46
Rock & Roll
49 Points, 2 Lists, Highest Vote: #4 Pombar
Source: The Music World
Duo-Type: Sounds
With a migration of black Americans into the urban centers of the United States in the 1920s and 30s, giving rise to jazz and blues music. This would lead to the creation of to rhythm and blues in the 1940s, which for a time was referred to as “race music.” In 1948, the name “blues and rhythm” was then used, followed by rhythm and blues. Soon, it became apparent this wasn’t just “black music for black people” as a white audience, particularly white teens, became huge buyers of R&B albums within the U.S. (about 40% in one Los Angeles survey).
Though an extant genre before hand, country music gained great popularity during the Great Depression, particularly in the form of “singing cowboy” movies and “barn dance” radio programs particularly the Grand Ole Opry. With it, more subgenres of country became popular such as western swing (later referred to as rockabilly, which was soon overshadowing the once popular big band genre of music) and honky tonk.
The origins of rock & roll itself is hotly debates amongst music historians. What is agreed with (generally) is that it emerged from the American south with ties to R&B and country and that it was born from a meeting of European instrumentation and African musical tradition. Radio stations making all forms of music available to the people, the development of gramophones and more white musicians taking up jazz and swing music also played roles in the genres increased popularity. There is a debate over whether rock & roll is a true cultural collision of “white” and “black” music or if it was more that rhythm and blues was just re-branded for white audiences. What the first rock song is also up for debate, particularly what counts as “rock” or “rhythm and blues” with some claiming it “Rocket 88” and others suggesting earlier rocking music like the tune “Rock Woogie” from 1945.
Musicians like Elvis Presley (the “King of Rock and Roll”) helped propelled rock to become THE genre of a generation and within the 50s and 60s, the genre continued to evolve, mutate and gain popularity and soon real “rock stars” began to emerge. Rock and roll became more than just a genre, it became associated with a sense to raucousness, a joie de vivre and to many older generations “loudness”. In the 1960s, there was a sense of revolution that was also expressed through rock, no longer simply “party music”, it became representative of the younger generation. In the 1970s, heavy metal, hard rock and punk took centre stage with a mix of defiant, sometimes nihilistic attitudes and pushing for even louder and more experimental sounds. The sound of rock continued to evolve, though there is often a delineation for some between “rock” and “pop”.
Of course, defining the genre is not so easy to say what it “is” or “isn’t”. Is it an attitude, a sound, instrumentation? Like porn, it can be easy to say we know it when we see it but I think that the thing about genre is it can try to pigeonhole something much bigger and more complex. But I think in our minds we have an idea of what rock should be, even if we don’t all agree. To me, I think there’s a sense of exuberance, maybe some defiance, trying to make your feelings as big and loud as possible or if it playing more subtle, in a way that you can almost feel it in your body. There’s an idea of “no compromise” and of course while that’s not realistic nor really reflective of the much more complicated history of rock, I think in our blood, we would love to be considered “rock and roll”.
Iconic Moment:
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71812214/Ash_Ketchum_World_Champion_Screenshot_4.0.jpg)
