Rock
and Roll
The origins of rock and roll
have been fiercely debated by commentators and historians of music. There is
general agreement that it arose in the Southern United States a region which
would produce most of the major early rock and roll acts through the
meeting of various influences that embodied a merging of the African musical
tradition with European instrumentation. The migration of many former slaves
and their descendants to major urban centers like Memphis and north to New York
City, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland and Buffalo meant that black and white
residents were living in close proximity in larger numbers than ever before,
and as a result heard each other’s music and even began to emulate each other’s
fashions. Radio stations that made white and black forms of music available to
both groups, the development and spread of the gramophone record, and African
American musical styles such as jazz and swing which were taken up by white
musicians, aided this process of “cultural collision”. The immediate roots of rock
and roll lay in the rhythm and blues, then called “race music”, and country
music of the 1940s and 1950s. Particularly significant influences were jazz,
blues, gospel, country, and folk. Commentators differ in their views of which
of these forms were most important and the degree to which the new music was a
re-branding of African American rhythm and blues for a white market, or a new
hybrid of black and white forms.
In the 1930s jazz, and particularly swing, both in urban based dance bands and blues-influenced country swing, was among the first music to present African American sounds for a predominantly white audience. The 1940s saw the increased use of blaring horns, shouted lyrics and boogie woogie beats in jazz based music. During and immediately after World War II, with shortages of fuel and limitations on audiences and available personnel, large jazz bands were less economical and tended to be replaced by smaller combos, using guitars, bass and drums. In the same period, particularly on the West Coast and in the Midwest, the development of jump blues, with its guitar riffs, prominent beats and shouted lyrics, prefigured many later developments. In the documentary film Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll, Keith Richards proposes that Chuck Berry developed his brand of rock and roll, by transposing the familiar two-note lead line of jump blues piano directly to the electric guitar, creating what is instantly recognizable as rock guitar. Similarly, country boogie and Chicago electric blues supplied many of the elements that would be seen as characteristic of rock and roll.
Rock and roll arrived at a time of considerable technological change, soon after the development of the electric guitar, amplifier and microphone, and the 45 rpm record. There were also changes in the record industry, with the rise of independent labels like Atlantic, Sun and Chess servicing niche audiences and a similar rise of radio stations that played their music. It was the realization that relatively affluent white teenagers were listening to this music that led to the development of what was to be defined as rock and roll as a distinct genre.
In the 1930s jazz, and particularly swing, both in urban based dance bands and blues-influenced country swing, was among the first music to present African American sounds for a predominantly white audience. The 1940s saw the increased use of blaring horns, shouted lyrics and boogie woogie beats in jazz based music. During and immediately after World War II, with shortages of fuel and limitations on audiences and available personnel, large jazz bands were less economical and tended to be replaced by smaller combos, using guitars, bass and drums. In the same period, particularly on the West Coast and in the Midwest, the development of jump blues, with its guitar riffs, prominent beats and shouted lyrics, prefigured many later developments. In the documentary film Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll, Keith Richards proposes that Chuck Berry developed his brand of rock and roll, by transposing the familiar two-note lead line of jump blues piano directly to the electric guitar, creating what is instantly recognizable as rock guitar. Similarly, country boogie and Chicago electric blues supplied many of the elements that would be seen as characteristic of rock and roll.
Rock and roll arrived at a time of considerable technological change, soon after the development of the electric guitar, amplifier and microphone, and the 45 rpm record. There were also changes in the record industry, with the rise of independent labels like Atlantic, Sun and Chess servicing niche audiences and a similar rise of radio stations that played their music. It was the realization that relatively affluent white teenagers were listening to this music that led to the development of what was to be defined as rock and roll as a distinct genre.
Rock and Roll-Early Days
“Rockabilly” usually refers to the
type of rock and roll music which was played and recorded in the mid-1950s
primarily by white singers such as Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee
Lewis, who drew mainly on the country roots of the music. Many other popular
rock and roll singers of the time, such as Fats Domino and Little Richard, came
out of the black rhythm and blues tradition, making the music attractive to
white audiences, and are not usually classed as “rockabilly”. In 1956, the
arrival of rockabilly was underlined by the success of songs like “Folsom
Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash, “Blue Suede Shoes” by Perkins and “Heartbreak
Hotel” by Presley. For a few years it became the most commercially successful
form of rock and roll. Later rockabilly acts, particularly performing
songwriters like Buddy Holly, would be a major influence on British Invasion
acts and particularly on the song writing of The Beatles and through them on
the nature of later rock music. Rock and Roll-Doo Wop was one of the most popular
forms of 1950s rock and roll, with an emphasis on multi-part vocal
harmonies and meaningless backing lyrics (from which the genre later gained its
name), which were usually supported with light instrumentation. Its origins
were in African American vocal groups of the 1930s and 40s, like the Ink Spots
and the Mills Brothers, who had enjoyed considerable commercial success with
arrangements based on close harmonies. They were followed by 1940s R&B
vocal acts like The Orioles, The Ravens and The Clovers, who injected a strong
element of traditional gospel and, increasingly, the energy of jump blues. By
1954, as rock and roll was beginning to emerge, a number of similar acts began
to cross over from the R&B charts to mainstream success, often with added honking
brass and saxophone, with The Crows, The Penguins, The El Dorados and The
Turbans all scoring major hits.
