ROCK

THE 1950’s: READY TO ROCK

The 1950’s ushered in many changes in American culture. Recovering from the second World War, many American citizens enjoyed a new economic prosperity never before experienced in the country. In addition, a developing middle class had expendable incomes to put toward luxuries like entertainment (including music). Americans were having large families - the largest population of children the country had ever seen was nicknamed the Baby Boomer generation. For the first time in American history, the average teenager was treated as a child in the family home rather than a member of the American workforce and youth, innocence, and delayed development were encouraged until a teenager completed high school. The increased availability of records as well as cheaper and more portable record players meant that teenagers could have some amount of autonomy over their music consumption away from their parents’ intervention. Record labels and music stores were quick to advertise to this new class of teenager - and the music they gravitated toward was Rock’n’Roll.

RHYTHM & BLUES

Prior to the advent of Rock’n’Roll, an almost identical music style was gaining popularity in the Black communities of the U.S. This music had the swing feel of Jazz, the harmonic language of Black Gospel music, and the tone and energy of the Blues - and it was known as RHYTHM & BLUES (R&B). Note that this music bears almost no resemblance to the R&B of today’s popular charts - while the spirit of the original Rhythm & Blues followed the path of Rock, the R&B name continued to represent what was most popular in the Black American community through today. Rhythm & Blues didn’t appear on the Billboard charts until 1949 but was classified from 1942-1948 as “Race Records” or “Harlem Hits” - genre names that were inextricably tied to race. Music producers gave the impression that this was music by Black artists for Black music consumers by only playing the music on Black radio stations and selling records in Black music shops.

The video to the left shows a performance by Rhythm & Blues artist Bo Diddley on the Ed Sullivan Show - an entertainment variety show popular in the 1950’s-60’s responsible for bringing many new American music artists to the American living room via the newly-mass produced television. In the video, we see an all-Black band performing a symmetrical, energetic, and fast-paced tune (with Diddley’s iconically syncopated “Bo Diddley Beat”). Most Rhythm & Blues bands were a parred down Jazz band consisting of electric guitar and bass, drum set, lead singer (who may or may not play an instrument) and a handful of horns such as trumpets or saxophones.

Eventually, white American teenagers - bored of Jazz and looking for music to set their tastes apart from those of their parents, caught onto the popularity of Rhythm & Blues in big cities across the country. Even though this music was being exclusively advertised to Black consumers, there was nothing stopping a white teenager from patronizing a Black record store and purchasing any music they wished. White music artists looking for a new sound that wasn’t Jazz or the developing Country & Western genre caught onto the popularity of Rhythm & Blues and began to make similar records of their own that would soon be labeled as Rock’n’Roll. The differences between Rock’n’Roll and Rhythm & Blues are challenging to define but most historians tend to agree that Rock’n’Roll is louder, more aggressive, and more risqué in style and lyrical content with a greater emphasis on the electric guitar and less of a focus on lyrics. One of these early white crossover artists was Elvis Presley.

ELVIS PRESLEY

ELVIS PRESLEY is heralded as the “King of Rock and Roll” and believed to be responsible for transitioning Rhythm & Blues into early Rock’n’Roll and propelling it to national and international popularity. Elvis was born in an impoverished area of Mississippi and grew up amongst the Black musicians developing Rhythm & Blues. His first regional hit was a 1954 cover of “That’s Alright,” produced by Sun Records but he blew up on the national stage in 1956 with his breakthrough single, “Heartbreak Hotel”.

Elvis Presley is considered to be the first Rock star and a sex symbol not only due to his musicality and incredible voice, but his charisma and signature flirtatious expression and dance moves, among which included a pelvic gyration that many folks in older generations found sexually explicit and inappropriate for their teenagers to be exposed to.

Out of his 109 songs, 7 would reach #1 on the Billboard Top 100 including “It’s Now Or Never”, “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”, “Stuck on You”, “Suspicious Minds”, “A Big Hunk O’ Love”, “Good Luck Charm”, and “Surrender”. Elvis also enjoyed a successful touring career, a residency in Las Vegas, starred in several motion pictures, and served in the U.S. military from 1958-60 - in part as a publicity stunt to prove to his fans’ parents that he was a responsible American man. In 1977, Presley, hit hard by career pressures, health problems, and a prescription drug problem, Elvis died of an apparent cardiac arrest at the age of 42. While fans mourned the tremendous loss of a legend, Rock music showed no signs of stopping.

