All Shook Up: The Birth of Rockn´ Roll

I watched a video from the 50th anniversary presentations. The video I watched was about Rock and Roll, Segregation, and The British Invasion of 1964. It was lectured by Dr. Christy Talbott, and she first talked about the pre rock and roll period. The term Rock and Roll came from a song from the year 1938, that stated “My baby rock and rolls me all night.” Rock and Roll or also known as American Rock, was changed completely after the British Invasion came in 1964. The invasion turned Rock and Roll into what is known today as Rock, it made a change for the good. Musicians in the pre Rock and Roll era, sang about current events similar as we do today. The events they sang about was Segregation, North Vs. South inferiority and the wars that were happening at the time World War 2, Korean War and Vietnam War. THe artists of this time consisted of The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ritchie Valens and the most famous of them all Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley’s music was called “White man with an African American feel.” In 1959 Motown records in Detroit, Michigan hired an all black group called “The Temptations.” Their song “My Girl” hit number one on the billboards in 1964. The man that hired them was Berry Gordy Jr. Berry Gordy Jr also hired all black women groups as well, but unlike the all black male groups he dressed the women groups as white folk.

separation. Rock and roll music was formerly made up of only whites, but gradually African-Americans moved into that genre of music. This is a good thing for racial equality, except for when you look at the other types of dominant music today, rap and rhythm and blues. There is almost no white singers in these entire styles of music. On MTV, there has been only two white rap singers in the history of the channel, and one of them, Enimem,

Throughout the history of rock and roll there have been a countless number of artists that have brought forth social and cultural changes, that had voices strong enough to stand above the crowd and send messages out to the masses. When people use their talents and resources to stand as an advocate for the rest of the little people that fall under the struggle they are speaking up for,

The explosion of Rock n’ Roll in the mid-1950’s helped bring to the forefront of American society the idea that social, cultural, and musical change was deeply needed. By 1959, the initial success and jolt of the Rock n’ Roll era, that took the American youth by storm three years earlier, had officially fallen apart at the seams. The late 1950’s and early 1960’s marked a period of decline for the Rock and Roll genre. The parting of Elvis Presley for the military in 1958, the death of Buddy Holly and two other members of The Crickets in 1959, and the departure of the other members of Rock and Roll’s “Big Five” throughout much of the late 1950’s had devastated America’s hope for social and musical change (Ashton Lecture). With this breakdown of Rock n’ Roll, came an era that was once again dominated and mesmerized by the Jazz, Pop and Country Western genres. The Rock and Roll flame that captivated so many American citizens throughout much of the 1950’s was slowly beginning to dwindle back into the darkness. As all hope seemed to be lost, a new dawn for Rock and Roll was gradually appearing. In 1963-1964 with the introduction of a small British band from Liverpool, England, the dawn that everyone was waiting for had finally arrived and with it would change Rock n’ Roll history forever.

I am going to start off by talking about some of the genres Rock and Roll originated from. First I will talk about Blues. The Deep South in the 1920s and 1930s was the birthplace of the Blues. The Blues spoke to African Americans about the challenges they faced and how others had it worse. It flourished under the horrible circumstances of the African Americans of this time. The Blues have some very iconic African Americans who helped mold this genre and eventually Rock and Roll, for example: the Father of the Delta Blues, Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, and Muddy Waters

Rock music has come a long way since its development in the early 20th century. The genre, defined “as a merger between rhythm&blues and country” (Scaruffi, The History of Rock Music:1955-1966), started out more as an underground market, but ended up becoming a significant aspect of American popular music history. Rock-n-Roll music produce many legendary artists who will forever be known as innovators of the genre. Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry were some of the many artists in Rock-n-Roll who will always live on in their music. Many teenagers were also to identify it due to its rebellious nature their disapproval of the cold war. Towards the end of the 1950s, Rock-n-Roll was ending

In the year 1949, The White Australia policy took place. In 1950 white people and African Americans where in close proximity with each other as the African Americans moved the urban cities for jobs. As the two races became closer to each other they shared their music and over a period of time their music overlapped. This overlap became the birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Rock ‘n’ Roll was the combination of Rhythm and Blues.

Since the 1950s, rock and roll has changed drastically. During the 1950s, rock and roll really started to pop up in the music industry. Artists like Elvis, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, and others formed a genre called Rockabilly. Rockabilly was a mixture of Blues, Jazz, and Country. Rockabilly can also be described as blues with electric guitar.

