for children and, in doing so, outlines societal attitudes to domesticity, the family, and children at the time, thus laying the foundation for later chapters. Chapter 2 builds on this foundation and identifies the specific cultural values on which the idea of domesticity rested, exploring how the sounds produced by musical toys reflected these values. Chapter 3 focuses on the ideological aspect of children’s music in schools by engaging with the popular patriotic song, “This Land is Your Land.” Chapter 4 investigates how music at summer camps reinforced the middle-class values of American society, thereby socializing children into a nuclear, family-oriented mentality. Chapter 5 engages with children’s sonic activities in unsupervised settings and considers subversive and norm-defying songs which children shared with each other as reinforcers of the very norms and traditions that they seemed to be rebelling against. Ultimately, this study reveals how the cultural reality of the United States during the 1950s shaped the emergence and transmission of children’s music and sounds.

Summary for Lay Audience

What can the musical sounds of childhood tell us about the cultural reality in which they have been created, transmitted, and reinvented?

This dissertation investigates the music and sounds that were considered to be “children’s” in the United States in the 1950s. This period in American history is marked by two significant new societal patterns: a strong emphasis on family and children and an acute awareness of the growing threat of Communism. In this context, children were understood to represent the idealized future of the United States, in which all ideological dangers had been eliminated. These societal patterns and this cultural understanding about who children were supposed to become were reflected in children’s sonic cultures as they evolved over the decade.

Children’s music and sounds in the United States in the 1950s, as this study demonstrates, were employed to resist the feared Communist indoctrination and, simultaneously, to reinforce nationally circulating ideas about the superiority of the family-centric, white middle-class lifestyle. Each chapter examines a specific category of children’s sonic cultures. Chapter 1 engages with music in animated films for children and, in doing so, outlines societal attitudes to domesticity, the family, and children at the time, thus laying the foundation for later chapters. Chapter 2 builds on this foundation and identifies the specific cultural values on which the idea of domesticity rested, exploring how the sounds produced by musical toys reflected these values. Chapter 3 focuses on the ideological aspect of children’s music in schools by engaging with the popular patriotic song, “This Land is Your Land.” Chapter 4 investigates how music at summer camps reinforced the middle-class values of American society, thereby socializing children into a nuclear, family-oriented mentality. Chapter 5 engages with children’s sonic activities in unsupervised settings and considers subversive and norm-defying songs which children shared with each other as reinforcers of the very norms and traditions that they seemed to be rebelling against. Ultimately, this study reveals how the cultural reality of the United States during the 1950s shaped the emergence and transmission of children’s music and sounds.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

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