Preview

This essay is about the history of Rock and Roll and how it changed society.

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
729 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
This essay is about the history of Rock and Roll and how it changed society.
Rock and Roll- A Great Movement in Music

The type of music that later became known as "rock and roll" evolved in the mid 1950's. It was a combination of jazz, rhythm and blues, country, and gospel sounds. One of the reasons rock and roll was said to have such a great impact on society at the time was mainly due to the fact that it broke the "race barriers" of the time. During the 1950's, the greater part of the United States, in particular the South, was segregated, with blacks on one side and whites on the other. However, rock musicians were both black and white, and listeners really didn't seem to care what color the performer was.

February 7, 1964. A monumental date in the history of rock music. Why, you ask? Well, it was on this date that a band out of Liverpool, England came to the United States. This band was The Beatles, one of the most popular rock and roll sensations in history. The Beatles created a frenzy in the U.S. as they became a model for rock and roll. It was during this time period that the British seemed to claim rock music. However, from the music of the Beatles emerged a new type of rock music, which became known as folk rock. This type of music, also popularized by singers like Bob Dylan, put an emphasis on lyrics. The Beatles demonstrated this style as their music became more sophisticated, and their lyrics focused more on issues of the day.

Singers like Ray Charles started another style of rock and roll that arose during the 1960's. Ray Charles combined romance and love lyrics with church music to form an "upbeat, gospel style of rock and roll". This type of "black music", as it was referred to, became incredibly popular during this time of civil rights movements. Some other popular artists that came to be known during this time period include the Temptations, the Supremes, and Stevie Wonder.

A turning point in black music was said to be the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was at this time that the gospel- based music of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    A Historical Book Review of Glenn C. Altschuler’s All Shook Up: How Rock ‘N’ Roll Changed America…

    • 1739 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    White people adopted aspects of rhythm and blues and transformed it into what became known as rock and roll. Black people were the creators of rhythm and blues. They were known for singing this kind of music but were not recognized for their talent because of the racism at the time. The Chess brothers in Chicago began looking for White musicians who could sing this exciting new version of rhythm and blues in the early fifties. At the time rhythm and blues was becoming very popular and had many listeners. During the fifties, in increasing numbers, young people turned to rhythm and blues music. Meanwhile, increasing numbers of White musicians sang rhythm and blues, altered it and started bringing more attention to it as a new genre, rock and roll. Alan Freed, who, with Bill Haley, played a crucial role popularizing rhythm and blues under the name “rock and roll.”…

    • 1590 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The creation of rock and roll (shortened to rock ’n roll) happened over several generations. It was created from different races, religions, and musical rebels. In the early 1900’s African Americans in the southern United States played blues and spiritual music. Robert Johnson began playing blues on his guitar in the 1930’s. This was a great influence on rock ’n roll generations later. In the first half of the 1900’s many white musicians were playing and listening to country music. This music, along with the blues in the south, had a great influence on rock ’n roll. In 1951 what is now known as the first rock ’n roll song was recorded. Rocket 88 was recorded by a group of African-American musicians in Memphis’ Sun Studio. By 1952 Alan Freed,…

    • 169 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    It is an important genre of music because it has the power to not only influence but sustain itself through generations of people. Rock 'n' roll has had a huge impact on American society by consistently helping set the trend for pop music and influencing other genres of music like hip-hop and neo-soul. Rock 'n' Roll has been influenced by many different types of music as well and has paved the way for originality, self-expression and free thought.…

    • 78 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Originated in the early 1950’s, rock ‘n’ roll was known to be the world’s most popular and multicultural form of music. Therefore, Rock being a mixture of all the American music that came before it, then dominated the music industry but also extremely influenced everything from politics to social norms. This suggests music had moved away from its roots in Blues and country music and grew into something bigger known simply as rock. Rock ‘n’ roll lost much of the rebelliousness that had initially given it its power but then spread popularity internationally since it became increasingly accepted over time. For example, white musical traditions became integrated with black performers, ultimately encouraging the desegregation movement itself. The…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Week 1 Hist of Rock

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In short the answer is yes. It was views that country and western was aimed towards the white race while rhythm and blues was aimed towards the black or African-American race. According to, What’s That Sound? (John Covach and Andrew Flory) “White listeners were largely unfamiliar wit rhythm and blues before rock and roll.”(1) This was a direct relation to racial segregation of whites and blacks. Unlike the black community, rock was aired on most radio stations.…

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The 1950’s were a time where children were basically mini versions of their parents. These teens were the picture perfect children, non-rebellious, safe, and rule obeying. Suddenly, a new music genre called Rock and Roll started to become popularized. Rock and Roll was an new, exciting and dangerous music genre to these vulnerable teens. They listened to this music in private, seeing how almost every adult hated it and couldn't understand how their children could be listening to such “repulsive” music. Rock and Roll hit America like a hurricane. Teenagers strayed away from the music of their parents generation, and started to listen to the music hated by the older generation. In fact, the church hated rock and roll music…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Connie Francis

