In May 1960, disc jockey and TV personality Alan Freed, who coined the term "rock 'n' roll," was arrested along with seven other people on suspicion of commercial bribery.…
A Historical Book Review of Glenn C. Altschuler’s All Shook Up: How Rock ‘N’ Roll Changed America…
White people adopted aspects of rhythm and blues and transformed it into what became known as rock and roll. Black people were the creators of rhythm and blues. They were known for singing this kind of music but were not recognized for their talent because of the racism at the time. The Chess brothers in Chicago began looking for White musicians who could sing this exciting new version of rhythm and blues in the early fifties. At the time rhythm and blues was becoming very popular and had many listeners. During the fifties, in increasing numbers, young people turned to rhythm and blues music. Meanwhile, increasing numbers of White musicians sang rhythm and blues, altered it and started bringing more attention to it as a new genre, rock and roll. Alan Freed, who, with Bill Haley, played a crucial role popularizing rhythm and blues under the name “rock and roll.”…
Phillips ended up producing, what is known today as, the first rock and roll song ever, Rocket 88. Jackie played the saxophone and was recorded with Ike Turner's Band. The local success of this band prompted B.B. King, artist signed to Sam's label Sun's Studio, to recommend them to Phillips who later produced several of their songs. After Sam passed this project on to Chess Records he then used this song's success to start Sun Records the next year. Without Sam's ability to mix and combine genres and to properly guide the artist to play something new but sounds good may have never invented “rock and…
It is an important genre of music because it has the power to not only influence but sustain itself through generations of people. Rock 'n' roll has had a huge impact on American society by consistently helping set the trend for pop music and influencing other genres of music like hip-hop and neo-soul. Rock 'n' Roll has been influenced by many different types of music as well and has paved the way for originality, self-expression and free thought.…
A few years after World War 2, the music genre Rock N’ Roll was created. It originated from Rhythm and Blues and Country. In the early 1950’s there was three musicians that joined the world of Rock N’ Roll. Their names were Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley. They each had their own style of Rock N’ Roll. But some individuals couldn’t decide who the true king of Rock N’ Roll was. In my opinion, Elvis Presley was the true king of Rock N’ Roll because, of his crazy dance moves, how he broke the social barrier between the black folk and the white folk, and today’s generation knows who Elvis Presley was.…
Early rock and roll music absorbed a lot of elements of African-American music, such as blues and jazz. These black popular music elements appeared frequently in early rock and roll songs, and were favored by white youth during 1950s.…
Although there are many more artists that had major contributions towards the growth and prosperity of Rock ‘N’ Roll, those major artists mentioned really helped shaped the genre into what it is today. For example, the most notable Elvis Presley combined different types of music in order to form a new style of rock ‘n’ roll called “rockabilly”. This intern (in turn?) became one of the key and essential sounds within rock ’n’ roll. Elvis created rockabilly by fusing the already popular rhythm and blues sounds of African Americans, the country-western sounds of the South, with the pop musical style genres that dominated the recording industries and mainstream radio8. (Altschuler 51) The combination of these respective musical genres and sounds into a new style of music and rock ‘n’ roll was one of Elvis’s main contributions to popular culture and mainstream society. This integration of these musical styles took place just preceding the civil rights movement, foreshadowing social integration, Elvis made this moment in pop culture history even more historic. His music was not the only part that captured a multitude of audiences across the United States, but also the incorporation of his gyrating hips and the shaking of his legs.9 (Altschuler, Glenn Page107) These signature moves commonly associated with Elvis are still seen in teen rock today. Additionally, Elvis would also sing close to the microphone and jump up and down with his…
The article “When America Was Rocked” tells about how the American culture was changed and shaped throughout the 1940s and 1960s. One of the biggest changes was the amount of young people in America and the music they listened to. Young people at this time were being called reckless or rebellious. However most teenagers found out that they could express themselves better through music. Music at this time was sang only by white people, but a new genre called “race music” was becoming very popular. Race music, or as we know now as rock and roll, was a mix of blues, country and white gospel. Although Race music was very popular, it was hard to find a white person who sang this type of music. Until one day Elvis Presley walked into Sun Records to record two songs. Elvis became an…
