Rock And Roll Genres
Over time, music has taken on a thousand different roles. In America, these rhythmic sounds have unified Americans during tough times, provided an escape in times of need, and have defined America on a global scale. More specifically, America’s Rock and Roll genre, coming at a time when Americans desperately needed an upbeat rhythm, was an avenue for merging cultures and exploration as well as progressive expression. Rock and Roll’s roots cultivated when a sense of restlessness, in relation to the musical genres available, permeated through the American public. War had brought individuals around the world to fight, which allowed them to experience numerous genres of music. Soldiers yearned to have these sounds represented in American culture; thus, Rock and Roll was born. Performers borrowed from various cultures, culminating undertones of jazz, blues, and British Rock anthems as well as African American rhythms. The style was preciously what Americans needed after coming off the devastation of World War II with its upbeat
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tempo that invited people to dance and enjoy life: lifting the spirits of America. It was a genre unique to a particular generation of people who were looking to explore and expand traditional boundaries. Rock and Roll, at its onset, was deemed a ‘sexual term’ because of the provocative nature that it exhumed in the younger generation. During its time, the style pushed the envelope and went against social norms. Younger individuals could be seen thrusting their hips and bumping to the music while the older generation observed in disbelief. Drugs and sexual behavior, previously taboo subjects, became activities popular among the majority of the youth. Appearances transformed from conservative and clean-cut to long hair that challenged established rules. The new sounds, sights, and singers represented a new generation that was radical in their opinions about the political and social sphere surrounding them, and one that was not afraid to use music as a form of expression to redefine boundaries. Anti-government, anti-war, and anti-tradition themes appeared to take hold; these sentiments grew as combatants to “social injustice and repression[s] of freedom” (Zhang 59). Particular songs, like “’gunman,’” were “directed at [a] political and social darkness” (Zhang 59). By the 1960s, Rock and Roll had become a part of America’s counterculture and caused a schism between ages, leaving the older generation dumbfounded and concerned for the future of their youth. America’s Rock and Roll genre was a form of expression for the disgruntled and restless youth.
Resulting from a fusion of different cultures, it took on the role of anti-government sentiments and rebellions against social norms of the mid 1900s. However, America was not the only country with music that took on a rebellious, multi-cultural role. Turkey’s Arabesk music blossomed out of a banned, controversial Egyptian style, emerging as a blend of Egyptian and Turkish sounds when performers geared the sounds toward the Turkish audience. This style first appeared in the gecekondu, or immigration slums, when gypsies, homosexuals, and young children would ‘sob’ about their lives and their belief that they were “trapped by fate…[and] …by society” (Stokes 29). Arabesk and Rock and Roll music can be described as a “cancer” or “epidemic” that spread through their respective cultures and caused rebellious behavior against traditional norms (Stokes
27).
tempo that invited people to dance and enjoy life: lifting the spirits of America. It was a genre unique to a particular generation of people who were looking to explore and expand traditional boundaries. Rock and Roll, at its onset, was deemed a ‘sexual term’ because of the provocative nature that it exhumed in the younger generation. During its time, the style pushed the envelope and went against social norms. Younger individuals could be seen thrusting their hips and bumping to the music while the older generation observed in disbelief. Drugs and sexual behavior, previously taboo subjects, became activities popular among the majority of the youth. Appearances transformed from conservative and clean-cut to long hair that challenged established rules. The new sounds, sights, and singers represented a new generation that was radical in their opinions about the political and social sphere surrounding them, and one that was not afraid to use music as a form of expression to redefine boundaries. Anti-government, anti-war, and anti-tradition themes appeared to take hold; these sentiments grew as combatants to “social injustice and repression[s] of freedom” (Zhang 59). Particular songs, like “’gunman,’” were “directed at [a] political and social darkness” (Zhang 59). By the 1960s, Rock and Roll had become a part of America’s counterculture and caused a schism between ages, leaving the older generation dumbfounded and concerned for the future of their youth. America’s Rock and Roll genre was a form of expression for the disgruntled and restless youth.
Resulting from a fusion of different cultures, it took on the role of anti-government sentiments and rebellions against social norms of the mid 1900s. However, America was not the only country with music that took on a rebellious, multi-cultural role. Turkey’s Arabesk music blossomed out of a banned, controversial Egyptian style, emerging as a blend of Egyptian and Turkish sounds when performers geared the sounds toward the Turkish audience. This style first appeared in the gecekondu, or immigration slums, when gypsies, homosexuals, and young children would ‘sob’ about their lives and their belief that they were “trapped by fate…[and] …by society” (Stokes 29). Arabesk and Rock and Roll music can be described as a “cancer” or “epidemic” that spread through their respective cultures and caused rebellious behavior against traditional norms (Stokes
27).