Like a Rolling Stone: History on Rock and Roll

“The cliché is that rock & roll was a melding of country music and blues, and if you are talking about, say, Chuck Berry or Elvis Presley, the description, though simplistic, does fit. But the black inner-city vocal-group sound . . . had little to do with either blues or country music in their purer forms.

Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll or rock 'n ' roll) is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States. The music we know as rock and roll emerged as a defined musical style in the mid 1950s, even though a form of it had been on the horizon for at least a decade or so. A quarter of the American population moved during World War II, and that is what brought southern, rural, sacred and secular traditions into contact with urban-based music and its audiences. Rock and roll drew on many different styles. It derived most directly from the rhythm and blues music of the 1940s, which it developed from earlier blues, boogie-woogie, jazz and swing music. It was also influenced by gospel, country, western, and traditional folk music. With the combinations of all of these genres of music, that help to create this new style of music excited a worldwide generation of young listeners. Even though it had the attention of young listeners it started to upset the already established social, cultural and musical authorities. With this new music style coming into full affect along with new dances and people having voicing out their own opinion caused a lot of turmoil. Many people began to question this new genre of music and labeled it as the devil music while other loved it and couldn’t help but dance

Jazz-Rock came out about the late 1960's, it is a style of Jazz that combined

By the end of the 50’s and beginning of the 60’s rock had somewhat died down and become tamer. many thought it was dead until the mid 60’s. Rock & Roll had a resurgence, known as “The British Invasion”. While things had settled down in the US, England had been inspired. Groups from Britain like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles brought a fresh style, infusing British Rhythm and Blues and Jazz into what they played. This revival propelled the genre down two different paths. Many groups came onto the scene and continued to make more of the same teen-appropriate pop-style music. others pushed boundaries in an industry heavily influenced by drugs, spawning the phrase, “Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll”. The Beatles were at the center of it all, experimenting with different sounds and instruments. Their experimentations became part of a larger movement, known as psychedelic rock, which included the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd was one of the first bands to use laser lights in their concerts. What’s more psychedelic than that? Hendrix even took it a step further, creating what many call Acid Rock. Additionally, the Beatles were not just trendsetters with their music, but also with fashion, sporting hair that was abnormally long for men at the

It didn’t stop there. Along came the 1950’s. This is the decade that gave birth to Rock n Roll. There is no one type of popular ‘50s music. During the decade, soloists and crooners shared the stage with rock and roll, country and western, bluegrass, folk, Cajun and creole music. It’s impossible to pin ‘50s music to any one style.

     The Rolling Stones were the second most successful band of the British invasion and dived into the mainstream with their hit “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” The Rolling Stones had a more aggressive style with loud guitar tones and driving rhythms. And while The Beatles touched on more clean-cut topics, the Stones shocked people with songs about casual drug use and careless sex. Other influential bands of the British Invasion include The Who, Cream, and The Kinks who are now some of rocks greatest legends.

Rock and roll was born in the late 1950s. Primary influenced from southern artists like Elvis Presley and Bill Haley, this new genre of music though

Rockabilly emerged in the 1950's which is a mixture of rock and roll, country, blues, and jazz and was a central music genre of the 50's. Musicians that made rock and roll popular

One of the major turning points in Western popular music is rock and roll of the 1950s. This style of popular music was distinctive in its sounds and origins, as it was the first time white music was combined with race music successfully in mainstream media. Rock and roll reflected the social and cultural shifts that were occurring in American society after World War II, and music continues to reflect society and popular culture today. Rock and roll of the 1950s marked the shift of dominant musical influences from European (melodic) to African American music (rhythmic).

The history of rock and roll is a rich and complex one. It has been around for a very long time and has greatly influenced American culture in many ways. Rock and roll has shaped various genres of music today and has helped create completely new ones. Not only has it created new styles of music but it has even influenced the way people dress, and dance too. It is a unique combination of various styles of music that has been melted into one just perfectly to create what we call today.

At the end of the 1960s, when Rock and Roll were at its prime, two musical genres that were originally considered its influences re-imagined themselves through Rock and Roll’s prism - Country and Jazz musicians started to mix their music with Rock’s relentless energy. The newfound genres, called Country Rock and Jazz Rock respectively were accepted by the audience and critics alike, having a major impact that is still traceable in today’s music.

Without a doubt the most influential event in the development of music in the 1960’s was what became known as the British invasion. With the televised beatings of peaceful civil-rights protestors the American youth became disenchanted with their government and the music that was produced up until 1963 began to reflect that. After 1963 however acts that had been hugely successful in Britain began to make appearances in America, most notably the Beatles. The band, later known as the fab four, became an overnight success in the states and very few American artists maintained any semblance of popularity as a result of the ensuing beatlemania as it

Thanks to technological innovations the price of recorded music dropped significantly. These lower prices raised the public interest in music, and because of the new huge profit margins record companies were finally able to spend money to promote artists these promoted artists were the first of many hundreds of pop stars. The biggest of these early pop stars was Italian singer Frank Sinatra. After seeing the profitability of this many record companies decided to manufacture their own pop stars so to speak, meaning that they would take a relatively unknown artist who wasn't necessarily the most talented and would promote them very heavily based on their looks, normally to teens and preteens. This sub genre is called bubblegum pop, and the poster child for it would have to be the band The Monkees. Around this same time period the genre of rock n roll was also gaining a substantial amount of popularity. Rock can be described as a fusion of jazz, blues, and country. At first white artists like Elvis Presley were the only ones garnering national acclaim for rock and roll. However by 1959 many black artists like Fats Domino and Little Richard were seen as national icons. The genre of rock and roll only grew larger as the decade turned, with that it also inspired many sub genres one in particular being surf. Surf is rock that mostly made up of instrumentals, and is very heavily based on a guitar sound that has

In the sixties rock music comes of age and dominates the popular music charts. Elvis Presley continued to score hits in the early part of the decade, but the music continued to diversify with the folk revival, the Brill Building sound, Phil Spector 's wall of sound, girl groups and surf music, all impacting the early part of the decade. The Motown, Stax and Atlantic labels bring more African-American artists back to the forefront of the pop charts. By 1964 American artists are sharing the top of the charts with U.K. bands led by great bands like the Beatles and The Rolling Stones. In the U.S. garage bands emerge, inspired by the British Invasion sound.

However, the 1960s was considered at a stand still when it came to popular music. In 1964, when the Beatles arrived to America, everything changed. I think this was the time when Rock-n-Roll was truly reborn as Rock music. “The changing of Rock and Roll terminology is illustative. “Rock and Roll” became simply “Rock”, connoting its new heaviness (seriousness)” (Cary, pg 31) The oncoming decade allowed for new developments within rock music and as a result, soared in popularity. The British invasion, a phrase coined by Walter Cronkite while reporting the arrival of the Beatles in the USA,and American folk singers were the causes of the rapid changes in Rock music. It was British bands that altered how Rock-n-Roll was played, and at the the same time American folk singers were in the process of changing how its audience, particularly the youth, perceived it.