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Welcome to an era filled with sock-hops, diners, and poodle skirts. But that's not all! Arguably the most important aspect of the 1950's was that it was also a time filled with the newly evolved genre of "rock 'n' roll", a type of music that resulted from a combination of rhythm and blues, gospel music, country, and jazz. Rock and roll completely revolutionized musical tastes and essentially changed the world, especially among the youth. Suddenly all across the nation, teenagers were able to listen to this new music and rebel from their parents in ways that they never could before.…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Beatles are by far one of the most influential bands in history. They put so much creativity into their music and overall had limitless imagination. Their limitless imagination and creativity caused them to have a large impact on rock n roll. The Beatles allowed rock music to branch into using different instruments, and overall a different sound. They revolutionized FM radio and the album market and opened up England.…

    • 473 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Sam Cooke

    • 2013 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Soul music came from Gospel roots, emerging onto the music scene around the 1950s. Because it came from Gospel and Rhythm and Blues, the term “Soul” really is what is says: the music itself contains much feeling or “soul” in the lyrics, and the actual style of music and singing reflect gospel-hymns, just with secular lyrics instead (Scaruffi). Soul allowed the sexual innuendoes of blues lyrics, and gave way to a more catchy style that caught on with the young people of America. Major elements of Soul music include a sense of call-and-response between the soloist and the chorus, improvisation in singing various vocal runs, and an almost vocal ‘moaning’ in between lines of verses and choruses. Credited with inventing Soul is Ray Charles, who initially fused the call-and-response format with the song structure and chord changes of R&B, along with the vocal styles of Gospel (Gilmore). Charles’ song, “I’ve Got a Woman,” recorded in 1955, is credited to be the first Soul song, starting a craze of Soul that would flourish through the late 1990s.…

    • 2013 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    This was a time of change in music and even lifestyle. The rise of rock and roll developed through this time. Who would not want to live during this era. As the late fifties gave way to the early sixties, the famous rock stars such as The Everlys, Elvis, Roy Orbison, were still making historical hits, but the older music stars were losing popularity as they struggled to find musical material that would connect with this new and energetic generation of kids. Rock music became controlled by new young groups, taking their power from a combination of the performer's charisma along with the songwriting talents of the production team, who worked behind the scenes( "A BRIEF HISTORY OF POP AND ROCK MUSIC IN THE 1960'S."). The music we have today can be reflected off the music during this time. The music during WWII was old and boring, but the sixties gave rise to rock and roll which became very popular for a few decades. You cannot even deny that The Beatles are a bad band, do you wish you grew up with…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    If there was no racial segregation in the United States during the 1940’s rock and roll may not have been created. Rock and roll had an overwhelming influence on how white teenagers and black teenagers began to intermingle with each other. The rock and roll “movement” forced bigot Major Record labels to change their business practices, ultimately helping end segregation in America.…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The latter part of the original invasion saw more blues-charged groups like the Rolling Stones coming over the Atlantic. These British blues groups were influenced by the black blues singers of the '40s and '50s such as Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, and B.B. King. The British artists covered the black artists this time out of respect, not simply to try to capitalize on the black artist’s success like the "vanilla" American cover artists of the '50s. This respectful covering of the original blues hits ended up paying off for the original blues artists when fans of groups such as the Rolling Stones tracked their influences back to the black blues artists. Soon American blues shows were filling up with white teens looking for the roots of their favorite British bands.…

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    However, these genres were called “race music” by the white majority public, which led Billboard to create a separate African-American music list in 1942. Even when these songs were played for the white public, they were heavily adapted. This change to accommodate the white audiences led to swing and pop jazz. Rock and roll was the product of rhythm and blues, but ended up getting popularized by white musicians who had commercial appeal.…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Artists such as James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and Ike and Tina Turner, were brought about and well known for their talents in this time. Many of their songs were made out of Stax, which was then called Satellite Records. They were the instrumental bridge that influenced music to later come. Although it was a battle internally for African Americans to endure, Stax brought together the chaos and mayhem that was occurring externally. On the video played at the Stax Museum, many musicians explained how Stax was like a “church” to them and that it was not about the songs, but about the hearts and minds of the people who wrote them. Throughout this time period, the concept of “soul” was not yet created and was considered a form of gospel, and rhythm and blues. Rhythm and blues was defined as “a vehicle by which African Americans could speak out against the hypocrisy of America” (R&B Lecture). Gospel was defined as a “futuristic hope” and offered people a sense of reassurance during such a dark time. The music also “reflected a celebratory nature after the civil rights movement, but it spawned by a pseudo sense of inclusion” (R&B Lecture). The musical contributions brought joy and happiness to the African Americans in America, but the music itself was caused by the turmoil of racial implications and the message revealed the anger and frustration…

    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics