Rock N' Roll

Rock and Roll music is popular genre of music influenced by electric blues, jump blues, Chicago blues, swing, and boogie-woogie. The genre can be heard in country and blues records in the 1920's and 1930's, however, earning its name during the late 1940's and early 1950's. In the early rock and roll styles of the 1940’s and early 1950’s either the piano or saxophone was most often the lead instrument, until later in the 1950’s when they were replaced by the guitar. The beat is somewhat of a blues rhythm and in general has a backbeat provided by the snare drum. Classic rock and roll is usually played with one or two electric guitars, a string bass, an electric bass guitar, and a drum kit. During the 1960’s rock and roll was achieving wide popularity. Its popularity and eventual worldwide view of rock and roll gave it a widespread social impact. Rock and Rolls influence was in this greater then simply music. As seen in movie and on television, it influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, language, and went on the start other various genres.

Rock and Roll began in the Southern United States a region that would produce most of the major early rock and roll acts. The migration of slavery to the north forced a mixture of blacks and whites in communities and after hearing each others music they began to emulate the others fashions. Radio Stations that made white and black forms of music available to both groups developed the spread of styles which were taken up by white musicians. The combination of jazz bands, swing, and jump blues at the time had a strong influence on rock and roll and Chuck Berry who is considered to have developed this brand of rock and roll. Rock and roll was developed at a time of technological change with the development of the electric guitar, amplifier and microphone. The record industry was also undergoing change with the rise of independent labels and radio stations directed at specific audiences. The phrase “rocking and rolling” originally described the movement of a ship on the ocean, but was used by the early twentieth century, both to describe black church rituals and as a sexual analogy. As the phrase became more popular it was being used in recordings and in reviews of what became know as rhythm and blues music aimed at the black audience during the 1940’s. By 1942 Billboard magazine columnist MaurieOrodenker had begun using the term “rock and roll” in descriptions of upbeat recordings. In 1951, Cleveland Ohio disk jockey Alan Freed began playing this music style while popularizing the phrase to describe it. The development of rock and roll was an evolutionary process and therefore no single record can be indentified as “the first” rock and roll record.