Grace Palladino

In this exerpt from Teenagers: An American History, Grace Palladino examines the influence of swing music on the increasingly specialized youth culture of the late 1930s and early 1940s. Regular radio broadcasts of live swing bands, dance hall performances, and commercial records gave teenagers across the country widespread access to swing, inspiring a shared style of "bobby—soxer" behavior, dress, and language. While advertisers and merchandisers discovered how to profit from the distinctive teen market, authority figures fretted about the seemingly mindless focus of the good—time youngsters involved whose tastes and values grew further from those of their parents' generation. Yet the still—wholesome image of the teenager that came out of commercial magazines and Hollywood movies quelled any deep concern. Market builders filtered the more threatening associations with swing culture (sex, drugs...