Essay: History of Rock and Roll and its Influence on Today's Life

The history of rock and roll and its influence on today’s life

Before rock and roll, which name was given to this kind of music in the 1950’s, there were rythm and blues, jazz, country, folk, and gospel.
It was in the Southern United States, in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, that rockabilly (a mixture of country, jazz, and gospel) became rock and roll’s mother and started a new music era that would change people’s way of thinking completely.

ROCKABILLY
Some exponents of rockabilly are Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, who were more on the side of country music roots. Fats Domino and Little Richard were making music at the same time, but they came from the black rythm and blues tradition, making their music very attractive for white people. They’re not usually classed as rockabilly. Later, songwriters such as Buddy Holly would influence greatly on the British invasion, particularly on the songwriting of The Beatles and their later rock music.
(example I’ll show on the PP presentation: Elvis Presley – Heartbreak Hotel)

DOO WOP
Doo Wop was a very popular form of rock and roll in the 1950’s that would later be a major influence on vocal surf music and soul.
It consisted on making emphasis on multi-part vocal harmonies and meaningless backvoices choirs (that’s the reason for the meaningless name, Doo Wop) and light instrumentation. But despite the explosion of records from Doo Wop acts, many ended up being just one-hit wonders. Some examples of Doo Wop are The Platters and The Coasters.
(example I’ll show on the PP presentation: The Jive Bombers – Bad Boy)

In the earliest rock and roll music, the piano and the saxophone were main instruments, until they were replaced by the electric guitar. They also were the pioneers on using developed amplifiers and microphones.
Experts on the subject say it began developing on the south the meeting of different styles of music that developed as a cause of former slaves and other large migrant groups. They moved to cities like Memphis, Chicago, New York, among others, and, as a result, white and black people’s customs began meeting each other and mixing up a bit. Not too much at first, but rock and roll also helped erase the line that separated black people from white people. Radio stations began playing both people’s music. White people became really interested in black music and began to imitate it. It “aided this process of "cultural collision” . Some commentators even say that rock and roll was kind of a re-branding of African American rythm and blues for a white market, or a hybrid of black and white forms.
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.
In that time there were also lots of changes in the record labels. With the rise of independent labels such as Atlantic, Sun, and Chess, their music was being played in many radio stations.
It was in 1951, in Cleveland, Ohio, where disc jockey Alan Freed started playing this music style and calling it “rock and roll”, making the term popular.
Bill Haley and the Comets and their song, Rock Around the Clock really set the rock and roll boom in motion. The song was one of the biggest hits in history and it introduced the music to a global audience.
Some of the greatest exponents of rock and roll, besides the already mentioned ones, are: Chuck Berry, Big Joe Turner, Buddy Holly, Chubby Checker, The Coasters, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Muddy Waters, Ray Charles, and Ruth Brown.

MOTOWN
Because big record labels did not sign-up black artists, they began getting together and making their own. Motown was one of the most important independent record labels in the early 60’s. It’s founder and owner was Berry Gordy, Jr. It was his second label. The first was Tamla Records, with which he signed many greatly talented artists.
“Motown Records built one of the most impressive rosters of artists in the history of pop music and became the largest and most successful independent record company in the United States by 1964”
Motown signed artists like: Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Brenda Holloway, The Supremes, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, The Easybeats, The Jackson 5, Michael Jackson and Diana Ross among many many other great ones.
(example I’ll show on the PP presentation: Smokey Robinson and the Miracles – Ooo Baby Baby)

