7 Non-Musicians Who Changed Pop Music Forever

4. Dick Clark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaOV6rq7sRk It's hard to believe how strongly opposed rock music was in the mid-1950s. We listen to the music that was popular then and it seems tame (with the possible exception of Little Richard). It's funny in retrospect, but there really were people who believed that rock n' roll was a message to youth from the devil. As a result, parents were constantly confiscating rock records from kids and, in some extreme cases, staging neighbourhood-wide record burnings. At times like these, rock-loving kids needed to have someone older that they could turn to, someone who understood the value of the music they loved. Dick Clark was that man. Clark gave rock fans a daily music fix through his TV show American Bandstand. After original Bandstand host Bob Horn was fired (as a result of being arrested for drunk driving and being part of a prostitution ring), Clark took over. Clark introduced aspects of the show that became fixtures. The most famous of said features is probably "Rate-A-Record," during which Clark would ask two audience members what they thought of a current single. Said members would give the song a rating between 35 and 98. Clark would average the scores and ask the rest of the audience for their opinion. "Rate-A-Record" became one of the most popular segments of American Bandstand, and it even gained its own catchphrase ("It's got a good beat and you can dance to it"). The most important part of American Bandstand, however, was the music and dancing. Just about every popular band/singer during the time Bandstand was on the air made an appearance on the show. Sure, they lip-synched their songs, but it didn't matter to anyone watching the show; they just wanted to hear the music. The music was enhanced by the footage of the Bandstand regulars (the teenagers hired to be on the show) dancing. Presiding over it all, however, was Dick Clark, the king of this little rock world. Always impeccably dressed, Clark was always there, interviewing the artists, mingling with the audience members, or weaving through the dancers. Here was a man, older than just about everyone who watched the show, revelling in the music that most adults hated. Dick Clark helped keep rock n' roll alive during those early years. All of us owe the (unfortunately) late Mr. Clark a debt for that.