Classic American Popular Song: The Second Half-Century, 1950-2000 addresses the question: "What happened to American popular song after 1950?" There are numerous books available on the so-called "Golden Age" of popular song, but none that follow the development of popular song styles in the second half of the 20th century. While 1950 is seen as the "end of an era," the tap of popular song creation hardly ran dry after that date. Many of the classic songwriters continued to work through the following decades: Porter was active until 1958; Rodgers until the later 1970s; Arlen until 1976. Some of the greatest lyricists of the classic era continued to do outstanding and successful work: Johnny Mercer and Dorothy Fields, for example, continued to produce lyrics through the early '70s. These works could be explained as simply the Golden Age's "last stand," a refusal of major figures to give in to a new reality. But then, how can we explain the outstanding careers of Frank Loesser, Cy Coleman, Jerry Herman, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, Fred Kander and John Ebb, Jule Styne, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, and several other major figures? Where did Stephen Sondheim come from? This book tackles the issue head on, answering questions like: Was there a decline in quality or quantity of pop song after 1950? Were the highly successful writers who emerged after 1950 working in an antiquated style? Did they, perhaps, adopt new musical and verse techniques, and thus shape a new genre-to be judged later, in retrospect, as a new "classic" style? Are the post-1950 songs as memorable, viewed now after another 50 years, as those that came before-to audiences, singers and musicians, or in the broad American culture? Will they last as long, and mean as much? Finally, if indeed there is still "a great tradition," how vital does this sustained or renewed tradition, as of 2000, seem to be? For anyone interested in the development of American popular song-and its survival-this book will make fascinating reading.