The Birth of Rock and Roll
by River !!
Intro
Rock music started out in America as a mixture of blues, gospel, jazz, and country music. Eventually, it evolved into its own genre, and influences different parts of life around the world.
How Rock Started
The origin of rock is generally considered to be "Rocket 88", released in 1951 and credited to Jackie Brenston, an African-American singer and saxophonist, though Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm were the band behind it. This song is technically an R&B song, but this song inspired what became the rock music we have now.
On the left is Ike Turner, on the right is Jackie Brenston
Influence in America
Being the birthplace of rock music, American society has had a lot of instances where it was influenced by Rock. In the beginning, it just influenced fashion or hair styles, but it soon became a way to spread a message of advocacy towards ending wars or for creating equality.
This is the poster advertisement for Woodstock, one of the biggest music festivals in the world, which inspired a ton of change in society.Below is an image showing the amount of people who showed up.
People
Most people associate fashion from the 50's and 60's with slick-backed hair and leather jackets, but most people don't know that this style became popular through popular rock musicians being seen wearing them. Famous bands like the Beatles inspired people to style their hair into bowl-shaped moptops. Hippie culture also spread so quickly through psychadelic rock.
Spread Outside of America
While rock music started in America, England soon became the center for rock, and this is largely due to the Beatles. With their short song, "Please Please Me", only two minutes long, they quickly became famous globally. This song came out in 1963 with their debut album, with each member of the group being able to be successful as solo musicians years later.
The main reason for rock music becoming popular in other countries is from bands from those areas becoming successful. In Australia, it was Johhny O'Keefe, and Japan had Happy End. Other countries had popular rock bands to thank for introducing the music to them.