Enter the Teenager

In 1954 Elvis Presley's first recording 'That's All Right Mamma' introduced the hitherto black sound of rock and roll to the white American audience. The beat proved contagious.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the post war economic and baby boom had produced by the mid-1950s an army of young people with money to spend. It was a massive market screaming for new musical trends. In 1955 the beat was introduced to Britain as Bill Haley and his Comets sang 'Rock Around the Clock' on the soundtrack of the film 'The Blackboard Jungle'.

EMI realised the commercial significance of getting a slice of the new action. It had purchased the American Capitol label, which later launched 'The Beach Boys', while the search for the British Elvis discovered Cliff Richard and Adam Faith. EMI also sponsored programmes on Radio Luxembourg, the one radio station received in the UK prepared to devote more "needle-time" to the new beat.

music 100 heralds the advent of the Teenager with film and pictures of Cliff Richard and Adam Faith and, from the other side of the pond, Elvis, Gene Vincent, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry and a whole ruffle of rockers. The exhibition includes Teddy Boy and Teddy Girl costumes and recalls public reaction to the new era through the press cuttings of the time. The exhibition also includes those teenage electrical icons - a Roberts 'transistor' and a Dansette Record Player.