Rock and roll (often written asrock & roll,rock-n-roll, androck 'n' roll) is agenre ofpopular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s.[1][2] Itoriginated from African American music such asjazz,rhythm and blues,boogie-woogie,electric blues,gospel, andjump blues,[3] as well ascountry music.[4] While rock and roll's formative elements can be heard in blues records from the 1920s[5] and in country records of the 1930s,[6] the genre did not acquire its name until 1954.[7][2]
According to the journalistGreg Kot, "rock and roll" refers to a style of popular music originating in the United States in the 1950s. By the mid-1960s, rock and roll had developed into "the more encompassing international style known asrock music, though the latter also continued to be known in many circles as rock and roll".[8] For the purpose of differentiation, this article deals with the first definition.
In the earliest rock and roll styles, either thepiano orsaxophone was typically the lead instrument. These instruments were generally replaced or supplemented by theelectric guitar in the mid-to-late 1950s.[9] The beat is essentially a dance rhythm[10] with an accentuatedbackbeat, almost always provided by asnare drum.[11] Classic rock and roll is usually played with one or moreelectric guitars (onelead, onerhythm) and adouble bass (string bass). After the mid-1950s, electricbass guitars ("Fender bass") anddrum kits became popular in classic rock.[9]
Rock and roll had a profound influence on contemporary American lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language, and is often portrayed in movies, fan magazines, and on television. Some people believe that the music had a positive influence on thecivil rights movement, because of its widespread appeal to bothBlack American andWhite American teenagers.[12][13]
Sign commemorating the role ofAlan Freed andCleveland, Ohio, in the origins of rock and roll
The term "rock and roll" is defined byGreg Kot inEncyclopædia Britannica as the music that originated in the mid-1950s and later developed "into the more encompassing international style known asrock music".[8] The term is sometimes also used assynonymous with "rock music" and is defined as such in some dictionaries.[14][15]
The phrase "rocking and rolling" originally described the movement of a ship on the ocean,[16] but by the early 20th century was used both to describe the spiritual fervor of black church rituals[17] and as a sexual analogy. A retiredWelsh seaman named William Fender can be heard singing the phrase "rock and roll" when describing a sexual encounter in his performance of the traditional song "The Baffled Knight" to the folkloristJames Madison Carpenter in the early 1930s, which he would have learned at sea in the 1800s; the recording can be heard on theVaughan Williams Memorial Library website.[18]
Various gospel, blues and swing recordings used the phrase before it became widely popular. "Bosom of Abraham", an African-Americanspiritual that was documented no later than 1867 (just after theCivil War), uses the phrase "rock my soul" frequently in a religious sense; this song was later recorded by musicians from various genres, including various gospel musicians and groups (includingThe Jordanaires),Louis Armstrong (jazz/swing),Lonnie Donegan (skiffle), andElvis Presley (rock and roll/pop/country).[19] Blues singerTrixie Smith recorded"My [Man] Rocks Me with One Steady Roll"[20] in 1922. It was used in 1940s recordings and reviews of what became known as "rhythm and blues" music aimed at a black audience.[17]Huey "Piano" Smith creditsCha Cha Hogan, a jump-blues shouter and comic in New Orleans, with popularizing the term in his 1950 song "My Walking Baby".[21][22]
Alan Freed disc jockey who is credited with popularizing the term "rock and roll" in the 1950s, helping break down racial barriers.
