Recently my friend and colleague Chuck Lampe was cleaning a family antique mirror and discovered a sizable piece of history within the backing — several pages of the March 25, 1963 edition of the Peoria (Illinois) Journal Star. In addition to being a great “slice of life” document (from a day when nothing too earth shattering was going on, despite the volatile nature of that era,) the newspaper featured an uncredited report on the dangers of rock n’ roll music on the already susceptible misanthropic youth. All of this in 1963, in the post-Elvis pre-Beatles quiet of a teenybopper-dominated music scene.

For your enjoyment, I am reprinting the article here. Note that the professor quoted is one Doctor (Doc) Martin. Coincidence? Also take special note of the second-to-last paragraph, which descibes “lonely, lower-class adolescents who have had no feeling of success in most areas of life.” Target audience, indeed!

Unhappy Like Rock ‘n Roll, Prof Reports

LOS ANGELES(AP) — A professor reports after a two-year study of rock ‘n’ roll: It’s Hans Christian Andersen and the Grimm brothers in modern idiom.

Leading school students listen to it only one-third as much as less successful ones. An unhappy youngster finds comfort listening to another singing that he is lonely, that his name should be woe.

By maudlin mediocrity, said Dr. David Martin, rock ‘n’ roll gives hope to children who have been unsuccessful. The University of Southern California professor of education explained:

“Any Unhappy Kid can listen to an awful voice singing shallow, repetitious tunes and think that, given a break, he could be a recording star, too.”

Of the link between fairy tales and rock ‘n’ roll, he observed:

“Just as the stories of Andersen and the Grimms were based on very real problems in those times, rock ‘n’ roll songs are based on a very real problem of today’s adolescent– fear of loneliness and alienation.

“In both the fairy tale and rock ‘n’ roll, salvation comes most often through chance and fate.”

Rock ‘n’ roll, siad, Dr. Martin, is “the tribal music of the adolescent,” and–

“Fifty percent like it. The rest listen in moderate amounts to keep in touch with the interest of their peers.”

“Studies show, significantly, that leading students listen only one-third as much as less successful ones. The real devotees, the kids who listen to it exclusively and hours on end, are the lonely, lower-class adolescents who have had no feeling of success in most areas of life.

“Surveys show that by 19 most of them have passed the hump and consider rock ‘n’ roll to be kid stuff. By 25 almost no one listens to it.”

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