People say there is different periods when the birth of rock and roll happened, but a lot will go back to the 1950s when The King took the stage. The King is just one of many nicknames he had; he had others like The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Hillbilly Cat and Elvis the Pelvis, but his family called him Elvis Aaron Presley (Pickering 307). He was born in 1935 and was raised in a religious family. He first became known in his church, however, in 1953 he started becoming known worldwide (307). The further he become famous the more he was evolving the new genre of music. His era was remembered as rage and rebellion, due to all the teens who just fell in love with him because he gave them a sense of rush and excitement. Whereas the parents disagreed…
The premise of this work is that rock 'n' roll matters, and that it means what it says. It seems that rock 'n' roll music has seldom been given its due as an art form, that it is somehow relegated to a category of less "mature" or "serious" artistic pursuits by the media and the intellectual community. Some critics use the generic term "Pop" to refer to any popular music, including all contemporary rock musicians, as if the fact of rock 'n' roll's immense commercial success implies that it cannot really be taken seriously alongside, say, classical music, or even Jazz. Beyond artistic circles, rock 'n' roll is usually given even less credibility; the ideas and feelings and beliefs expressed and reflected in rock songs tend to be dismissed by…
This paper is being prepared for The History of Rock And Roll, MUS210, taught by Dr. Brack May.…
Rhythm and Blues originates from African Americans. Back in the 1940s rhythm and blues was becoming more popular, widespread, and starting to blend with country music thus creating Rock and Roll. Because rhythm and blues is considered “black” music, rock and roll unfortunately adopted the same ignorant fate. This “black” music was not welcome in white communities and life styles. Whites at the time where listening to white performers usually accompanied by a big band with non-offensive lyrics about naive teenage love.…
Rock first surfaced as its own genre in 1953; a time of racial segregation in the United States. It was thought of by White people as an "evil music" due its blend of African American and White2 cultures. However, that did not stop it from becoming too biggest thing since nuclear energy (which was the biggest thing since sliced bread). The first huge concert in Rock's history was "The Moondog Coronation" put on by Alan "Moondog" Freed, a DJ from Cleveland, which nearly sparked a riot, due to thousands of fans trying to get into the sold out show. In the next few years, the Rock movement took a large swing toward White youth when "Bill Haley & His Comets" played one of the biggest hits ever, "Rock Around the Clock". At the same time, Elvis Presley was gaining popularity playing "Rockabilly", a blend of Rock and Country music that became very popular in the south. He became the world's first music superstar. In 1957, Rock became a worldwide power when Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis toured Australia. Due to immense history, of which I could write a whole paper on, I will only go this far in rock's…
Instead, the phrase of rock and roll came from the Blacks as a form of slang. In 1951, Alan Freed, a disk jockey, began playing blues and country music for a multi-racial audience. He is credited with the first for using the phrase “rock and roll” to describe the music he played. But the phrase was introduced to Americans in words of blues and rhythm. There are three different songs that are titled “rock and roll”. Some were recorded as early as the 1940s. One was recorded by Paul Backcomb around 1947; in 1948 Wild Bill Moore decides to join in and lastly, Doles Dickens in 1949. It is also not out of the ordinary for people to find Rock and Roll in R&B songs. Back then, “rock and roll” was a black slang for sex or perhaps dancing. The first record of the usage of “rock and roll” would be from her one song called, “My Man Rocks Me with One Steady Roll.” Going back even further in time, in1916, the term “rock and rolling” was often used with a religious meaning. The word “rock” had a history in the English language as a metaphor to “shake up, loosen up, or to be disturbed”. Example would be, “Rock It for Me, Baby,” and “Rock and roll my life with the music.” During the 1940s, sex in songs became very common. The verb “roll” was in fact a medieval metaphor which meant “to be having sex”. Examples in sentences would be “I rolled her in the clover” or “They had rolled all day and night in the house.” The terms of “rock and roll” was often used together to describe the ship’s motion at sea as well. Simply to say, the term “rock and roll” basically means to loosen up and have sex. It is not hard to understand why the people began to use this word; to rebel against the world of what was going on. Perhaps, due to all the depression, individuals saw that the way of “rock and roll” was a solution to their endless…