In 1934, the song "Rock and Roll" by theBoswell Sisters appeared in the filmTransatlantic Merry-Go-Round. In 1942, before the concept of rock and roll had been defined,Billboard magazine columnistMaurie Orodenker started to use the term to describe upbeat recordings such as "Rock Me" bySister Rosetta Tharpe; her style on that recording was described as "rock-and-roll spiritual singing".[23][24] By 1943, the "Rock and Roll Inn" inSouth Merchantville, New Jersey, was established as a music venue.[25] In 1951,Cleveland, Ohio, disc jockeyAlan Freed began playing this music style, and referring to it as "rock and roll"[26] on his mainstream radio program, which popularized the phrase.[27]
Several sources suggest that Freed found the term, used as a synonym for sexual intercourse, on the record "Sixty Minute Man" byBilly Ward and his Dominoes.[28][29] The lyrics include the line, "I rock 'em, roll 'em all night long".[30] Freed did not acknowledge the suggestion about that source in interviews, and explained the term as follows: "Rock 'n roll is really swing with a modern name. It began on the levees and plantations, took in folk songs, and features blues and rhythm".[31]
In discussing Alan Freed's contribution to the genre, two significant sources emphasized the importance of African-American rhythm and blues. Greg Harris, then the executive director of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, offered this comment toCNN: "Freed's role in breaking down racial barriers in U.S. pop culture in the 1950s, by leading white and black kids to listen to the same music, put the radio personality 'at the vanguard' and made him 'a really important figure'".[32] After Freed was honored with a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame, the organization's Web site offered this comment: "He became internationally known for promoting African-American rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under the name of rock and roll".[33]
Not often acknowledged in the history of rock and roll,Todd Storz, the owner of radio station KOWH inOmaha, Nebraska, was the first to adopt theTop 40 format (in 1953), playing only the most popular records in rotation. His station, and the numerous others which adopted the concept, helped to promote the genre: by the mid 50s, the playlist included artists such as "Presley,Lewis,Haley,Berry andDomino".[34][35]
The origins of rock and roll have been fiercely debated by commentators and historians of music.[36] There is general agreement that it arose in the Southern United States – a region that would produce most of the major early rock and roll acts – through the meeting of various influences that embodied a merging of the African musical tradition with European instrumentation.[37]The migration of many former slaves and their descendants to major urban centers such asSt. Louis,Memphis,New York City,Detroit,Chicago,Cleveland, andBuffalo meant that black and white residents were living in close proximity in larger numbers than ever before, and as a result heard each other's music and even began to emulate each other's fashions.[38][39] Radio stations that made white and black forms of music available to both groups, the development and spread of thegramophone record, and African-American musical styles such asjazz andswing which were taken up by white musicians, aided this process of "cultural collision".[40]
The immediate roots of rock and roll lay in therhythm and blues, then called "race music",[41] in combination with either boogie-woogie and shouting gospel[42] or withcountry music of the 1940s and 1950s. Particularly significant influences were jazz,blues,gospel, country, andfolk.[36] Commentators differ in their views of which of these forms were most important and the degree to which the new music was a re-branding of African-Americanrhythm and blues for a white market, or a new hybrid of black and white forms.[43][44][45]
In the 1930s,jazz, and particularlyswing, both in urban-based dance bands and blues-influenced country swing (Jimmie Rodgers,Moon Mullican and other similar singers), were among the first music to present African-American sounds for a predominantly white audience.[44][46] One particularly noteworthy example of a jazz song with recognizably rock and roll elements isBig Joe Turner with pianistPete Johnson's 1938 single "Roll 'Em Pete", which is regarded as an important precursor of rock and roll.[47][48][49] The 1940s saw the increased use of blaring horns (including saxophones), shouted lyrics and boogie-woogie beats in jazz-based music. During and immediately afterWorld War II, with shortages of fuel and limitations on audiences and available personnel, large jazz bands were less economical and tended to be replaced by smaller combos, using guitars, bass and drums.[36][50] In the same period, particularly on theWest Coast and in theMidwest, the development ofjump blues, with its guitar riffs, prominent beats and shouted lyrics, prefigured many later developments.[36] In the documentary filmHail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll,Keith Richards proposes thatChuck 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. This proposal by Richards neglects the black guitarists who did the same thing before Berry, such asGoree Carter,[51]Gatemouth Brown,[52] and the originator of the style,T-Bone Walker.[53]Country boogie andChicago electric blues supplied many of the elements that would be seen as characteristic of rock and roll.[36] Inspired byelectric blues, Chuck Berry introduced an aggressive guitar sound to rock and roll, and established the electric guitar as its centerpiece,[54] adapting his rock band instrumentation from the basic blues band instrumentation of a lead guitar, second chord instrument, bass and drums.[55] In 2017,Robert Christgau declared that "Chuck Berry did in fact invent rock 'n' roll", explaining that this artist "came the closest of any single figure to being the one who put all the essential pieces together".[56]
"Rocket 88" byJackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (Ike Turner and his bandThe Kings of Rhythm and sung by Brenston), was recorded bySam Phillips in March 1951. This is often cited as the first rock n' roll record.[61][62] In an interview however, Ike Turner offered this comment: "I don't think that 'Rocket 88' is rock 'n' roll. I think that 'Rocket 88' is R&B, but I think 'Rocket 88' is the cause of rock and roll existing".[63][64]
Bill Haley and his Comets performing in the 1954 Universal International filmRound Up of Rhythm
In terms of its wide cultural impact across society in the US and elsewhere,Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock",[65] recorded in April 1954 but not a commercial success until the following year, is generally recognized as an important milestone, but it was preceded by many recordings from earlier decades in which elements of rock and roll can be clearly discerned.[2][66][67]
JournalistAlexis Petridis argued that neither Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" nor Presley's version of "That's Alright Mama" heralded a new genre: "They were simply the first white artists' interpretations of a sound already well-established by black musicians almost a decade before. It was a raucous, driving, unnamed variant of rhythm and blues that came complete with lyrics that talked about rocking".[61]
LaVern Baker was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. “Jim Dandy” and “Tweedlee Dee” helped shape the sound of the 1950s rock scene.
