How Did The Space Race Influence Popular Culture

Past Hollywood, the Space Race influenced other forms of popular culture in the 50s and 60s, ranging from music to cartoons to architectural design and fashion. Directly created from the Space Age was the introduction of Space Age Pop, also known as Bachelor Pad Music . Rather than fear and mistrust present during this era, Space Age Pop communicated a more optimist point-of-view of the time period, using the post-war economic and technologic boom and humanity’s ventures into space as fuel to create exotic styles and futuristic electronic sounds. Albums incorporated such futuristic and “out of this world” pictures on their covers. The United States was not the only ones creating similar style music, but Mexico and Japan as well. As an example, the album “Soundproof” by Ferrante & Teicher, released in 1958 …show more content…
This further supports how the Space Age is being incorporated into culture, as other than cultures, it’s being used in other genres of music. A popular instrument used in these space age songs was the Theremin. An electronical instrument using two antennas and the hand, it usage was popularized by the space-y, far-out “woo-ooo” sound it created. Used in many songs, including the official sound track for the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still , it reached “the climactic point in Brian Wilson’s masterpiece, the Beach Boys’ legendary hit “Good Vibrations” . Furthermore, from the same Theremin player in Good Vibrations, Paul Tanner, comes the Space Age Pop soundtrack “Music for Heavenly Bodies”. By using the Theremin as the focal point in each song, it brings out the far-out other worldly sound present in Space Age Pop. Even the song names were inspired by the Space Age. A few songs present in the album were 20th Century Venus, The Red Sea of Mars, and Out of this World. Just as the music invoke the prosperous future ahead amongst the listeners, the titles did as