Though recent historians have painted Elvis as somewhat of a racist who intentionally appropriated the work of Black musicians in the American South, newer research has come to show Elvis had great respect for Black musicians and never claimed to invent the genre he popularized as evident in this quote:

"A lot of people seem to think I started this business. But rock 'n' roll was here a long time before I came along. Nobody can sing that kind of music like colored people. Let's face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that." - Elvis Presley

Once Elvis helped to make Rock’n’Roll a national success, other musicians were also able to step into the limelight, each bringing with them another dimension of Rock’n’Roll. Buddy Holly captured the exuberant innocence of youth while Jerry Lee Lewis brought a destructive, visceral nature to the genre. Black artists such as phenomenal guitarist Chuck Berry and pianist/singers Little Richard and Fats Domino also gained recognition once the “race record” genre of Rhythm & Blues transformed into the more “acceptable” Rock’n’Roll.

THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED

The 1950’s came to a close with an immense tragedy in Rock’n’Roll history known as “The Day the Music Died”. On February 3rd, 1959, popular Rock’n’Roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson boarded a plane in order to arrive at the next stop on their Midwest “Winter Dance Party” tour. They had been taking tour buses prior to February 3rd but illness, cold, and a lack of time to do laundry pushed them to charter the 4-seater between Clear Lake, Iowa and Moorehead, Minnesota. With poor weather and visibility, the pilot lost control of the plane soon after take-off - all four onboard were killed.

Buddy Holly was a rising star in the developing Rock’n’Roll genre while Mexican-American Los Angelino Ritchie Valens was an early voice in Chicano Rock, with his breakout hit “La Bamba” and The Big Bopper was making waves in the humor/novelty realm of Rock. All three musicians were under the age of 30 (Valens was just 17) and had full, successful careers in front of them. Their deaths represent a loss of innocence in the genre as it moved into the more volatile decade of the 1960’s.

THE 1960’s: THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’

1960’s America saw a disruption to the idealistic and naive cultural movement of the 1950’s. With this unrest came calls for Civil Rights and improvements for the situations of both women and people of color in the United States. The Vietnam War of the late 1960’s was deeply dividing and Rock became a perfect outlet for those looking to express anger and dissolution or positive, peaceful solutions to societal wounds.

The early 1960’s sounded similar to the 1950’s with the noticeable introduction of SURF ROCK, a genre of Rock music that captured the beach vibes and fun of Southern California surf culture as well as other beach communities. This music was characterized by minor keys and the use of a tremolo bar for artists like Dick Dale but major keys and heavy counterpoint in more commercial groups like The Beach Boys.

A NEW BRITISH INVASION

Before America had a chance to completely formulate the ideal Rock, England snatched up the new genre, perfected it, and imported to the United States for American consumption. Artists such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Kinks toured the U.S. from the U.K., seeming to blow their American competition out of the water with regard to record sales. It’s difficult to say why English Rockers out-performed their American counterparts in this era, but the increased visibility due to technology and globalization as well as the perhaps cleaner, more refined sound (and look) of the English brought Rock even more popularity than ever before.

A pinnacle moment in this movement was marked by The Beatles’ arrival to the United States and their first performance on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9th, 1964.

FOLK ROCK

Meanwhile, American Rock artists were developing a more introspective, mature sound with a heavier emphasis on poetic lyrics and a more acoustic sound. FOLK ROCK often used actual folk songs from America or Europe or songs that would sound similar but included structures more similar to Rock. The acoustic nature of the subgenre provided a more intimate quality which helped the lyrics - often telling a story, giving advice, or teaching a lesson - to remain in the foreground. Folk Rock was utilized as a way to protest many of the problems of the 1960’s including racial and gender discrimination, and anti-war sentiments. Folk Rockers of the time included Bob Dylan, The Mamas & The Papas, Simon & Garfunkel, and Peter, Paul and Mary.

MUSIC FESTIVALS

The late 1960’s ushered in the popular music festival. Prior to this time, music festivals were delegated to mostly Classical and Jazz realms. The first of its kind, the Monterey International Pop Festival was held in 1967 in Monterey, California and included performances by Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Otis Redding. Two years later, perhaps the most famous music festival of all time took place in Woodstock, New York. With over 400,000 people in attendance, the 1969 Woodstock Festival was advertised as an “Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music” and brought together such artists as Joan Baez, The Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Band, Blood Sweat & Tears, and Sly and the Family Stone (in addition to Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and The Who again). The magnitude of these festivals had the effect of bringing together large populations of youth to collectively engage in music, participate in a cultural movement, and exchange ideas.

PSYCHEDELIC ROCK

Many of these festivals included a new style of Rock developed in the mid- to late-1960’s known as Psychedelic Rock. PSYCHEDELIC ROCK is characterized by its connection to hallucinogenic drugs - with the songwriter potentially on drugs while composing and the listener encouraged to be on drugs while consuming the music. It was thought that the combination of this music and hallucinogenic drugs would support mind expansion and evolve humanity and culture into a more peaceful, wise, and gentle species. The lyrics of Psychedelic Rock songs often allude to concepts in deep metaphor and the music was accentuated by extended instrumental solos as well as dissonant and more complex harmonies previously unexplored in the Rock genre. Psychedelic artists of the late 60’s included Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, and The Byrds. Other, more “straight edge” bands from earlier in the decade also dabbled in Psychedelic Rock including The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Doors.