Rock and roll was strongly influenced by R&B, according to many sources, including an article inThe Wall Street Journal in 1985, titled, "Rock! It's Still Rhythm and Blues". In fact, the author stated that the "two terms were used interchangeably", until about 1957. The other sources quoted in the article said that rock and roll combined R&B with pop and country music.[77]
Fats Domino was one of the biggest stars of rock and roll in the early 1950s and he was not convinced that this was a new genre. In 1957, he said: "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans".[78] According toRolling Stone, "this is a valid statement ... all Fifties rockers, black and white, country born and city-bred, were fundamentally influenced by R&B, the black popular music of the late Forties and early Fifties".[79] Further,Little Richard built his ground-breaking sound of the same era with an uptempo blend of boogie-woogie, New Orleans rhythm and blues, and the soul and fervor of gospel music vocalization.[42]
Less frequently cited as an influencer,LaVern Baker was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. The Hall remarked that her "fiery fusion of blues, jazz and R&B showcased her alluring vocals and set the stage for the rock and roll surge of the Fifties".[80]
"Rockabilly" usually (but not exclusively) refers to the type of rock and roll music which was played and recorded in the mid-1950s primarily by white singers such asElvis Presley,Carl Perkins,Johnny Cash, andJerry Lee Lewis, who drew mainly on the country roots of the music.[81][82] Presley was greatly influenced by and incorporated his style of music with that of some of the greatest Black musicians like BB King, Arthur Crudup and Fats Domino. His style of music combined with black influences created controversy during a turbulent time in history.[82] Many other popular rock and roll singers of the time, such asFats Domino andLittle Richard,[83] came out of the blackrhythm and blues tradition, making the music attractive to white audiences, and are not usually classed as "rockabilly".
Presley popularized rock and roll on a wider scale than any other single performer and by 1956, he had emerged as the singing sensation of the nation.[84]
Bill Flagg who is a Connecticut resident, began referring to his mix of hillbilly and rock 'n' roll music as rockabilly around 1953.[85]
In July 1954, Presley recorded the regional hit "That's All Right" at Sam Phillips'Sun Studio in Memphis.[86] Three months earlier, on April 12, 1954,Bill Haley & His Comets recorded "Rock Around the Clock". Although only a minor hit when first released, when used in the opening sequence of the movieBlackboard Jungle a year later, it set the rock and roll boom in motion.[65] The song became one of the biggest hits in history, and frenzied teens flocked to see Haley and the Comets perform it, causing riots in some cities. "Rock Around the Clock" was a breakthrough success for the group; traditionally, the song has been seen as the major breakthrough for the rock and roll genre, as its immense popularity introduced the music to a global audience.[87]
In 1956, the arrival of rockabilly was underlined by the success of songs like "Folsom Prison Blues" byJohnny Cash, "Blue Suede Shoes" by Perkins, and the No. 1 hit "Heartbreak Hotel" by Presley.[82] For a few years it became the most commercially successful form of rock and roll. Later rockabilly acts, particularly performing songwriters likeBuddy Holly, would be a major influence onBritish Invasion acts and particularly on the song writing ofthe Beatles and through them on the nature of later rock music.[88]
Many of the earliest white rock and roll hits werecovers or partial re-writes of earlier black rhythm and blues or blues songs.[89] Through the late 1940s and early 1950s,R&B music had been gaining a stronger beat and a wilder style, with artists such as Fats Domino andJohnny Otis speeding up thetempos and increasing thebackbeat to great popularity on thejuke joint circuit.[90] Before the efforts of Freed and others, black music was taboo on many white-owned radio outlets, but artists and producers quickly recognized the potential of rock and roll.[91] Some of Presley's early recordings were covers of black rhythm and blues or blues songs, such as "That's All Right" (a countrified arrangement of a blues number), "Baby Let's Play House", "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", and "Hound Dog".[92] The racial lines, however, are rather more clouded by the fact that some of these R&B songs originally recorded by black artists had been written by white songwriters, such as the team ofJerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Songwriting credits were often unreliable; many publishers, record executives, and even managers (both white and black) would insert their name as a composer in order to collect royalty checks.
