The History of Rock&Roll

 For this blog, we had the chance to choose a certain type of music and do our own research on the history of it. After seeing that the one I had originally wanted to choose was taken, I decided to choose something else I was interested in learning about, which was Rock&Roll. In the past, I have not personally listened to Rock&Roll a lot so I do not know much about the origins of it. When I did listen to it, it was in a movie that I was watching and I never really thought twice about it. So within this blog, I am going to research and explain some of the history behind Rock&Roll and how it came to be.

When thinking about Rock&Roll, what is the first thing you think of? What singer or artist? One of the many artists that may have popped into your head was Elvis Presley, or one of the many artists closer to today. What if I told you that it all started way before then? According to the article "The true origins of rock'n'roll", this genre of music was created entirely based off of other Black genres of music like R&B, Jazz, and bluegrass. There are even many artists like the Beatles and Elvis Presley that covered and re-recorded songs that were originally created by black artists like the Marvelettes and Big Mama Thornton (who we talked about and listened to in class when discussing the blues). Around this time, segregation was a major issue. White people began to steal profits from Black artists after they began taking a liking to the music they were creating. At this time, Black artists were not given the proper profits that they should have been making off of their music, but when white people decided to re-record and take inspiration from their music, they took all of the profit. It was so frustrating that many artists left the industry and I do not blame them.

Below is a video of Big Mama Thornton singing Hound Dog, and then one of Elvis Presley singing the same song. Sadly, I feel as if more people know the song because of Elvis, rather than the original mastermind behind the song. 

The next website that I looked into explained the evolution of Rock&Roll through the years. Even though there are many arguments and discussion on when it was actually created, many have deduced that it was around the 1950's (History and evolution). Within the 50's, this genre was created by the combination of blues and electrical music, though was evolved with the combination of other types of music as time went on. One example of this is when Rock&Roll was combined with country, becoming one of the other genres up for grabs for this blog called Rockabilly. Rock&Roll also became bigger during the 50's because of the introduction of new technology that allowed people to play music. One of these examples includes the transistor radio. Below is a picture of a transistor radio that I found on Google, and a video showing music within the genre of Rockabilly.

When the 60's rolled around, people believed that Rock&Roll was going to become dated and unpopular (History and evolution). These people were extremely wrong, as the genre of music continued to boom. Even women's groups were in demand, ones like The Crystals. Around this time, even more technology was being created. One of which includes something we could not imagine living without today, the television. In 1963, President JFK was killed, and Texas was involved in a war with Vietnam. During this time, Rock&Roll finally began to fade as Folk music became popular. Below is a video showing the woman's group the Crystals.

By the 70's, Rock&Roll music became a thing of the past, as Rock music began to take its place (History and evolution). Within this time frame, many unfortunate things occurred and many famous artists passed away (Many of which who were a part of the 27 Club). During the early 70's, the war had finally started coming to an end, so many people turned their back on the up beat music of Rock&Roll. They not only began enjoying Rock, but they also started enjoying Disco music as well. One of the many famous bands known for Disco is called "Abba". Below is a video of Abba, who after listening, I finally realized who it was.

In the article “Roots of Rock”, Robert Johnson is mentioned as one of the many legends that influenced Rock&Roll. This is due to this genre of music being influenced by the blues. Johnson had left his home to travel and perform the blues, but he was not seen as a legend at this point. He became a legend after he “met with Satan at the crossroads one night”. There, a deal was made. The deal was that if Johnson gave the devil his soul, then he would become a master of an instrument of his choice. Of course there is no true way to know that this happened, all we know is after this so-called deal was made, Johnson began playing incredibly. This is how he became a legend, and sadly it did not last long. Johnson became one of the many artists a part of the 27 Club, where they passed away at age 27. Below is a video of the legendary Robert Johnson, and another clip from the well known show "Supernatural", where the story of Robert Johnson is tied in to their supernatural universe because of his "visit with the devil".

Another well known catalyst for Rock&Roll was someone who I have already mentioned, the one and only Elvis Presley. Elvis became well known around 1954, right around when this genre was taking off. According to the article “Rock and Roll”, Elvis’s music “oozed sexuality”, which was popular for the young teens of that time. Though by the end of the 50’s the music industry wanted to take this music and make it more sophisticated. This last video is of another song by Elvis Presley.

References:

Abba - Dancing Queen (Official Music Video ... - youtube.com. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFrGuyw1V8s&.

Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock (music video) - youtube. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj0Rz-uP4Mk.

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Rock and Roll. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/art/rock-and-roll-early-style-of-rock-music.

Google. (n.d.). Google. Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://www.google.co.id/.

History and evolution. Evolution of Rock Music. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2021, from http://evolutionofrockmusic.weebly.com/history-and-evolution.html.

Posey, S. (2021, October 21). The true origins of rock 'n' roll. The Crimson White. Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://cw.ua.edu/83340/culture/the-true-origins-of-rock-n-roll/.

Robert johnson- crossroad - youtube. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd60nI4sa9A.

 Roots of rock. Roots of Rock | Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://www.rockhall.com/roots-of-rock.

Supernatural -- Robert Johnson sells his soul ... - youtube. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RULsdMaOoo.

The crystals - then he kissed me (with lyrics) - youtube. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQtZUTRCLcY.

1950s rockabilly #9 - YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZywEOUJi00.