THE 1970’s: AS ROCK EXPANDS, SO TOO DOES IT DECLINE

The end of the 1960’s and beginning of the 1970’s were, again, marked by death with several huge (and under 30 years-old) artists succumbing to drug addictions including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison (lead singer of The Who). While bands that were popular in the 1960’s continued to produce records and mount successful performance tours, the sounds of the 1960’s went somewhat dormant, allowing for newer subgenres of Rock to emerge. For the first time since the 1950’s, Rock is no longer the main genre on the popular charts, with Pop genres starting to resume favor.

PROGRESSIVE ROCK

Evolving the style of Psychedelic Rock, PROGRESSIVE ROCK expanded the length and the complexity of Rock music. “Prog Rock” songs tend to be much longer than 3’ and involve complicated shifts in meter and sometimes key, with musical vignettes created to represent different moods, themes, or moments in the story being depicted in the lyrics. The band might also include non-traditional instruments, synthesizer effects, and non-traditional ways of playing typical Rock instruments. Progressive Rock is as close to opera as Rock has ever come - in fact, there are several Rock Operas in the genre. Progressive Rock is performed by such bands as King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, and Rush.

PUNK

As Rock continued to become more commercial, a direct reaction and rejection of conformity sprung up by way of the Punk scene. PUNK music developed out of the garage bands of the 1960’s with an emphasis on counterculture and rejection of the mainstream. Punk music tends to be very fast and intentionally sloppy with a destructive nature to the lyrics and the performance style of the instruments. Punk developed both in the United States and in England where Punk was a more widely popular genre. The Ramones, The Clash, and The Sex Pistols are all examples of classic Punk bands though this genre continues to thrive today.

THE 1980’s: VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR

The 1980’s saw a further increase of Pop music in the mainstream market but Rock still continued to hold its own. One major change in this decade was the prevalence of the music video and the launching of MTV (Music Television) in 1981. With music video being a viable popularity indicator, more bands and musical artists were expected to produce well-directed, polished videos to be played on MTV and elsewhere. This lead to the rise of the Pop Star and only the most charismatic Rock bands remained in the public eye. With the visual aspect of an artist’s work becoming more important, female artists began to gain more attention. Unfortunately, this could have very well had to do, in large part, with their visual sex appeal, but does not diminish their musical talent in any way. Many artists from the 1960’s and 70’s were still around, producing albums and touring (such as The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys) but the 1970’s left a lot of room for new artists and genres to leave their mark.

ARENA ROCK

While this subgenre saw its origins in the 1970’s, developing its drama alongside Progressive Rock, it really came to full fruition in the 1980’s. ARENA ROCK is a highly-produced style of rock that combines the hard-hitting energy of late 70’s rock with smooth lyrics with broad appeal. Arena Rock music and bands got their name from their ability to sell out large sporting arenas for huge live shows. Another important aspect of the Arena Rock genre is the POWER BALLAD - a song that is slow in tempo but still packs an energetic punch. Arena Rock bands include Journey, Foreigner, Styx, Queen, Bon Jovi.

HARD ROCK & HEAVY METAL

While Arena Rock moved closer to Pop, Hard Rock and Heavy Metal developed in the 1980’s as subgenres intentionally rejecting the mainstream. The beats of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal tended to be heavier and louder, with more distortion on instruments, a gruffer and more aggressive voice of the singer, and more aggressive or even scary lyrics. While Hard Rock maintained somewhat of a balance, Heavy Metal dipped deeper into this extreme. In addition, Heavy Metal eventually evolved into its own genre entirely with many subgenres that maintain healthy followings today. Hard Rock bands include Guns N’ Roses, AC/DC and Mötley Crüe while early Heavy Metal bands include Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin, and Deep Purple.

THE 1990’s:

The 1990’s took a step back in intensity as far as new Rock subgenres were concerned. 90’s culture was all about individualism and non-conformity and new genres attempted to deliver on this model. This decade delivered intellectualism, heart, and fun in new ways not previously seen as well as a subgenre that continues to be the most popular even into the 2020’s.

ALTERNATIVE ROCK

Continuing to be one of the most popular genres of modern Rock, ALTERNATIVE ROCK developed in the late 70’s and 80’s as music performed by Rock musicians on independent record labels, in direct contrast to the giant, commercial arena rock bands and artists still holding onto the classic rock sound. Alternative Rock is generally more subdued, cleaner, and more nimble than harder rock of the 1980’s with bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay, and the Foo Fighters.