Ritchie Valens best known for his 1958 hit "La Bamba", which blended traditional Mexican music with rock and roll.
Covers were customary in the music industry at the time; it was made particularly easy by thecompulsory license provision ofUnited States copyright law (still in effect).[93] One of the first relevant successful covers wasWynonie Harris's transformation ofRoy Brown's 1947 original jump blues hit "Good Rocking Tonight" into a more showy rocker[94] and the Louis Prima rocker "Oh Babe" in 1950, as well asAmos Milburn's cover of what may have been the first white rock and roll record,Hardrock Gunter's "Birmingham Bounce" in 1949.[95] The most notable trend, however, was white pop covers of black R&B numbers. The more familiar sound of these covers may have been more palatable to white audiences, there may have been an element of prejudice, but labels aimed at the white market also had much better distribution networks and were generally much more profitable.[96] Famously,Pat Boone recorded sanitized versions of songs recorded by the likes of Fats Domino, Little Richard, the Flamingos and Ivory Joe Hunter. Later, as those songs became popular, the original artists' recordings received radio play as well.[97]
The cover versions were not necessarily straightforward imitations. For example, Bill Haley's incompletelybowdlerized cover of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" transformed Big Joe Turner's humorous and racy tale of adult love into an energetic teen dance number,[89][98] while Georgia Gibbs replacedEtta James' tough, sarcastic vocal in "Roll With Me, Henry" (covered as "Dance With Me, Henry") with a perkier vocal more appropriate for an audience unfamiliar with the song to which James's song was ananswer,Hank Ballard's "Work With Me, Annie".[99] Presley's rock and roll version of "Hound Dog", taken mainly from a version recorded by the pop bandFreddie Bell and the Bellboys, was very different from the blues shouter thatBig Mama Thornton had recorded four years earlier.[100][101] Other white artists who recorded cover versions of rhythm and blues songs included Gale Storm (Smiley Lewis' "I Hear You Knockin'"), the Diamonds (The Gladiolas' "Little Darlin'" and Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers' "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?"), the Crew Cuts (the Chords' "Sh-Boom" and Nappy Brown's "Don't Be Angry"), the Fountain Sisters (The Jewels' "Hearts of Stone") and the Maguire Sisters (The Moonglows' "Sincerely").
Some commentators have suggested a decline of rock and roll starting in 1958.[102][103] The retirement ofLittle Richard to become a preacher (October 1957), the departure of Presley for service in theUnited States Army (March 1958), the scandal surroundingJerry Lee Lewis' marriage to histhirteen-year-old cousin (May 1958), riots caused byBill Haley's ill-fated tour of Europe (October 1958), the deaths ofBuddy Holly,the Big Bopper andRitchie Valens ina plane crash (February 1959), the breaking of thePayola scandal implicating major figures, includingAlan Freed, in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs (November 1959), the arrest ofChuck Berry (December 1959), and the death ofEddie Cochran in a car crash (April 1960) gave a sense that the initial phase of rock and roll had come to an end.[104]
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the rawer sounds of Presley,Gene Vincent,Jerry Lee Lewis andBuddy Holly were commercially superseded by a more polished, commercial style of rock and roll influenced pop music. Marketing frequently emphasized the physical looks of the artist rather than the music, contributing to the successful careers ofRicky Nelson,Tommy Sands,Bobby Vee,Jimmy Clanton, and the Philadelphia trio ofBobby Rydell,Frankie Avalon, andFabian, who all became "teen idols".[105]
Johnny Rivers was a key 1960s rock artist known for hits like "Memphis" and his "Go-go" style.
