It is difficult to describe how profoundly influential Dick Clark's American Bandstand was to many teenagers (like me) in the early 1960's. In those days before PCs, Internet, cell phones, IM, Facebook, MTV, etc. American Bandstand was what you did to see what new artists and what kinds of music the "cool" people were listening and dancing to, what they were wearing, how they did their hair, and what they thought about stuff. It was part of the vast technological impact that TV had on our lives visually improving the experience over radio DJ music programs by an order of magnitude. The impact of TV back then, now taken almost for granted and morphing again with nearly limitless new sources of online video, was not just a shift but a complete phase change from audio to video. It was amazing.
In the late 1950's and early 1960's I happened to live near Philly. When we first heard about this American Bandstand thing we thought it would be like "The Hit Parade" or something like that. Instead it turned out to be completely different that had never been done before. It was like a televised "sock-hop" with carefully selected hansom guys and gorgeous girls seemingly meeting and developing relationships live, in real-time on the American Bandstand dance floor. It was probably the first real reality-TV program. The "regulars" on the program unwittingly became famous, almost celebrities. Folks like me occasionally went to Philly to stand in line for the rare chance to appear on the show as a non-regular dancer. I never made it but it was fun trying.
Today we morn the passing of Dick Clark and in a way the end of an era that he represents as all of us who lived American Bandstand get old and have only our memories of that glorious time.
In the late 1950's and early 1960's I happened to live near Philly. When we first heard about this American Bandstand thing we thought it would be like "The Hit Parade" or something like that. Instead it turned out to be completely different that had never been done before. It was like a televised "sock-hop" with carefully selected hansom guys and gorgeous girls seemingly meeting and developing relationships live, in real-time on the American Bandstand dance floor. It was probably the first real reality-TV program. The "regulars" on the program unwittingly became famous, almost celebrities. Folks like me occasionally went to Philly to stand in line for the rare chance to appear on the show as a non-regular dancer. I never made it but it was fun trying.
Today we morn the passing of Dick Clark and in a way the end of an era that he represents as all of us who lived American Bandstand get old and have only our memories of that glorious time.
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