Rock and Roll Musical Genre and Its History

Rock and roll is a popular genre of music, which was formed in the United States in the 1940s and 50s from the musical styles like jump blues, jazz, boogie woogie, country music, etc. ‘Rock’ is derived from the Old English ‘roccain’, which means to pull, tear or to move. Similarly, ‘roll’ is derived from the Latin ‘rotula’, meaning ‘small wheel’. Later on, a metaphor slipped into popular discourse and by 1920s rock and roll became double entendre referring to with dancing or sex. The genre did not get its name until 1950. Black vocal groups like the Dominoes and the Spaniels merged gospel-style harmonies, call and response singing with realistic matter and aggressive rhythm and blues rhythm to form rock music. Rock and roll is specially characterized by a heavy beat and simple melodies usually based around a twelve-bar structure and an instrumentation of guitar, double bass, and drums.

In the earliest rock and roll styles, there were piano or saxophone as a lead instrument but later on these instruments were generally replaced by guitar in the middle of 1950s. Snare drum provides the backbeat in the classic rock, but usually rock is played with two electric guitars (lead and rhythm), a bass guitar and a drum kit. Beside only a musical style, rock and roll has influenced lifestyles fashion, attitudes and language. It has been enjoyed and loved by the both American and African-American teenagers through which a contributed can be seen to the civil right movements. Therefore, the root of rock and roll lay in the rhythm and blues, but the influences were jazz, blues, gospel, country and folk.

The value of rock and roll has approached from different perspective. How it has influenced or reflected society? Rock and roll appeared when racial tensions in the USA were entering new phase. The white youth audiences and black music rock and roll provoked strong white racist reactions with many whites breaking down of barriers based on color. That was the time when rock and roll music encouraged racial cooperation and shared experience. Therefore, still many peoples argue that early rock and roll was instrumental in the way both white and black teenagers identified themselves. The distinction between music and noise changed dramatically in the second half of the 20th century. Music became wider, in public places in the home with the help of a radio, CD player or a cassette player in every room. The Walkman, boom box or karaoke machine and the development of compact disc accelerated the process which made the music from place to place and any time available. The rock music came as the form of human conversation through television and radio and by filmmakers and advertisers. The rock genre has survived despite of centralization of production and the increasing cost of manufacture, promotion and distribution. In the beginning of the 21st century rock music industry faced a crisis as the development of digital technology made the music stored easily on digital files and could be transferred from personal computer to computer via internet. There was an advantage that musical rights holder could make money every time a song was downloaded and disadvantage that if their song would be exchanged without any money changing hands at all.

Many rock and roll stars were known as hard drinking, hard-living characters. The rock and roll lifestyle was popular those days associated with sex and drugs. Rock and roll musicians had attracted the attention of mostly girls spending time often performed sexual favors for band members. As the time passed, rockstars lifestyle became more public and the popularity and promotion of drug use by musicians influenced use of drugs and availability of drug use and acceptance among the youths. Band like Beatles, who had been marked as clean-cut guys, started publicly acknowledging using drugs which many fans followed.

In 1954 named Elvis Presley from Tupelo, Mississippi, defined the rock and roll genre with tracks like ‘Jailhouse Rock’, ‘Hound Dog’ and ‘Don’t Be Cruel’. His music career began in 1954 recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African- American music to a wider audience. His good looks along with his compelling combination of country music and rhythm and blues proved him to be wildly successful. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style made him enormously popular and controversial. In 1956, he made a film debut in ‘Love Me Tender’. Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He held concerts and guided by Parker proceed to devote much of the 1960s to make Hollywood films and an album of soundtracks. After seven years of break from live performance, in 1968 he returned to the stage in the acclaimed television comeback special, which led to an extend Las Vegas concert and a string of high profitable tours. Presley’s era defining, hypersexual appearance on TV shows like ‘The Sullivan Show’ were important as his music. It was him who made rock and roll the international language of pop. In a list of greatest English language singers Presley was ranked first and second in the list of greatest singers of 20th century by BBC radio. He gave all the teen music to grow up and listen to. He also worked with African-American performers such as Big Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris and Fats Domino, and came to national prominence, after Presley’s acceptance among mass audiences of White American adults. Presley’s ‘ducktail’ haircut, black slack and loose, open-neck shirts resulted in new lines of clothing for teenage boys. American teenagers begun buying portable radios and listened rock and roll which made an industry to sell estimated 100,000 units to 5000000 units till end 1958. It was estimated that more than one billion of his records have been sold worldwide. He has 150 different albums and singles, many of which have been certified platinum, multi-platinum and gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. It is estimated that 40% of Elvis Presley records have been sold outside the United States.