Some music historians have also pointed to important and innovative developments that built on rock and roll in this period, includingmultitrack recording, developed byLes Paul, the electronic treatment of sound by such innovators asJoe Meek, and the "Wall of Sound" productions ofPhil Spector,[106] continued desegregation of the charts, the rise ofsurf music,garage rock and theTwist dance craze.[44]Surf rock in particular, noted for the use of reverb-drenched guitars, became one of the most popular forms of American rock of the early 1960s.[107]
While the sounds of theBritish Invasion would become the superseding forms of rock music during the mid-1960s, a few American artists were nonetheless able to achieve chart successes with rock and roll recordings during this time. The most notable of these wasJohnny Rivers, who with hits such as"Memphis" (1964), popularized a "Go-go" style of club-oriented, danceable rock and roll that enjoyed significant success in spite of the ongoing British Invasion.[108][109] Another example wasBobby Fuller and his groupThe Bobby Fuller Four, who were especially inspired by Buddy Holly and stuck with a rock and roll style, scoring their most notable hit with"I Fought the Law" (1965).[110][111][112]
Tommy Steele, one of the first British rock and rollers, performing in Stockholm in 1957
In the 1950s, Britain was well placed to receive American rock and roll music and culture.[113] It shareda common language, had been exposed to American culture through the stationing of troops in the country, and shared many social developments, including the emergence of distinct youth sub-cultures, which in Britain included theTeddy Boys and therockers.[114]Trad jazz became popular in the UK, and many of its musicians were influenced by related American styles, includingboogie woogie and theblues.[115] Theskiffle craze, led byLonnie Donegan, used amateurish versions of American folk songs and encouraged many of the subsequent generation of rock and roll, folk, R&B and beat musicians to start performing.[116] At the same time British audiences were beginning to encounter American rock and roll, initially through films includingBlackboard Jungle (1955) andRock Around the Clock (1956).[117] Both movies featured theBill Haley & His Comets hit "Rock Around the Clock", which first entered the British charts in early 1955 – four months before it reached theUS pop charts – topped the British charts later that year and again in 1956 and helped identify rock and roll with teenage delinquency.[118]
Cliff Richard became an early British rock and roll star with his 1958 hit "Move It".
The initial response of the British music industry was to attempt to produce copies of American records, recorded with session musicians and often fronted by teen idols. More grass roots British rock and rollers soon began to appear, includingWee Willie Harris andTommy Steele.[113] During this period American Rock and Roll remained dominant but in 1958 Britain produced its first "authentic" rock and roll song and star, whenCliff Richard reached number 2 in the charts with "Move It".[119] At the same time, TV shows such asSix-Five Special andOh Boy! promoted the careers of British rock and rollers likeMarty Wilde andAdam Faith.[113] Cliff Richard and his backing band,the Shadows, were the most successful home grown rock and roll based acts of the era.[120] Other leading acts includedBilly Fury,Joe Brown, andJohnny Kidd & the Pirates, whose 1960 hit song "Shakin' All Over" became a rock and roll standard.[113]
Rock and roll influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language.[126] In addition, rock and roll may have contributed to the civil rights movement because both African-American and European-American teens enjoyed the music.[12]
Many early rock and roll songs dealt with issues of cars, school, dating, and clothing. The lyrics of rock and roll songs described events and conflicts to which most listeners could relate through personal experience. Topics such as sex that had generally been considered taboo began to appear in rock and roll lyrics. This new music tried to break boundaries and express emotions that people were actually feeling but had not discussed openly. An awakening began to take place in American youth culture.[127]
In the crossover of African-American "race music" to a growing white youth audience, the popularization of rock and roll involved both black performers reaching a white audience and white musicians performing African-American music.[128] Rock and roll appeared at a time when racial tensions in the United States were entering a new phase, with the beginnings of thecivil rights movement fordesegregation, leading to theU.S. Supreme Court ruling that abolished the policy of "separate but equal" in 1954, but leaving a policy which would be extremely difficult to enforce in parts of the United States.[129] The coming together of white youth audiences andblack music in rock and roll inevitably provoked strong white racist reactions within the US, with many whites condemning its breaking down of barriers based on color.[12] Many observers saw rock and roll as heralding the way for desegregation, in creating a new form of music that encouraged racial cooperation and shared experience.[130] Many authors have argued that early rock and roll was instrumental in the way both white and black teenagers identified themselves.[131]
"There's No Romance in Rock and Roll" made the cover ofTrue Life Romance in 1956.
