After World War II, the United States encountered an economic boom that finally ended the Great Depression. With a growing middle class, the United States had more families than ever with a significant amount of money not only to have more children, but also to spend more frivolously. This combination of higher wages and a growing youth population has given rise to a new demographic: the American teenager. The 1950s were the coming out of teenagers and young adults as marketing companies began advertising directly to America's new demographic. Developed from black rhythm and blues, rock & roll sparked a sense of self-awareness in young adults of the 1950s so effectively that young people began to shape American culture by using rock music as a means to proliferate the messages of the movements that occurred during of the 1950s and 1960s, thus empowering young adults. While no one can pinpoint what genre and time period rhythm and blues emerged from, rock and roll certainly evolved from the black rhythm and blues of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Indeed, the terms rock and roll, especially popular in the growing rhythm and blues music genre, derive from “black slang for sexual intercourse.”1 Teenagers, with a tendency to thirst for novelty and excitement, were the first white demographic for learning this new musical style as they browsed radio stations and discovered African-American rhythm and blues. However, the stigma of listening to “racial music” would continue to such an extent that rhythm and blues could not be mass marketed to the population as it was. However, after white disc jockey Alan Freed took notice of the trend of teenagers listening to rhythm and blues by playing it on his radio show and officially calling it... middle of paper... "Civil Rights and Elvis Presley." Elvis Presley history blog, profile of the king of rock and roll. Accessed May 22, 2014. http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/civil-rights.html.Washington Post. “From Joan Baez to Lady Gaga: Music of the Civil Rights Movement – ​​The Washington Post.” Washington Post. Accessed May 22, 2014. http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/politics/from-joan-baez-to-lady-gaga-music-of-the-civil-rights-movement/2014/05/20/ ee8afe56-e048-11e3-9442-54189bf1a809_video.html. Wattenberg, Ben. 1998. “Did Woodstock Change America?” Podcast audio. PBS. August 1998. Accessed May 21, 2014. http://http://www.pbs.org/thinktank/transcript119.html.Yagi, Randi. “10 Best Anti-War/Protest Songs About the Vietnam War – San Jose Internet.”Examiner.com. Last modified March 29, 2012. http://www.examiner.com/article/10-top-anti-war-protest-songs-on-the-vietnam-war.