Pop Rock

When I heard that it was fifty years this week since the early passing of Buddy Holly, J.P. ‘Big Bopper’ Richardson, and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash it started me thinking about the music and art of this era.

Like a lot of people, I don’t like ‘labels’ – for types of art or ways of living, but they do make it easier to write about things, so I’m using the term ‘pop art’ here. The 1950s saw both the birth of rock and roll music and the pop art genre. Like the music of the 50s, the ‘pop’ style of art focuses on popular, as opposed to elitist, culture. Pop art explores the everyday imagery that is so much a part of contemporary consumer culture, often incorporating everyday images from advertisements, consumer product packaging, celebrity photographs, and comic strips.

Just to set the scene for this era the clip at the top of the page shows Buddy Holly singing Peggy Sue on American Bandstand in 1958. Check out the introduction, the clothes, and the cardboard cut out type people in the background. Just a tad different to the current music clips.

I think that Buddy would enjoy these flashbacks to the 1950s.

Dress from Peta Pledger

Shoes from Vintage Fashion Addict

Handbag from Retro Threadz

Glasses from The Vintage Supply Co

Necklace from Vintage Principessa

Boudoir Ensemble from Maisy Brown Repro Retro

For a crash course in early pop art have a look at this. It’s a bit school teacherish but still informative.

And pop art, like rock music, is still around today albeit in different forms and utilising different technology. You can purchase contemporary digital pop art from these stores.

Carte Postale by Emma Kidd from from Benconservato

Hair Portraits by Miss Crowland

Superheroes Among Us 13 from Estasketch

Never Enough…Bags by Lucy Claydon for LottieFrank

Pop naturally led artists in to other art genres - a whole 'nother story. But i have to add a FREEBIE from Ela Steel an artist who works in Pop Surrealism. You can print out your own Creepy Desk Pals as featured in her shop, Steel.