Derided for its conformity and consumerism, 1950s America paid a price in anxiety. Prosperity existed under the shadow of a mushroom cloud. Optimism wore a Bucky Beaver smile that masked worry over threats at home and abroad. But even dread could not quell the revolutionary changes taking place in virtually every form of mainstream music.

Music historian James Wierzbicki sheds light on how the Fifties' pervasive moods affected its sounds. Moving across genres established—pop, country, opera—and transfigured—experimental, rock, jazz—Wierzbicki delves into the social dynamics that caused forms to emerge or recede, thrive or fade away. Red scares and white flight, sexual politics and racial tensions, technological progress and demographic upheaval—the influence of each rooted the music of this volatile period to its specific place and time. Yet Wierzbicki also reveals the host of underlying connections linking that most apprehensive of times to our own uneasy present.

| Cover Title Contents Acknowledgments Prologue 1 The Pop Music Mainstream 2 Rock 'n' Roll 3 Jazz 4 Hollywood 5 Broadway 6 Opera 7 The Classical Music Mainstream 8 Modernists 9 Mavericks Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index |"Music in the Age of Anxiety offers an engaging, lively, and thought-provoking examination of a diverse range of musical styles prevalent in 1950s America. This fascinating book is accessible for students and general readers, even as Wierzbicki offers new insights that will be of interest to specialists as well."—Gayle Sherwood Magee, author of Charles Ives Reconsidered
"Provides a fresh view of the socially and politically complex decade of the 1950s. Wierzbicki's sense of humor supplements a concise writing style that is easy to read but authoritative. The quality of research and annotations are remarkable, and his work provides invaluable sources for scholars who would like to dig deeper into the wide range of subjects covered. His breadth of research and topics should be of interest to musicians and non-musicians alike."—Notes

"Music in the Age of Anxiety is a book for both general interest and scholarly study."—Journal of American Culture

|James Wierzbicki teaches musicology at the University of Sydney. His books include Film Music: A History and Elliott Carter.