Berry continued to release singles, that reached popular status with both black and white listeners. The actual birth of Rock N’ Roll is a mix between Country, Blues, and R&B. White kids were tired of listening to the same old thing, and when they heard black artists on black radio stations, they were hooked. It was this new sound that propelled the birth of rock to where it is today. Chuck Berry helped create this new sound, with the songs of “Johnny B Goode”, “My Ding-a-Ling”, “Maybellene”, and many others. If not for his specific sound, we would not have the genre of Rock N’ Roll we have today.

Rock n Roll didn’t just come about in the 1950’s but was centuries in the makings. In the mid to late 1600’s many white settlers began to trade and force slaves from Africa to do rigorous labor, despite harsh lives they kept their culture alive. They keep their music alive by singing folk tales while working on the fields. Many of the song lyrics were made up on the spot and “talked about ‘going home’…they [the slaves] were singing about going north to Canada and freedom” (Patrickson, Will). The civil war freed blacks, and although their lives were still difficult, there was a sense of peace and freedom achieved. Former slaves still continued to sing and create music and educated blacks introduced “English hymns”3 to their music. No longer being enslaved blacks had access to stringed instruments that were previously played strictly by whites. This access to white instruments was the first time that the soul of black-slavery music

Who started rock and roll? Well, that’s easy. Chuck Berry introduced something never heard before, the song named “Maybellene”. Chuck decided to have a nice electric guitar solo, as well as comforting tones that ran over the music with a small valve amplifier. Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Little Richard were major pioneers in this area of music. They coaxed Rockabilly to become a thing. This all happened in the 1950s. Thank you, Elvis!

The genre had rhythm, appeal, it was fun, and most importantly, it sounded good. Before Rock n’ Roll, we had R&B. R&B, or rhythm and blues, is an African American genre that, at its roots, used the same chords that any Blues listener had been familiar with, but also “played with an insistent backbeat” (allmusic.com). The sound was intriguing to many, and by result, someone ended up exposing it for some sort of personal gain. The person most accredited to do so is Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley may be one of the most infamous American musicians of all time, and that’s easily understood! Elvis changed music and brought forth a progressive era of music. However, though credited as the “King of Rock n’ Roll”, can we really call him that, if he actually stole the style and music from African Americans? Many argue that without Elvis, that style of music would have never been popular and there wouldn’t have ever been another trailblazer capable of what Elvis did. Contrary to that, Helen Kolawole says, “But the reality is, black music never stays underground. White people always seek it out, dilute it and eventually claim it as their own.” Many people oppose Elvis as the King, because all he did was repeat what Christopher Columbus had done hundreds of years prior; he discovered something, claimed it as his own, and exposed it for profit. It led many people to resent the man and the rock genre as a whole. Elvis’ robbery of rock from african americans impacted the culture a lot more negatively than positively. It essentially set the culture back further, because it gave them even less credibility, as a people, to contribute to society in such a major way. To put into a little bit closer of a perspective, think of how much further along we’d be, in terms of civil rights, as a nation, if a Michael Jackson had come along as opposed to an Elvis Presley. Sadly,

In the following decade of the 1960s Rock n’ Roll music became more accepted and began to evolve from the Rockabilly sound audiences have grown to know before to a freer sound. However, the 1960s was also the time of the infamous saying “Sex, Drugs, and Rock n’ Roll” became the reality of the newly found style of music.

Rock music has been very popular for years. Now-a-day’s rock has blended in with the other types of popular music like pop, country and rap. However, none of these other types of music seemed to have as big an impact on people that rock did. Rock ‘n roll, basically controlled the most of the twentieth century, with an entire era of children, teens and young adults to follow. But, where did rock come from? What is rock music, what started it? How did parents react?

Rock was born in the 1950’s, it was a mix of gospel country and blues. The electric guitar was the main instrument back in the 50’s. Bill haley was the first rock artist to hit the pop charts, he got number 12 with a song “crazy man crazy”. Many independent record labels picked up this new style and release records.The first song to hit number one on the charts was Rock around the clock by Bill Haley. Many parents saw rock as a bad influence and thought it would make young teens disobedient and rebellious. The audience of rock at the time was very hidden they would listen to this new music against the will of authority figures. But to those teens they felt it was there culture something they could rally behind and call theirs. During this time