Rock and roll

• 1. Origins And Evolution

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  In the late 1940s, a new sound began to take shape in the United States. It emerged from a blending of black musical genres like rhythm and blues with influences from gospel, jazz, boogie-woogie, electric blues, jump blues, swing, and folk music. This fusion did not happen overnight but evolved over decades. Elements of this style could be heard in blues records from the 1920s and country records of the 1930s. However, the genre did not acquire its name until 1954. The immediate roots lay in rhythm and blues combined with either boogie-woogie or shouting gospel. In the 1930s, jazz and particularly swing presented African-American sounds for a predominantly white audience. One notable example is Big Joe Turner with pianist Pete Johnson's 1938 single Roll Em Pete. During World War II, large jazz bands were replaced by smaller combos using guitars, bass, and drums. On the West Coast and in the Midwest, jump blues developed with guitar riffs and prominent beats. Country boogie and Chicago electric blues supplied many elements that would become characteristic of rock and roll.

• 2. Terminology And History

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  The phrase rocking and rolling originally described the movement of a ship on the ocean. By the early 20th century it was used to describe spiritual fervor in black church rituals and as a sexual analogy. A retired Welsh seaman named William Fender sang the phrase when describing a sexual encounter in his performance of the traditional song The Baffled Knight. Blues singer Trixie Smith recorded My Man Rocks Me with One Steady Roll in 1922. Various gospel, blues and swing recordings used the phrase before it became widely popular. In 1942 Billboard magazine columnist Maurie Orodenker started to use the term to describe upbeat recordings such as Rock Me by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. By 1943 the Rock and Roll Inn in South Merchantville New Jersey was established as a music venue. In 1951 Cleveland Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing this music style and referring to it as rock and roll on his mainstream radio program. Several sources suggest that Freed found the term on the record Sixty Minute Man by Billy Ward and his Dominoes. Freed did not acknowledge the suggestion about that source in interviews but explained the term as swing with a modern name.

• 3. Pioneering Artists And Records

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  In March 1951 Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats recorded Rocket 88 at Sam Phillips studio. This track is often cited as the first rock n roll record though Ike Turner offered a different comment stating he thought it was R&B but the cause of rock and roll existing. Other contenders for the title include Sister Rosetta Tharpe's Strange Things Happening Every Day from 1944 and That's All Right by Arthur Crudup from 1946. Hank Williams released Move It On Over in 1947 while Fats Domino recorded The Fat Man in 1949. Goree Carter's Rock Awhile also appeared in 1949 followed by Jimmy Preston's Rock the Joint later covered by Bill Haley and His Comets in 1952. In April 1954 Bill Haley and his Comets recorded Rock Around the Clock which became a commercial success the following year when used in the movie Blackboard Jungle. Chuck Berry introduced an aggressive guitar sound to rock and roll in 1955 with Maybellene featuring a distorted electric guitar solo created by his small valve amplifier. Bo Diddley introduced the Bo Diddley beat and a unique electric guitar style influenced by African and Afro-Cuban music.

• 4. The Rockabilly Phenomenon

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  Rockabilly usually refers to the type of rock and roll music played and recorded in the mid-1950s primarily by white singers such as Elvis Presley Carl Perkins Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis who drew mainly on country roots. In July 1954 Presley recorded the regional hit That's All Right at Sam Phillips Sun Studio in Memphis. Three months earlier on the 12th of April 1954 Bill Haley and His Comets recorded Rock Around the Clock though it was only a minor hit when first released. When used in the opening sequence of the movie Blackboard Jungle a year later it set the rock and roll boom in motion. 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 the No 1 hit 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.

• 5. Racial Dynamics And Covers

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  Many of the earliest white rock and roll hits were covers or partial re-writes of earlier black rhythm and blues or blues songs. Before the efforts of Freed and others black music was taboo on many white-owned radio outlets but artists and producers quickly recognized the potential of rock and roll. Some of Presley's early recordings were covers of black rhythm and blues or blues songs such as That's All Right Baby Let's Play House Lawdy Miss Clawdy and Hound Dog. The racial lines are rather more clouded by the fact that some of these R&B songs originally recorded by black artists had been written by white songwriters such as the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Songwriting credits were often unreliable; many publishers record executives and even managers would insert their name as a composer in order to collect royalty checks. One of the first relevant successful covers was Wynonie Harris's transformation of Roy Brown's 1947 original jump blues hit Good Rocking Tonight into a more showy rocker. Pat Boone recorded sanitized versions of songs recorded by the likes of Fats Domino Little Richard the Flamingos and Ivory Joe Hunter. Later as those songs became popular the original artists' recordings received radio play as well.

• 6. Global Expansion And Decline

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  Some commentators have suggested a decline of rock and roll starting in 1958. The retirement of Little Richard to become a preacher occurred in October 1957 while the departure of Presley for service in the United States Army happened in March 1958. The scandal surrounding Jerry Lee Lewis' marriage to his thirteen-year-old cousin took place in May 1958. Riots caused by Bill Haley's ill-fated tour of Europe erupted in October 1958. The deaths of Buddy Holly the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash occurred in February 1959. The breaking of the Payola scandal implicating major figures including Alan Freed in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs happened in November 1959. Chuck Berry was arrested in December 1959 and Eddie Cochran died in a car crash in April 1960. During the late 1950s and early 1960s the rawer sounds of Presley Gene Vincent Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly were commercially superseded by a more polished commercial style of rock and roll influenced pop music. In the mid-1960s the British Invasion became the superseding form of rock music though a few American artists like Johnny Rivers achieved chart successes with rock and roll recordings during this time.

• 7. Cultural Impact And Teen Identity

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  Rock and roll influenced lifestyles fashion attitudes and language possibly even contributing to the civil rights movement since both African-American and European-American teens enjoyed the music. William J. Schafer states that the lyrics dealt with issues such as cars school dating and clothing describing events and conflicts to which most listeners could relate through personal experience. Topics such as sex that had generally been considered taboo began to appear in rock and roll lyrics. This led to the music breaking boundaries and expressing emotions that people were actually feeling but had not discussed openly leading to an awakening in American youth culture. Ruth Padel claimed that rock and roll was one of the first music genres to define an age group giving teenagers a sense of belonging even when they were alone. Rock and roll emerged with teen culture among the first baby boomer generation who had greater relative affluence and leisure time and adopted rock and roll as part of a distinct subculture. From its early 1950s beginnings through the early 1960s rock and roll spawned new dance crazes including the twist. Sock hops school and church gym dances and home basement dance parties became the rage while American teens watched Dick Clark's American Bandstand to keep up on the latest dance and fashion styles.