All Shook Up Book Review

In All Shook Up Glenn C. Altschuler describes the birth of rock ’n’ roll and how its rise and reception, both as appalling and as favorable, helped restructure and change not only American popular culture, but the politics and ideals of the nation as a whole. Mainly using magazine and newspaper articles of the time, as well as quotes from various music industry professionals and artists, Altschuler explores the growth and expansion rock ’n’ roll in the context of the role it played in helping to challenge and alter the traditional American notions of race, sexuality, and family in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Additionally, All Shook Up briefly examines the persistent power of rock music in the last quarter of the twentieth century through the lens of the career of Bruce Springsteen. Altschuler’s analysis of the rise of rock ’n’ roll proves that rock music, though discredited as merely a form of popular culture by many historians and thus not worth examining, is a valuable source for the exploration of cultural and social history.

It is interesting that despite the title of the book, All Shook Up: How Rock ’N’ Role Changed America, Altschuler concludes that, though the genre did help to expedite its coming and assisted in motivating reform and change, the Civil Rights movement would have eventually come about without rock ’n’ roll. In addition, without rock music generational conflict would still have been prevalent in the private and public spheres of American society. Instead of attributing the Civil Rights movement, the generational conflict, and the increase in sexual awareness of the 1950’s and 1960’s solely to the rise of rock ’n’ roll, though, once again, the genre did play a part in these affairs, Altshuler concludes is that rock ’n’ roll fostered “intragenerational identity” (185). This intragenerational identity is what brought about the development of a teenage culture and “differentiation based on age became more pervasive and permanent in American culture and society” (186).

Whilst the book provides an excellent introduction to the history of rock ’n’ roll, it must be kept in mind that the rise of the genre coincides with various pivotal events in American history, as the book series title (“Pivotal Moments in American History”) proclaims. Altschuler’s writing style, however, describes the history of rock music and the events that surrounded in a dull and lifeless manner. The audience does not get a sense of the prominent, yet contrasting feelings, of confusion, fear, and excitement experienced by the majority of Americans during a period of great change.

Additionally, the conclusion lacks a sense of closure. Altshuler does connect the rock ’n’ roll music of the 1950’s and 1960’s to the more recent music of Bruce Springsteen, yet he only very briefly, as in the last paragraph of the book, addresses the more recently developed musical genres such as punk rock and grunge rock. The author also completely excludes hip-hop music which has become so prevalent in our society today music and ultimately is derived from rock ’n’ roll and R&B. What makes history necessary, important, and actually interesting is its applicability to the present time and the connections that an individual can make between their own life and the past. All Shook Up, though, offers little help to younger audiences, such as college students, in making connections between the current songs on the top forty and their predecessors of the 1950’s and 1960’s.