Rock and Roll-Decline
Commentators have traditionally
perceived a decline of rock and roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By
1959, the death of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in a plane
crash (February 1959), the departure of Elvis for the army (March 1958), the
retirement of Little Richard to become a preacher (October 1957), the scandal
surrounding Jerry Lee Lewis’ marriage to his thirteen-year-old cousin (May
1958), the arrest of Chuck Berry (December 1959), and the breaking of the
payola scandal implicating major figures, including Alan Freed, in bribery and
corruption in promoting individual acts or songs (November 1959), gave a sense
that the initial rock and roll era had come to an end. There was also a process
that has been described as the “feminization” of rock and roll, with the charts
beginning to be dominated by love ballads, often aimed at a female audience,
and the rise of girl groups like The Shirelles and The Crystals.
Rock and Roll-British Invasion
As interest in rock and roll was
beginning to subside in America in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it was taken
up by groups in major British urban centres like Liverpool, Manchester,
Birmingham, and London. About the same time, a British blues scene developed,
initially led by purist blues followers such as Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies
who were directly inspired by American musicians such as Robert Johnson, Muddy
Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Many groups moved towards the beat music of rock and
roll and rhythm and blues from skiffle, like the Quarrymen who became The
Beatles, producing a form of rock and roll revivalism that carried them and
many other groups to national success from about 1963 and to international
success from 1964, known in America as the British Invasion. Groups that
followed The Beatles included the beat-influenced Freddie and the Dreamers,
Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, Herman’s Hermits and the Dave Clark Five,
and the more blues-influenced The Animals, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The
Who and The Yardbirds. As the blues became an increasingly significant
influence, leading to the creation of the blues-rock of groups like The Moody
Blues, Small Faces, The Move, Traffic and Cream, and developing into rock
music, the influence of early rock and roll began to subside.
Rock
and Roll-Influences
Far beyond simply a musical style,
rock and roll influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language. In addition,
rock and roll may have helped the cause of the civil rights movement because
both African American teens and white American teens enjoyed the music. Many
early rock and roll songs dealt with issues of cars, school, dating, and
clothing. The lyrics of rock and roll songs described events and conflicts that
most listeners could relate to from some point in their lives. Topics that were
generally considered taboo, such as sex, began to be introduced in rock and
roll music. This new music tried to break boundaries and express the real
emotions that people were feeling, but didn’t talk about. An awakening in the
young American culture began to take place. In the crossover of African
American “race music” to a growing white youth audience, the popularization of
rock and roll involved both black performers reaching a white audience and
white performers appropriating African American music. The coming together of
white youth audiences and black music in rock and roll inevitably provoked
strong white racist reactions within the US, with many whites condemning its
breaking down of barriers based on color. Many observers saw rock and roll as
heralding the way for desegregation, in creating a new form of music that
encouraged racial cooperation and shared experience. Many authors have argued
that early rock and roll was instrumental in the way both white and black
teenagers identified themselves.
Rock
and Roll-Summary
I am very fortunate to have grown up in times where
rock and roll music meant more than what it initially stood for. Rock and Roll
in Hawaii in the late 60′s and early 70′s was everywhere to include bands like
The Rock and Roll Roadshow, The Honolulu Dogs, Spector, Catapult, and my
favorite Zuproc and much more. There was a rock and roll club on every corner.
Rock and roll was a way of life back them playing at clubs 7 nights a week.
Back then there was enough to go around. Bands were bands that actually had their
own members. Sometimes I ponder about those days and how lucky I was to be a
part of it all.
I would like to thank the
contributors who made this knowledge-base available for me to learn a little
more about the music I play. If you would like to know more about my blog or
the blogging system I use, hit me up at:
www.thisisbilly.com/did-you-know/
Thank you Billy Mousse
www.rbmproductions.com
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