The history of rock and roll and its influence on today’s life

The history of rock and roll and its influence on today’s life

Before rock and roll, which name was given to this kind of music in the 1950’s, there were rythm and blues, jazz, country, folk, and gospel.
It was in the Southern United States, in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, that rockabilly (a mixture of country, jazz, and gospel) became rock and roll’s mother and started a new music erathat would change people’s way of thinking completely.

ROCKABILLY
Some exponents of rockabilly are Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, who were more on the side of country music roots. Fats Domino and Little Richard were making music at the same time, but they came from the black rythm and blues tradition, making their music very attractive for white people. They’re not usuallyclassed as rockabilly. Later, songwriters such as Buddy Holly would influence greatly on the British invasion, particularly on the songwriting of The Beatles and their later rock music.

DOO WOP
Doo Wop was a very popular form of rock and roll in the 1950’s that would later be a major influence on vocal surf music and soul.[1]
It consisted on making emphasis on multi-part vocal harmoniesand meaningless backvoices choirs (that’s the reason for the meaningless name, Doo Wop) and light instrumentation.[2] But despite the explosion of records from Doo Wop acts, many ended up being just one-hit wonders. Some examples of Doo Wop are The Platters and The Coasters.

In the earliest rock and roll music, the piano and the saxophone were main instruments, until they were replaced by theelectric guitar. They also were the pioneers on using developed amplifiers and microphones.
Experts on the subject say it began developing on the south the meeting of different styles of music that developed as a cause of former slaves and other large migrant groups. They moved to cities like Memphis, Chicago, New York, among others, and, as a result, white and black people’s customs beganmeeting each other and mixing up a bit. Not too much at first, but rock and roll also helped erase the line that separated black people from white people. Radio stations began playing both people’s music. White people became really interested in black music and began to imitate it. It “aided this process of "cultural collision”[3]. Some commentators even say that rock and roll was kind of a re-brandingof African American rythm and blues for a white market, or a hybrid of black and white forms.[4]
Chuck Berry developed his brand of rock and roll, by transposing the familiar two-note lead line of jump blues piano directly to the electric guitar, creating what is instantly recognizable as rock guitar.
In that time there were also lots of changes in the record labels. With the rise ofindependent labels such as Atlantic, Sun, and Chess, their music was being played in many radio stations.
It was in 1951, in Cleveland, Ohio, where disc jockey Alan Freed started playing this music style and calling it “rock and roll”, making the term popular.[5]
Bill Haley and the Comets and their song, Rock Around the Clock really set the rock and roll boom in motion. The song was one of the biggesthits in history and it introduced the music to a global audience.[6]
Some of the greatest exponents of rock and roll, besides the already mentioned ones, are: Chuck Berry, Big Joe Turner, Buddy Holly, Chubby Checker, The Coasters, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Muddy Waters, Ray Charles, and Ruth Brown.

MOTOWN
Because big record labels did not sign-up black artists, they begangetting together and making their own. Motown was one of the most important independent record labels in the early 60’s. It’s founder and owner was Berry Gordy, Jr. It was his second label. The first was Tamla Records, with which he signed many greatly talented artists.
“Motown Records built one of the most impressive rosters of artists in the history of pop music and became the largest and...