Like the soap
opera, American Bandstand represents the transference of
a successful radio format to burgeoning arena of American television.
Unlike the soap opera however, the radio broadcast format of playing
recorded music developed as popular entertainers from radio migrated
to the newer medium of television. Initially located in the margins
of broadcast schedules, the format of a live disk jockey spinning
records targeted toward and embraced by teenagers soon evolved into
the economic salvation of many radio stations. For one thing, the
programs were relatively inexpensive to produce. In addition, the
increased spending power of American teenagers in the 1950s attracted
advertisers and companies marketing products specifically targeting
that social group. Not the least of these were the recording companies
who supplied the records without cost to stations, often including
economic incentives to disk jockeys to play their products. In effect,
the recorded music was a commercial for itself. Given the convergence
of these factors, the teen record party became entrenched as a radio
format during the 1950s and throughout the 1960s, eventually developing
into Top Forty Radio.
For these same
reasons, this format became highly lucrative for local television
stations to produce as well. While the three networks provided the
majority of prime-time programming and some early afternoon soap
operas, local television stations had to fill marginal broadcast
periods themselves. Since the primary audience for television viewing
in the late afternoons included teenagers just out of school for
the day, the teen record party apparently made sense to station
managers as a way to generate advertising revenue during that broadcast
period. As a result, a number of teen dance party programs found
their way into television schedules during the early 1950s.
Bandstand,
one of these, appeared on WFIL-TV in Philadelphia during September
1952. Hosted by Bob Horn, a popular local disk jockey, the show
was presented "live" and included teenagers dancing to the records
that were played. As the success of the televised Bandstand
grew, Dick Clark took over the disk jockey duties of the radio program
while Bob Horn was broadcasting in front of the cameras. In 1956,
Horn was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, in
the middle of an anti-drunk driving campaign by WFIL. Soon thereafter,
Dick Clark replaced him as the host of the televised program. Clark's
clean-cut boy-next-door image seemed to offset any unsavory fallout
from Horn's arrest, because the show increased in its popularity.
By the fall of 1957, Clark, who had been shepherding kinescopes
of the show to New York, convinced the programmers at ABC to include
the show in its network lineup.
Adapting the
name of the program to its new stature (and the network identity),
American Bandstand first aired on the ABC network on Monday,
5 August 1957, becoming one of a handful of local origination programs
to broadcast nationally. Initially, the program ran Monday through
Friday from 3:00 to 4:30 P.M., EST. Almost immediately, the show
became a hit for the struggling network. In retrospect, American
Bandstand fit in nicely with the programming strategy that evolved
at ABC during the 1950s. As the third television network, ABC could
not afford the high-priced radio celebrity talent or live dramatic
programming that generated the predominantly adult viewership of
NBC and CBS. Therefore, ABC counterprogrammed its scheduled with
shows that appealed to a younger audience. Along with programs such
as The Mickey Mouse Club, ABC used American Bandstand
to build a loyal audience base in the 1950s that would catapult
the network to the top of the prime-time ratings in the mid-1970s.
From a cultural
and social standpoint, the impact of American Bandstand should
not be underrated. Even if the show diffused some of the more raucous
elements of rock 'n' roll music, it helped to solidify the growing
youth culture which centered around this phenomenon. But the show
was important in another way as well. Once Clark took over the helm
of Bandstand in 1956, he insisted on racially integrating
the show, since much of the music was performed by black recording
artists. When the show moved to the network schedule, it maintained
its racially mixed image, thus providing American television broadcasting
with its most visible ongoing image of ethnic diversity until the
1970s.
In 1964, Clark
moved the production of American Bandstand to California,
cutting broadcasts to once a week. In part, the move was made to
facilitate Clark's expansion into other program production. Additionally,
it became easier to tap into the American recording industry, the
center of which had shifted to Los Angeles by that time. The show's
popularity with teenagers continued until the late 1960s.
At
that point, white, middle-class American youth culture moved away
from the rock 'n' roll dance music that had become the staple of
American Bandstand, opting instead for the drug-influenced
psychedelia of the Vietnam War era. As a response to the specialized
tastes of perceived diverse target audiences, radio formats began
to fragment at this time, segregating popular music into distinct
categories. While American Bandstand attempted to integrate
many of these styles into its format throughout the 1970s, the show
relied heavily on disco, the emerging alternative to psychedelic
art rock. Though often denigrated at the time because of disco's
emergence in working class and ethnic communities, the musical style
was the logical focus for the show, given its historic reliance
on presenting teenagers dancing. Consequently, American Bandstand
became even more ethnically mixed at a time when the predominant
face of the aging youth culture in the United States acquired a
social pallor.
The
foundation of American Bandstand's success rested with its
ability to adapt to shifting musical trends while maintaining the
basic format developed in the 1950s. As a result, Dick Clark helmed
the longest running broadcast program aimed at mainstream youth
to air on American network broadcast television. After thirty years
of broadcasting, ABC finally dropped the show from its network schedule
in 1987. In its later years, American Bandstand was often
preempted by various sporting events. Given the commercial profits
generated from sports presentations, apparently it was only a matter
of time before the network replaced the dance party entirely. Additionally,
the rise of MTV and other music video channels in the 1980s also
helped to seal American Bandstand's fate. The show began
to look like an anachronism when compared to the slick production
values of expensively produced music videos. Nevertheless, the music
video channels owe a debt of gratitude to American Bandstand,
the network prototype that shaped the format which they have exploited
so well.
-Rodney
Buxton
Clark,
Dick, and Richard Robinson. Rock, Roll and Remember. New
York: Popular Library, 1976.
Shore,
Michael, with Dick Clark. The History of American Bandstand.
New York: Ballantine, 1985.
