Young people had always danced as a means of socializing with one another. However, prior to the 1950s, it was considered appropriate for a girl to dance with a variety of partners, even if she came to a dance with a particular young man. By the mid-1950s, views changed, and it was considered insulting to cut-in on someone else's date (Sombat). In addition, rock and roll, which featured more suggestive lyrics than prior forms of music, seemed to encourage casual sexual contact between men and women. Rock music has only grown more suggestive with time, as have rock stars, helping create a popular culture that thrives on marketing sexuality.

Part of these changing attitudes was reflected in the sexual behavior of teenagers in the 1950s. Modern people have an image of the 1950s as a chaste and innocent time. However, sexual relations changed dramatically in the 1950s, even before the...
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