Origin of Rock and Roll
The term Rock and Roll
is credited by most people to Alan Freed, a Cleveland disc jockey with a popular
radio show who took the term from a song called “My baby rocks me with a steady
roll.” The term, which is a veiled reference to sex, was actually a common term
among the blues underground dating back to gospel music of the 1800s. Rock and
Roll evolved from the rhythm and blues and gospel genres and “borrowed” heavily
from those genres particularly the standard twelve bar blues used by “boogie
woogie” musicians. The stereotypical rock and roll song uses a fast hard driving
offbeat rhythm “borrowed” from gospel music, blues influenced acoustic or
electric guitars and lyrics laced with sexual innuendo. The songs were sometimes
written by a black author and remade with a white singer that was almost always
inferior to the original version. Early rock and roll was much different
however. It was heavily piano based and sax driven music that was a bit more
heavily influenced by the blues groups of the time and played in underground
clubs or "juke joints" by
musicians
like Big Joe Turner, Chuck Berry, Roy Brown, Bill Haley, Fats Domino and Ike
Turner. By 1949 the genre had become a huge movement in the music underground
replacing the boogie-woogie style rhythm and blues of the early 40’s with the
new faster uptempo fusion of gospel and blues that was now being called rock and
roll.
In ‘52 and '53, rock and
roll was known by many Americans for its sappy love ballads usually sung by
teen-aged crooners with names like the Ravens, and the Cardinals. Unlike many
listeners young people had discovered that on the back of these albums were the
real rock and roll songs consisting of uptempo hard rocking dance tunes. This
packaging allowed some children to convince the parents to buy the record based
on the ballad and then play the other B-side “rocker” in secret. Teenagers began
to revive the jitterbug style dancing of the big-band era throwing "Sock-hops,"
gym dances, and home basement dance parties featuring the new style of music.
Rock and Roll quickly became
embraced by many other styles of music across the US and England among others
and was incorporated into everything from skiffle to zydego. In March of ‘52 in
Cleveland, Alan Freed put on a sold out rock and roll concert called "The
Moondog Coronation Ball" to an audience of black and white fans that ended in a
near riot as fans rushed to get inside. The evening ended after one song in a
near-riot as thousands of fans tried to get into the sold-out venue.
By 1953 “rock and roll” was
becoming a household word, at least to people under 25. It wasn’t long before
the music industry picked up on the new trend and set out to mass-market rock
and roll to mainstream “white” America.
By 1954 so called crossover
versions of songs began to appear regularly on the airways. Other artists like
Chuck Berry, and Little Richard, began to replace crooners such as like Perry
Como, Eddie Fischer and Patti Page as the top sellers. Bill Haley's "Rock Around
the Clock" (1954) was the first rock and roll song to reach the top of the
Billboard charts and suddenly major music labels quickly took notice. Doo Wop
music and remakes of songs targeted to a mainstream audience began to overtake
the original versions of the songs on airwaves as the music was retooled to make
it more commercially viable to a white audience. By 1954 “rock and roll” was
also
beginning to be used by mainstream entertainment shows like television variety
shows. This “sudden” emergence onto the mainstream lead to the false rumors that
rock and roll “began in 1954”.
In July of 1954 a 19 year
old truck driver for Memphis’ Crown Electric showed up at Sun Studios to record
a record. Although he told Sam Phillips that it was for his mother it was
actually an attempt to be noticed by the Phillips, who was a local celebrity
with a few successes under his belt. The takes were nothing special, just covers
of Bing Crosby and Ernie Tubbs songs. Fortunately during a break the truck
driver began experimenting with a few rock and roll tunes that he knew. One of
them was an up tempo rock and roll song called “That’s all right” by Arthur
Cruddup. Phillips eyes lit up and word began to spread around the Memphis area
of a new and incredibly talented singer called “Elvis Presley.” Sam Phillips and
Evlis helped to quickly spread the popularity of “rockabilly” style rock and
roll. It became so popular so quickly that many people even to this day believe
that this is the origin of rock and roll music. During the late 50’s the myth
that rock and roll began at Sun Records in ‘54 was believed by so many
mainstream Americans that is became established “fact”. The story made the music
more palatable to that audience and was picked up on and further perpetuated by
unscrupulous promoters and the major label music executives that had latched
onto rock and roll by this time.
The incredible popularity
and worldwide domination of rock and roll gave it a social impact that was
unimagined before this time. Parents were unsettled by this quick and notable
change in the culture and many were uncomfortable or downright hostile towards
these cultural shifts. As always happens many with a sociopolitical agenda
quickly seized on this as a movement of the “devil’s music” that was corrupting
the youth into dancing and merriment that didn’t always limit itself to the same
race. This quickly caused a hysterical overreaction that only served to make the
music more popular in the youth culture. Rock and roll began to have a huge
impact on all parts of American life, especially in race relations, popular
fashion, moral attitudes, popular movies and mainstream language.
In 1954 at the height of the
rock and roll explosion the Supreme Court finally overturned the “separate but
equal” doctrine laying the groundwork for the civil rights movements. Seizing of
the fears and ignorance of many parents some politicians and others proclaimed
rock and roll as “race mixing” that would lead to the “downfall of the country.”
Fortunately kids weren’t listening and the music continued to combine elements
of black and white music and culture and made the transition into segregation a
little easer for both sides to cope with. Prejudice and racial barriers could do
nothing against the market forces of an adoring fanbase. Rock and roll was a
huge success that continues to influence music to this day.
Silver Dragon Records Presents the
History of Rock Music
Thank
you for your interest in
Houston Rock Record Label Silver Dragon Records.
Below is some information on our
record label and website catering to rock fans and musicians.
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rock band Lazarus X
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and
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Thank you for checking out
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