Teenage tragedy song

The teenage tragedy song is a style of ballad in popular music that peaked in popularity in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Examples of the style are also known as "tear jerkers," "death discs" or "splatter platters", among other colorful sobriquets coined by DJs that then passed into vernacular as the songs became popular. Often lamenting teenage death scenarios in melodramatic fashion, these songs were usually sung from the viewpoint of the dead person's sweetheart, as in "Last Kiss" (1964), or another witness to the tragedy, or the dead (or dying) person. Other examples include "Teen Angel" by Mark Dinning (1959), "Tell Laura I Love Her" by Ray Peterson (1960), "Ebony Eyes" by the Everly Brothers (1961), "Dead Man's Curve" by Jan and Dean (1964), and "Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-Las (1964). The genre's popularity faded around 1965 (as a mostly American phenomenon it was one of many musical formats that was drowned out by the British Invasion), but inspired a host of similar songs and parodies over the years.

By the mid-1950s, postwar youth culture in the U.S. was embracing rock and roll, and the folk revival was also approaching its zenith – the narrative style of many teenage tragedy songs had similarities to folk balladry. Prison ballads (such as The Kingston Trio's "Tom Dooley", based on a folk song about a real murder) and gunfighter ballads (including Johnny Cash's "Don't Take Your Guns to Town"), with similar themes of death, were also popular during the heyday of teen tragedy songs.

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