The reading for today, “Experts Propose Study of ‘Craze’” is a hugely condescending tirade on behalf of the author, Milton Bracker, about the growing popularity of rock and roll among American teenagers in the 1950s. Originally serving as a newspaper article in the New York Times, Bracker’s piece fuels a growing moral panic inspired by the television appearances of Elvis Presley and the concerts held by Cleveland disk jockey Freed. In the article, Bracker draws upon sketchy historical evidence and pseudoscience to denigrate the status of rock music and patronise its young listeners. For example, the author draws a parallel between dancing to rock and roll music and the “St. Vitus Dance” of the Middle Age, characterised as a mental illness whereby “victims break into dancing and [are] unable to stop”. Not content to solely rely upon this comparison, Bracker also likens the rock and roll “craze” to the effects of a tarantula bite, drug addiction and a “violent mayhem long repressed everywhere on earth”. Finally, and most fittingly given the context of the 1950s, the writer predicts that rock and roll music will result in a “depersonalization of the individual”, a possible allusion to the Second Red Scare and fear of communism/conformity that was sweeping the nation at the time thanks to Senator Joe McCarthy. …show more content…
In attributing all of this simply to the act of listening and dancing to rock and roll music, it is clear that Milton Bracker wanted to make parents deeply concerned for the welfare of their children through