Dirt roads + swing jazz?

Well, in 1953 jazz music was what wild, unbridled beatnik generation anti-social rebels listened to. Jazz was the music of choice of the younger crowd. May seem odd now, but it's true. I know, it's amazing with all that leather and attitude whenever someone see's that movie these days and the scene with the needle hitting the vinyl happens, you just expect some hardcore 50s rock-n-roll to blare out those speakers. But NO... it's jazz. LOL.

And in regards to roads, well the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 pushed by President Eisenhower helped get roads built in places that might still be dirt roads. In the 1950s the USA was still more populated in rural areas than cities. Dirt roads outside of BIG cities were common. There was not sub/urban sprawl. Now, the majority of Americans live in cities (urban areas) and every place has been paved away and strip-malled (or mega-malled). Although if you go to some of the poorest states in the USA (the South) and most rural ones (extreme West & NW), you will still find areas with many dirt roads!

As for your comment on (all) jazz music being lame, that's your opinion and you have a right to your own tastes. But if you haven't heard much jazz, you could give it a try - start with some of the best known & regarded works instead of that purposely garish stuff blaring from the speakers in that scene in the movie!

Shorty Rogers was part of the "West Coast Jazz" movement of the late 40s and early 50s. It produced such greats as Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan Jimmy Giuffre
Stan Getz I think and others.

The music in The Wild One may have not always fit well, but there was at least one terrific blend of sight and sound: after Johnny rescues Mary Murphy's character from some menacing bikers she gets on the back of his bike and they ride down this tree-lined moonlit road with the rhythms of shadow and moonlight
pulsing like the jazz riff.

I was around 15 when I saw it but that was the only scene that made me wish I was Johnny (or Marlon).

It won't chip, peel, blister, crack, flake or rust in any way.

A little late to the discussion here, but it's REALLY unfair to dismiss an entire genre of music by saying something like "jazz music is so lame." It was NEVER "lame" until the 1980s and the commercialized, watered-down "smooth jazz" produced for pop radio.

The jazz world has given rise to some of the most brilliant and skilled composers and musicians in modern history. Ever heard of Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, John Coltrane?

This type of music fits perfectly well with "The Wild One." For a long time, jazz was well outside the mainstream of Middle America. Its rhythms and composition (and the people who made the music) were much different from what was considered "decent" music by the general public. And so it lent itself well to counter-culture movements such as hepcats and then beatniks. It was the living soundtrack of nonconformism.

Another perfect pairing of jazz music with "gritty" life was the 1950s TV crime drama "M Squad," though in an urban setting.

I would suggest watching Ken Burns' Jazz documentary series sometime to gain a better appreciation for this genre of music and everything that has gone into it.

It's all too fussy