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Rock and Roll

Since its inception in the late 1940s, rock Seeing a potential profit, white record and roll has profoundly transformed companies set out to popularize African- American music and is now one of the American music in the early 1950s. Sam most popular musical forms in the Phillips established his Sun Records in world. Rock not only altered American Memphis, Tennessee and gave anyone culture but also continues to spawn new the opportunity to produce a record for musical forms—heavy metal, funk, $4. Disc jockeys heard the music and punk, rap, techno, etc. This continual began to popularize it. Ironically, racist evolution is what has kept rock and roll white record companies and radio relevant through more than five decades. stations at first called black rhythm and blues "rock and roll" in order to hide its Modern rock enthusiasts owe a great connection to African Americans. debt to African-American performers of the 19th and 20th centuries, whose Some whites also called it "African" or music directly shaped the growth of rock "race" music and feared its ability to and roll in the late 1940s. Many writers bring white women with black men suggest that rock stemmed from a together in places that played such combination of African-American slave music. Some argued that the National musical styles, black spirituals of the Association for the Advancement of 1920s and 1930s, and the rhythm and Colored People used the genre to blues (R&B) of the 1940s. Black R&B convince white teenagers to support songs from the late 1940s included Wild black social and political equality with Bill Moore's "We're Gonna Rock, We're whites. The challenge, then, became for Gonna Roll" (1947) and Wynonie the record labels to make this so-called Harris' "Good Rockin' Tonight" (1948). race music palatable to white audiences, Most experts agree that the "rock and preferably by finding white singers. In roll" references in these early songs Elvis Presley, Phillips found what he had referred to sex. been looking for: "a white man with the Negro sound and the Negro feel." The popularity of rock and roll grew quickly following the Great Migration of The growth of the younger portion of the African Americans during the 1940s. American population due to the "baby Trapped in the agricultural South since boom," the era of enormous population the end of slavery, the majority of increase following World War II, created African Americans lived within the a gigantic segment of young people sharecropper system and under Jim hungry for entertainment. The upward Crow laws that mired them in poverty drive of the American economy led to and segregation. Freedom on their the growth of consumer culture and new minds, millions of African Americans developments in technology, which both migrated to Northern cities and brought helped facilitate the rise of rock and roll with them the Delta blues, the root of during the postwar period. rock music. Presley arrived on the scene just at the right time with a sound that was unique 2 to most white teenagers, a mix of time. More than 30 years after their Southern blues, country, and gospel. He break-up, the Beatles remain the most was the first rock and roll star, and influential group in rock music. Their parents hated him. He swiveled his hips first successful song in the United States, in a sexually provocative way, danced "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (1964), with the microphone, and combed his was followed by increasingly hair in a pompadour. Presley became a experimental albums, symbolizing rock's national star in 1956 after releasing the constant need for reinvention. The No. 1 singles "Heartbreak Hotel," success of the Beatles launched a "Hound Dog" (a remake of Big Mama "British invasion" of North America, and Thornton's blues song), "Don't Be such white British rock bands as the Cruel," and "Love Me Tender" that year. Rolling Stones introduced a new and Popular music was forever changed. more boisterous brand of blues-based rock and roll to America. Ironically, Following in Presley's footsteps were the these British musicians, particularly so-called "bubblegum" rockers of the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards late 1950s and early 1960s, a slew of and Eric Clapton, helped popularize the groups made up of young men and work of American blues artists who went women who sang songs relevant to the largely unrecognized in their own large teenage population. Many of the country. songs were crafted by such songwriters as Carole King, Gerry Goffin, and Don As British rock acts influenced Kirshner, all of whom worked out of the Americans and vice versa, rock and roll Brill Building in New York City. had its golden era in the 1960s. African-American performers appeared American groups like the Beach Boys on the charts in singing groups like the pushed recording technology to new Supremes. Most African Americans limits, and folk singers like Bob Dylan could not show their faces during the experimented with rock and roll for the early days of rock, however. Gifted rock first time, bringing new depth to rock and rollers like Chuck Berry and Little lyrics. The folk rock invented by such Richard were literally invisible to the groups as The Byrds was embraced by American public. the counterculture movement developing in reaction to the civil rights movement Meanwhile, the reckless spirit of rock and U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The and roll strained at the seams of counterculture stamped the rock music teenagers' poodle skirts and penny explosion with its most salient features: loafers. It was just a matter of time a rejection of traditionalism, before rock was again redefined, this complacency, and social mores, along time not by Americans but by British with an acceptance of sexual freedom acts who worshipped such early and drug experimentation. Rock and roll American blues and rock artists as became a badge of identity for young Berry, Carl Perkins, and Buddy Holly. Americans.

With the arrival of the Beatles on American shores in 1964, rock and roll became a mass movement for the first