Beside music he made his network television debut the first of his six appearances on ‘Stage Show’. Once Ed Sullivan said he would never have the controversial singer on his top-rated show, but later Sullivan paid $50,000 to make three appearances on his show. Elvis’ next network television appearance was in 1960, when Frank Sinatra gave his variety show ‘Welcome Home’, he was paid $125,000 to appear making history.

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Later, Elvis Presley starred in 31 feature films as an actor and two theatrically released concert documentary films, all of which enjoyed financial huge success. He became Hollywood’s top box office draws and one of its highest-paid actors. His works on films ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and ‘King Creole’ became classics of the era. Some of his top-selling music came from his movies. Eleven of his motion sound tracks went to the top 10 and of those four went to number one. ‘G.I Blues’ was number one on the Billboard charts for 10 weeks and remained on the chart for 111 weeks. The album ‘Blue Hawaii’ was number one for 20 weeks and was on the chart for 79 weeks. He received 14 Grammy nominations from National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and NARS recognized him with their Lifetime Achievement Award known as the Bing Crosby Award in honor of its first recipient.

Chuck Berry, who was born on 1926 to a large family in St. Louis, also known as the father of rock and roll, he was one of the most influential rock and roll performers in music history. A great song writer, main sharper instrumental voice, great guitarist and a great performer too. He had an early exposure to music at school and church. Berry pursued a variety of interest and hobbies as a child. He used to enjoy carpentry work of his father and learned photography from his uncle. Late, he showed an early talent for music and began singing in the church choir at the age of six. He started guitar lessons after the performance at the school’s annual talent show he learned guitar lessons from the local jazz legend Ira Harris.

When he was teen, he was sent to the prison for 3 years for armed robbery. When he was 21, he returned to St. Louis and worked for his father’s construction business and part-time as a photographer and janitor at local auto plant. At the end of the 1952, he met Jonnie Johnson, a local pianist and joined his band. He introduced upbeat country numbers into the band’s repertoire of jazz and pop music. They played at the cosmopolitan, an upscale black nightclub in East St. Louis, which began attracting white peoples. In 1955, he met the legendary blues musician Muddy Waters who suggested to meet with Chess Records. He released the single ‘Maybellene’, which showed a vital mix of rhythm and blues, electric guitar and country swagger. It was the major hit and earning first spot on the Billboard music charts. ‘Maybellene’ with its unique blend of a rhythm and blues beat, country guitar licks and flavor of Chicago blues and narrative storytelling, consider it as the true rock and roll song.

Berry managed to achieve the good harmony with white people youths without alienating his black fans by mixing the blues and R&B sounds which spoke to the universal themes of youth. His songs like ‘Johnny B. Goode’, ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’ and ‘Carol’ managed to crack the top ten of the pop charts, achieving popularity with youths on both sides of the racial divide.

He was put into the jail for another 20 months under the Mann Act of illegally transporting a woman across state line for ‘immoral purposes’. When Berry was released from the prison in 1963, he picked again where he left off, writing and recording popular and innovative songs. Berry released his last album of original music ‘Rock It’ in 1979. Later on, in 1985, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He became the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s first inductee. Various artists were influenced by the Berry’s work. Popular band like The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles have all covered various Chuck Berry songs.

Rock and roll is a form of popular music that emerged in the United States in the 1940s and early 1950’. Its root can be tracked back centuries to drum beats in Africa and Celtic folk music in Europe. Peoples brought their music and exposed to each other and began to incorporate different styles. The root of rock and roll lay in the ‘race’ music or rhythm and blues and ‘hillbilly’ music or country and western of the 40s and 50s. The phrase ‘rock and roll’ emerged as a code word of sexual intercourse in blue songs. In the 30s, these words were used to describe rhythms and musical beats. Cleveland DJ and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Alan Freed is credited with first using the words to describe the rhythm and blues music playing in the radio.

Over the past five decades, rock and roll has evolved in many directions. Numerous styles of music from sol to hip-hop, from heavy metal to punk, from progressive rock to electronic have fallen under the rock and roll shades. Still many of the bands from different country support and love rock and roll. The opinion and interest make the vast different for music lovers to choose their genre music in a different way. It influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language. Which describe events and conflicts that most listeners could relate to through personal experience. The new music tried to break boundaries and express emotions that people were actually feeling but had not talked about. So, rock and roll still can be heard and seen making many changes and progress through the music in various ways and yet to see many updated and upgraded techniques in rock and roll music.