http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/R/Rock-and-roll.htm
Rock and roll, also
called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony backing), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. As a cultural phenomenon, rock's social impact on the world is likely unparalleled by any other kind of music. It has
been credited with ending wars and spreading peace and tolerance, as well as
corrupting the innocent and spreading moral rot. Rock has become popular across
the globe, far from its birthplace in the United States, and evolved into a multitude of highly-varying styles.
The term rock and roll is vague. It is sometimes used to describe
a number of genres only distantly related, including soul, heavy metal and even hip hop. In
other circumstances, it is used strictly to apply only to the earliest
incarnation of "rock" -- the 1950s scene that started the genre. Some
make distinctions between rock and roll and rock music on these
grounds, while others unapologetically use it as a synonym for modern Western
popular music.
Main article: Origins of rock and roll
Rock and roll emerged as a defined musical style in America in
the 1950s,
though elements of rock and roll can be seen in rhythm and blues records as far back as the 1920s. Early rock and roll combined elements of blues, boogie woogie, jazz and rhythm and blues, and is also influenced by traditional Appalachian folk music, gospel and country and western. Going back even further, rock and roll can trace a foundational
lineage to the old Five Points district of mid-19th century New York City, the scene of the first fusion of heavily rhythmic African shuffles and
sand dances with melody driven European genres, particularly the Irish jig.
Rocking was a term first used by gospel
singers in the American South to mean something akin to spiritual rapture. By
the 1940s, however, the term was used as a double entendre, ostensibly
referring to dancing, but with the hidden subtextual meaning of sex; an example
of this is Roy Brown's "Good Rocking Tonight". "Good Rocking
Tonight" and similar songs were relegated to "race music" (the music industry code name for rhythm and blues) outlets and
were barely known by mainstream white audiences. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed would
begin playing this type of music for his white audience, and it is Freed who is
credited with coining the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the
rollicking R&B music that he brought to the airwaves.
There is much debate as to what should be considered the first rock and roll record. Candidates include the 1951 "Rocket 88"
by Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats, or later and more mainstream hits like Chuck Berry's
"Maybellene"
or Bill Haley & His Comets' "Rock Around the Clock". Some historians go further back, pointing to musicians like Fats Domino, who
were recording in the 40s in styles largely indistinguishable from rock and
roll; these include Louis Jordan's
"Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby?", Jack Guthrie's
"The Oakie Bookie" (1947) and Benny Carter and
Paul Vandervoort II's "Rock Me to Sleep" (1950).
Whatever the beginning, it is clear that rock appeared at a time when
racial tensions in the
On March 21, 1952 in
By the end of the decade, rock had spread throughout the world. In
Main article: Rockabilly
It was two years later that the first major white rock star began recording.
In 1954, Elvis Presley began recording with Sam Philips, starting with the hit
"That's All Right, Mama". Elvis played a rock and country &
western fusion called rockabilly, and he became possibly the first celebrity
musician and teen idol.
It was the following year's "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets that really set the rock boom in motion, though. The song was one of
the biggest hits in history, and frenzied teens flocked to see him, even
causing riots in some places; "Rock Around the Clock" was a
breakthrough for both the group and for all of rock and roll music. If
everything that came before laid the groundwork, "Clock" certainly
set the mold for everything else that came after. With its combined rockabilly
and R & B influences, "Clock" topped the
Main article: Cover version
Through the late 1940s and early 1950s,
R&B music had been gaining a stronger beat and a wilder style, with artists
such as Fats Domino and Johnny Otis
speeding up the tempos and increasing the backbeat to great popularity on the
juke-joint circuit. Despite the efforts of Freed and others, black music was
still taboo on many white-owned radio outlets. However, savvy artists and producers
quickly recognized the potential of rock and raced to cash in with white
versions of this black music.
Covering was customary in the music industry at the time. One of the
first successful rock and roll covers was Wynonie Harris's transformation of Roy Brown's "Good Rocking Tonight" from a jump blues to a showy rocker. The most notable trend, however, was white pop
covers of black R&B numbers.
Black performers saw their songs recorded by white performers, an
important step in the dissemination of the music, but often at the cost of
feeling and authenticity. Most famously, Pat Boone recorded sanitized versions of Little Richard songs, though Boone found "Long Tall Sally" so intense that
he couldn't cover it. Later, as those songs became popular, the original
artists' recordings received radio play as well. Little Richard once called Pat
Boone from the audience and introduced him as "the man who made me a
millionaire".
The cover versions were not necessarily straightforward imitations. For
example, Bill Haley's incompletely bowdlerized cover of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" transformed Big Joe Turner's humorous and racy tale of adult love into an energetic teen dance
number, while Georgia Gibbs replaced Etta James's
tough, sarcastic vocal in "Roll With Me, Henry" (covered as
"Dance With Me, Henry") with a perkier vocal more appropriate for an
audience unfamiliar with the song to which James's song was an answer, (Hank Ballard's
"Work With Me, Annie").