Rock And Roll Genres

Over time, music has taken on a thousand different roles. In America, these rhythmic sounds have unified Americans during tough times, provided an escape in times of need, and have defined America on a global scale. More specifically, America’s Rock and Roll genre, coming at a time when Americans desperately needed an upbeat rhythm, was an avenue for merging cultures and exploration as well as progressive expression. Rock and Roll’s roots cultivated when a sense of restlessness, in relation to the musical genres available, permeated through the American public. War had brought individuals around the world to fight, which allowed them to experience numerous genres of music. Soldiers yearned to have these sounds represented in American culture; thus, Rock and Roll was born. Performers borrowed from various cultures, culminating undertones of jazz, blues, and British Rock anthems as well as African American rhythms. The style was preciously what Americans needed after coming off the devastation of World War II with its upbeat
Resulting from a fusion of different cultures, it took on the role of anti-government sentiments and rebellions against social norms of the mid 1900s. However, America was not the only country with music that took on a rebellious, multi-cultural role. Turkey’s Arabesk music blossomed out of a banned, controversial Egyptian style, emerging as a blend of Egyptian and Turkish sounds when performers geared the sounds toward the Turkish audience. This style first appeared in the gecekondu, or immigration slums, when gypsies, homosexuals, and young children would ‘sob’ about their lives and their belief that they were “trapped by fate…[and] …by society” (Stokes 29). Arabesk and Rock and Roll music can be described as a “cancer” or “epidemic” that spread through their respective cultures and caused rebellious behavior against traditional norms (Stokes