GRUNGE

The GRUNGE genre developed in the Pacific Northwest (specifically Seattle) in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s and combined extreme distortion on the electric guitar with the heaviness of Hard Rock with the sound quality and aesthetic of Punk and the poetic lyrics of Folk Rock. Grunge tends to be slower and more drawn out although still high energy. Bands in this subgenre include Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden.

POP PUNK

POP PUNK bands delivered all the fun energy of Punk but made it safer, less abrasive, and more commercial. Themes generally included teen angst and the challenges of growing up with an emphasis on having fun and holding onto the immaturity of youth as much as possible. Songs maintained the short, repetitive, formulaic quality of Punk songs but with higher production value and more robust sound. 90’s bands popular in this subgenre include Blink-182, Green Day, and The Offspring.

THE 2000’s:

POST-PUNK REVIVAL

Immediately following the arrival of Punk music, the Post-Punk musicians of the late 1970’s and 80’s combined Punk’s raw aesthetic with more complex structures and creative compositional directions. This aesthetic returned once more in the 2000’s with bands like Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes, and Interpol. Post-Punk Revivalist groups created unique new sounds under the umbrella of Punk philosophy. This 2000 movement tended to be more in control and produced than either the original Punk or reactionary Post-Punk movements.

METAL EXPANDS

While the earliest threads of Metal were developing in the 1970’s, the 2000’s saw a huge expansion in Metal subgenres including Nu Metal, Metal Core, and Alternative Metal. Each genre took a slightly different emphasis with some switching up the vocal styles or lyrical content and others concentrating on the beat, speed, or energy.

THE 2010’s AND THE PRESENT:

As alluded to earlier in this course, the last decade or so has seen the dissolution of traditional genres as artists continue to fuse, experiment, collaborate, redefine, and tear down traditional definitions of genre. While many Rock bands from previous decades continue to perform, tour, and create new music, Rock becomes increasingly difficult to define and younger audiences are neither interested in Rock as a genre nor in defining their eclectic tastes. The increase in digital music sales and streams makes band and genre loyalty less important than ever before and the Billboard charts for Rock (in fact, the current Billboard chart labels the genre Rock & Alternative) continue to be filled with older, more established Rock bands. In October of 2021, the #1 song on the charts is by the band Coldplay who have been around since 1996 - and it may likely only be as popular as it is because it is a collaboration with K-Pop superstars BTS. Take a listen below to decide for yourself how much this music resembles its Rock’n’Roll roots from the 1950’s.

MUSIC ELEMENTS OF ROCK

An enormous generalization …

ACOUSTICNESS

A huge development in Rock was the availability of electrified instruments. In fact, the advent of Rock came just about 10 years following the invention of the electric guitar. A basic Rock band will have (potentially multiple) electric guitar and bass and a drum set and singer - both of which may be amplified in some way. The default setting of Rock is low acousticness to the degree that when Rock is performed in an acoustic setting, it usually comes with an additional label like “acoustic” or “folk” or “unplugged”.

DANCEABILITY

Rock music tends to be highly danceable as that was one of the original reasons the music was developed (a new style for teenagers to dance to after the end of the Swing Era). Songs in the Progressive Rock subgenre may be too complicated and complex to dance to and songs in certain genres like Metal may be too fast (though you could still head bang or mosh).

ENERGY

High energy is a given in most Rock songs where the artists are essentially expressing pent up energy through music. Even songs that are considered slow tend to be high energy - though, as with all genres, there are artists who make exceptions to this rule.

INSTRUMENTALNESS

There tends to be an even weight of importance of voice and instruments in Rock music although there are quite a few more instrumental songs in Rock than other genres. In songs with a singer, the lyrics may not be as important as the overall energy of the song, and thus the instruments (amplified and distorted) may intentionally drown out the voice.

LIVENESS

A mainstay of classic Rock, liveness is highly prized versus perfectly produced songs. Many Rock artists are looking to capture an imperfect edgy quality in their sound and this is often done through live recordings. In addition, many consumers of Rock music highly favor live shows where they have the opportunity to interact with the artists’ and crowd’s energy than many other popular genres.

SPEECHINESS

Speechiness isn’t terribly common in mainstream rock as most songs are sung. An argument can be made as to whether a vocalist shouting or screaming the lyrics (as is common in many Punk or Metal genres) would count as speechiness, but the justification should be left up to the analyst. Since the 1980’s, fusion genres such as Rap Rock exist where a verse or more may be spoken or rapped versus sung, but this is not the default of most rock songs.

TEMPO

The tempo of Rock songs tend to be quicker as they are energetic and danceable though the prevalence of Rock ballads bring the average down and subgenres such as Speed Metal bring the average up.

VALANCE

The typical early Rock’n’Roll song will have high valance, capturing the fun, carefree nature of youth in the 1950’s. However, as the genre of Rock developed, sadder as well as more angry and defiant songs came to define the style with much lower valance. It is recommended that the listener analyzes each song for valance carefully as no genre is a monolith.