The wave of 1950s nostalgia in the 1970s rarely comes up outside of the context of "Happy Days" (which i watched as a child).

I was very young in the 1970s, so I can't speak to the larger cultural context at the time or anything, but when I was young, my mom listened to the "oldies" station on the radio at home and in the car. They played a lot of the 50s and early 60s rock-and-roll and doo-wop.

It kinda weirds me out now that in 1975, that station was playing music that was less than 20 years old at the time. The music that was new when I was in college is older than that now.

Anyway, my mom also liked "The Sha-Na-Nas", so we watched them ever week on TV as well.

I listen to a lot of metal; I was a metal head in high school, and also lisen to a lot of punk/post-punk/industrial/goth, but there's a whole segment of my main playlist that's bands like the Bill Haley and His Comets, The Coasters, Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Little Richard, The Chips, The Beach Boys, Dale Hawkins, Richie Valens, The Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, The Crystals, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, The Big Bopper, The Fleetwoods, Bo Diddley, The Marcels, Roy Orbison, Danny and the Juniors, Lloyd Price, Dick Dale and the Deltones, The Drifters, Eddie Cochran, Fats Domino, Shangra La's, Harry Belafonte, The Hollywood Argyles, Otis Redding, Patsy Cline, Phil Philips and the Twilights, and more.

The music my mom listened to when she was in college ended up ingrained in my brain at a very young age because of the 50s nostalgia in the 70s, and I've carried it with me ever since. What's interesting is that I can clearly hear how this music came to influence the music I listened to later. You can hear Bo Diddly and Chuck Berry in the Ramones and the Cramps. There's a direct line from Little Richard to Prince. (Interestingly enough, I only got into Prince recently after realizing the Little Richard connection)

Anyone else affected by the 50s wave?