Several rock historians have claimed that rock and roll was one of the first music genres to define anage group.[132] It gave teenagers a sense of belonging, even when they were alone.[132] Rock and roll is often identified with the emergence of teen culture among the firstbaby boomer generation, who had greater relative affluence and leisure time and adopted rock and roll as part of a distinct subculture.[133] This involved not just music, absorbed via radio, record buying, jukeboxes and TV programs likeAmerican Bandstand, but also extended to film, clothes, hair, cars and motorcycles, and distinctive language. The youth culture exemplified by rock and roll was a recurring source of concern for older generations, who worried about juvenile delinquency and social rebellion, particularly because, to a large extent, rock and roll culture was shared by different racial and social groups.[133]
In America, that concern was conveyed even in youth cultural artifacts such ascomic books. In "There's No Romance in Rock and Roll" fromTrue Life Romance (1956), a defiant teen dates a rock and roll-loving boy but drops him for one who likes traditional adult music—to her parents' relief.[134] In Britain, where postwar prosperity was more limited, rock and roll culture became attached to the pre-existingTeddy Boy movement, largely working class in origin, and eventually to therockers.[114] "On the white side of the deeply segregated music market", rock and roll became marketed for teenagers, as inDion and the Belmonts' "A Teenager in Love" (1959).[135]
From its early 1950s beginnings through the early 1960s, rock and roll spawned newdance crazes[136] including thetwist. Teenagers found the syncopatedbackbeat rhythm especially suited to reviving Big Band-erajitterbug dancing.Sock hops, school and church gym dances, and home basement dance parties became the rage, and American teens watchedDick Clark'sAmerican Bandstand to keep up on the latest dance and fashion styles.[137] From the mid-1960s on, as "rock and roll" was rebranded as "rock", later dance genres followed, leading tofunk,disco,house,techno, andhip hop.[138]
^Brock, Jerry (2015)."Baby Doll Addendum and Mardi Gras '49".The Jazz Archivist: A Newsletter of the William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archive.28. Tulane University Libraries. RetrievedJune 27, 2023.
^"Record Reviews".Billboard. May 30, 1942.Archived from the original on June 1, 2021. RetrievedFebruary 22, 2021.
^"Alan Freed".Britannica. March 4, 2018.Archived from the original on February 5, 2020. RetrievedFebruary 3, 2021.Alan Freed did not coin the phrase he popularized it and redefined it. Once slang for sex, it came to mean a new form of music. This music had been around for several years, but ...
^"Alan Freed".History of Rock. January 4, 2011.Archived from the original on January 8, 2021. RetrievedJanuary 28, 2021.
^"Ch. 3 "Rockin' Around The Clock'".Michigan Rock and Roll Legends. June 22, 2020.Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. RetrievedJanuary 28, 2021.By the middle of the 20th century, the phrase 'rocking and rolling' was slang for sex in the black community but Freed liked the sound of it and felt the words could be used differently.
^M. T. Bertrand,Race, Rock, and Elvis: Music in American Life (University of Illinois Press, 2000), pp. 21–22.
^R. Aquila,That old-time rock & roll: a chronicle of an era, 1954–1963 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000), pp. 4–6.
^J. M. Salem,The late, great Johnny Ace and the transition from R & B to rock 'n' roll Music in American life (University of Illinois Press, 2001), p. 4.
^M. T. Bertrand,Race, rock, and Elvis Music in American life (University of Illinois Press, 2000), p. 99.
^A. Bennett,Rock and Popular Music: Politics, Policies, Institutions (Routledge, 1993), pp. 236–238.
^abcK. Keightley, "Reconsidering rock", in S. Frith, W. Straw and J. Street, eds,The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 116.
^N. Kelley,R&B, Rhythm and Business: The Political Economy of Black Music (Akashic Books, 2005), p. 134.
^E. Wald,How the Beatles Destroyed Rock N Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 111–125.
^Peter J. Silvester,A Left Hand Like God: a history of boogie-woogie piano (1989),ISBN0-306-80359-3.
^M. Campbell, ed.,Popular Music in America: And the Beat Goes on (Cengage Learning, 3rd edn, 2008), p. 99.ISBN0-495-50530-7
^P. D. Lopes,The rise of a jazz art world (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 132
^Robert Palmer, "Church of the Sonic Guitar", pp. 13–38 in Anthony DeCurtis, Present Tense, Duke University Press, 1992, p. 19.ISBN0-8223-1265-4.
^Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians: Jazz, Blues, Cajun, Creole, Zydeco, Swamp Pop, and Gospel. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. p. 57.ISBN9780807169322.