SOCIAL EFFECTS OF ROCK AND ROLL
According to Michael Jauchen , rock and roll was considered dangerous by many whites in the 1950’s because rythm-and-blues music gave voice to African American oppression and anger, not to mention the magic of Elvis Presley’s pelvic thrusts.
“Far beyond simply a musical style, rock and roll influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language.” For starters, it brought races together. At first, because of this, older people were scared and maybe intimidated by this music. Some even said it was the devil’s music and that it was putting white people in a lower level, where black people were. Rock and roll was definitely a big shock for old people in that time. It was strictly for the youth. Both black and white teens enjoyed the music and started going to the same places to dance and have fun. Music created conscience of equality in young people, event that later took to the abolishment of the policy of “separate but equal” in 1954.
Another effect rock and roll had on society, it opened people’s minds. It was a form of rebellion of the youth towards the authorities. Music started talking about real things, (including taboo topics, such as sex) that everybody could relate to, but no one would talk about. “An awakening in the young American culture began to take place”
Rock and roll did not just involve music, radio stations, records, jukeboxes or TV programs. It was a whole lifestyle, with distinctive hairstyles, clothes, cars, motorcycles and language. There was a great gap between the young and the old. Parents worried about juvenile deliquency and social rebellion, about the music and the way the youth danced to it. The twist was how they called their dance and it pretty much consisted on shaking the body and grinding the feet back and forth on the floor. Most of the attention was focused on the behinds of people and this was what made the old ones think it was too provocative. After a while of watching Elvis dance, they even started shooting him on TV only from the waist up.

DECLINE OF ROCK AND ROLL
There was a big downfall in the mid 1950’s and early 1960’s, where many of the big rock and roll figures died (Buddy Holly), went to war (Elvis), became preachers (Little Richard) or ended up in jail (Chuck Berry). This took an important music era to an end , not completely, but it certainly closed a chapter. Then many female rock and roll bands started popping, taking over the charts with love ballads, such as The Shirelles or The Crystals.

BRITISH ROCK AND ROLL
Rock and roll went all the way to the other side of the world. In the 1950’s, Britain gave a great welcome to American Rock and roll music and culture. This welcoming was only logical, since they spoke the same language and shared many social developments, including the emergence of distinct youth sub-cultures, so musicians in Britain were very influenced by America’s music styles, including boogie woogie, folk and blues. American rock and roll acts such as Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Buddy Holly got to the top in the British charts.
The first response of the British was to try produce copies of American records, and many British rock and rollers began to appear. However, it was in 1958 that Britain had their first authentic rock and roll star, Cliff Richard, who was later followed by many more like Billy Fury, Joe Brown, and Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. Other scenes were developing simultaneously, such as a British blues scene, and others who moved more towards the beat music of rock and roll and rythm and blues, like The Quarrymen, (that later became The Beatles) who started producing a form of skiffle rock and roll revivalism that took them and many other bands to national and later international success, in 1964. This was known in America as the British Invasion.
There came great great bands after The Beatles, such as the more blues-influenced The Kinks, The Rolling Stones and The Who. These bands started developing rock music as we know it today, the influence of early rock and roll began to subside.
(example I’ll show on the PP presentation: The Kinks – You Really Got Me)

In my opinion, it’s fascinating how it all happened so naturally, in a chained way, the mixture of music styles and the birth of this super significant new music and how it just got better and better.
I saw a movie last week in which they said black music was the deepest there is, because they were the ones who had suffered the most. It got stuck in my head. I think they’re geniuses and I’m glad that, though it took a long time, people realized it’s a fact. It’s more less what Bob Dylan says in his song, Blowin’ in the Wind, to which Sam Cooke replied with A Change’s Gonna Come.
I think it’s beautiful how music, as Madonna sings, makes the people, come together, (yeah). No, but seriously:
a) I do think it’s great how it helped erase the boundaries between races, and
b) I don’t like Madonna one bit.
Rock and roll music had many domino effects. In one way, it was a form of asking for equality, but it came really naturally; loud yet peacefully. It also got the youth out of their submission, in a good way. They became more interested in showing their identities, in a way of collective rebellion, and more involved in civil rights, and we can see the direct relation between this and the whole social movement in the 60’s, with The Beatles, Bob Dylan, the hippie movement and the openness of mind when it comes to topics that used to be taboo, the sexual revolution and the use of drugs; the latter also applies to the 70’s, in which the youth was also very involved in civil rights and the gay movement happened.
Rock and roll was groundbreaking. In the entire extension of the word.



*The examples I’ll play are not really based on anything except they’re the songs I like the most.