American Bandstand

I remember watching this show every Saturday afternoon when I was a child and I always had a lot of fun doing it. It featured a lot of awesome musical talent in the many years that it was on and Dick Clark was always an excellent and cordial host. The dancers always looked so alive on the dance floor and you could just tell that they were loving every minute of it. My memories of this show are very easily among my favorite memories of sitting in front of the television set when I was a child. It's very easy to understand why it lasted so many years.

Although "Bandstand" apparently got its start in 1952, I first became familiar with it during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when Dick Clark was hosting the show. I became a teenager in 1958, and although I lived in a small southern town, I felt as much a part of Bandstand as those kids in Philadelphia. My mother and father both worked, so I was usually alone during the afternoon, after school. I remember my usual routine -- cook some frozen fish sticks in the oven, and settle down to watch Bandstand.

Part of the format involved playing several new songs, and having a small panel of teens rate then, to predict which ones had the best chance of becoming a hit. Of course, those of us who were watching often went over to the record store the next chance we had, to buy a copy of the winners, so the predictions became self-fulfilling. The biggest thrill was actually seeing on TV, the singers that we only knew through listening to the records. Brenda Lee. Leslie Gore. Paul and Paula. Bobby Vinton. Names that most of the younger generations would never recognize. And now, some of that is being brought to us in the Dick Clark sponsored TV series, "American Dreams." Bandstand, an important TV program in my formative teen years.

Super low budget dance party to pop hits that only lasted because it had no nationwide competition. I saw it since the early 70s. Once MTV began, it died a well deserved death.

If you liked anything but the most predictable comfortable safe bland suburban hits, you were out of luck. Soul Train had much better music and certainly better dancers. Bandstand had suburban kids who couldn't really dance. They just slightly bounced and moved their hands and never their hips.

All of it presided over by the clueless Dick Clark. Clark who never cared for pop and esp rock music by his own admission. Clark who even from the start peddled the blandest music, pushing Pat Boone instead of Little Richard.

Watch Soul Train, or Don Kirshner instead.

Pepsi Cola had a very catchy slogan during the 1980s. But unlike "Pepsi" American Bandstand was NOT the choice of a New Generation! The long running music show had a big part in mainstreaming Rock N' Roll. Long time host Dick Clark had a winner for decades. Adolescents was the backbone of it's audience, butGeneration X was slow to embrace AB because MTV conspired with: syndicated, network and local music video programs to challenge American Bandstand's legacy. Music Videos had very little if any audience interaction, unlike Bandstand. This is regardless of whether the interaction had to do with a studio or television audience. VeeJays merely played videotapes. But on the contrary most television viewers did not have to wait for Noon Eastern on Saturday to see their favorite artists perform. Music Videos from decades prior to the Eighties consisted of footage from American Bandstand and talk or variety shows. But now the producers and directors of videos were no longer limited to the set of American Bandstand. They can shoot their videos on location or on major studio backlots. They had the freedom to use : animation, special effects, or any other format they liked. But during this added dimension in pop music what was the viewing experience like for American Bandstand? You tuned in to watch other people dance and to watch recording artists give lip-synch performances. "Dude! That is like, so lame!" As the youngsters would say in 1980s vernacular. With the advent of the Music Video Shows American Bandstand just seemed kind of weak! You may say "Skillz! if it was so lame then explain why a program like the syndicated 'Soul Train' continued to flourish with a simular blueprint of dancing and lip-synching?" I will tell you why! Because viewers wanted to dress in the festive gear that they saw on Soul Train, and they wanted to emulate the dance moves that they saw on the show that was dubbed "The Hippest Trip in America". You watched Soul Train so that you can look and dress the part; and you went clubbing with hopes that you would not leave the disco by yourself! But even compared to its more Nubiancentric competitor American Bandstand paled by comparison. Most of what you saw on Bandstand in the 1980s consisted of dancers dressed like they were at a church picnic and moved like wind-up dolls on the AB dance floor. AB was clearly a shadow of its former self. During the decade of New Wave and Boat Shoes and Micheal Jackson kids just didn't aspire to appear on American Bandstand like they did during previous decades. AB simply experienced the ratings dooldrums at best. Finally ABC ended it's long association with the music show and American Bandstand crawled to basic cable to die.

This was MTV before MTV. No one ever heard of Dick Clark until American Bandstand. If you were an up and coming Music Group, you fought to get on one of two shows, Ed Sullivan and American Bandstand. All the oldsters watched Ed while all the teens of the time watched American Bandstand. When I was growing up EVERYONE watched American Bandstand. Even on the small screen with tiny speakers, it was the only place you could actually see the bands you loved without going to their concerts. Then along came Soul Train. That was just a sad copy. I have no idea who hosted that show, but, EVERYONE knew who Dick Clark was. Am I right?