^Dance, Helen Oakley, "Walker, Aaron Thibeaux (T-Bone)",The Handbook of Texas Online. Denton: Texas State Historical Association.
^"Yes, Chuck Berry Invented Rock 'n' Roll – and Singer-Songwriters. Oh, Teenagers Too".Foodservice and Hospitality. March 22, 2017.Archived from the original on February 27, 2021. RetrievedAugust 2, 2020 – via Billboard.Of course similar musics would have sprung up without him. Elvis was Elvis before he'd ever heard of Chuck Berry. Charles' proto-soul vocals and Brown's everything-is-a-drum were innovations as profound as Berry's. Bo Diddley was a more accomplished guitarist.
^abM. Campbell, ed.,Popular Music in America: and the Beat Goes on (Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning, 3rd ed., 2008),ISBN0-495-50530-7, pp. 157–8.
^DeCurtis, Anthony (1992).Present Tense: Rock & Roll and Culture (4th print ed.). Durham, North Carolina:Duke University Press.ISBN0822312654.Archived from the original on June 17, 2016. RetrievedOctober 17, 2015.His first venture, the Phillips label, issued only one known release, and it was one of the loudest, most overdriven, and distorted guitar stomps ever recorded, "Boogie in the Park" by Memphis one-man-band Joe Hill Louis, who cranked his guitar while sitting and banging at a rudimentary drum kit.
^Ennis, Philip H. (1992),The Seventh Stream – The Emergence of Rocknroll in American Popular Music, Wesleyan University Press, p. 201,ISBN978-0-8195-6257-9
^R. Aquila,That old-time rock & roll: a chronicle of an era, 1954–1963 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000), p. 6.
^C. Deffaa,Blue rhythms: six lives in rhythm and blues (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996), pp. 183–84.
^J. V. Martin,Copyright: current issues and laws (Nova Publishers, 2002), pp. 86–88.
^G. Lichtenstein and L. Dankner.Musical gumbo: the music of New Orleans (W. W. Norton, 1993), p. 775.
^R. Carlin.Country music: a biographical dictionary (Taylor & Francis, 2003), p. 164.
^R. Aquila,That old-time rock & roll: a chronicle of an era, 1954–1963 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000), p. 201.
^G. C. Altschuler,All shook up: how rock 'n' roll changed America (Oxford: Oxford University Press US, 2003), pp. 51–52.
^R. Coleman,Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'n' Roll (Da Capo Press, 2007), p. 95.
^D. Tyler,Music of the postwar era (Greenwood, 2008), p. 79.
^C. L. Harrington and D. D. Bielby.,Popular culture: production and consumption (Wiley-Blackwell, 2001), p. 162.
^"Louisiana Music Hall of Fame - JOHNNY RIVERS 2009".Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. October 4, 2018. Archived fromthe original on October 4, 2018. RetrievedFebruary 20, 2024.One American artist after another faded into rock & roll purgatory, victims of Her Majesty's transatlantic onslaught. Among the few Yanks who survived the British Invasion, [was]... Johnny Rivers... A cover of Chuck Berry's "Memphis"... reached number 2 in the midst of Beatlemania, sending a message that American artists weren't ready to concede their turf to the Brits just yet.
^"Johnny Rivers Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More".AllMusic. RetrievedFebruary 20, 2024.... there were other artists playing this kind of basic, danceable rock & roll, mostly in club settings... In early 1964, however, none of those acts had broken nationally or even locally. Rivers got there first...
^"Bobby Fuller Four on Apple Music".Apple Music. RetrievedFebruary 20, 2024.In the mid-1960s, Texas rocker Bobby Fuller championed the old-school rock-&-roll values of artists like Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran.
^"Bobby Fuller | TheAudioDB.com".www.theaudiodb.com. RetrievedFebruary 20, 2024.At a time when the British invasion and folk rock were culturally dominant, Fuller stuck to Buddy Holly's style of classic rock and roll with Tex Mex flourishes.
Bogdanov, V.; Woodstra, C.; Erlewine, S. T., eds. (2002).All Music Guide to Rock: the Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (3rd ed.). Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books.ISBN0-87930-653-X.
Rock and Roll: A Social History, by Paul Friedlander (1996), Westview Press (ISBN0-8133-2725-3)
The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll : The Definitive History of the Most Important Artists and Their Music by editors James Henke, Holly George-Warren, Anthony Decurtis, Jim Miller (1992), Random House (ISBN0-679-73728-6)
.JPG)
