records played by whites but composed by blacks. Whites were frustrated
because there weren't any white artists and they didn't want the blacks to
be the stars until Bill Haley appeared with his "Rock Around the Clock". In
this decade, Elvis Presley introduced a music that was sexual suggestive
and outraged dull adults. In time he changed the style of the music by
adopting a country and western style and became a national hero. By the end
of this decade and the start of the next, Rock n' Roll started to decline
because it was formula ridden and it was too sentimental. Teenage audiences
transferred their allegiance to Folk music.
In 1963 the renewal of Rock n' Roll came when The Beatles started to
play. The Beatles, for some the best rock group ever, were from Liverpool,
England. Through the 60's, The Beatles dominated the record industries and
with their dominant instrumentation, which included: electric leads, rhythm,
and bass guitar, drums and sometimes an electric organ, changed the name of
Rock n' Roll to just Rock. During the 1960's many other styles of music
arose from Rock like, Motown, Soul music, Jazz-rock , Folk-rock and others.
Folk-Rock the most appreciated of this derivations and was first
suggested by Bob Dylan. This kind of music brought to folk music a hard
beat and amplification; and to Rock, a new poetic style. California was one
of the major centers of rock activity and experimentation during the decade.
First it was characterize for its surfing music, a very joyful music that
reflected the fun people had while surfing. The Beach Boys were the ones
who introduced this kind of music.
At the end of the century this happy kind of music changed to a more
rebellious style that was designated the name of "hippie music". Groups
that played this music were Country Joe and The Mamas and The Papas. Along
with this hippie ideas popularity of hallucinogenic drugs produced a
psychedelic style of music called Acid Rock. By the end of the 60's the
distinctions between Rock n' Roll and Rock were evident. The early
instruments- saxophone, piano, amplified guitar, and drums-had been
changed to electric guitar and bass, amplified drums and other electronic
devices. Not only did the instruments change but so did the ideas behind
the music. For example, "to the lyrics of teenage love and adolescent
concerns were added social commentary, glorification of drugs and free-
association poetry" ("Rock Music", Groliers, p.1). Groups like The Beach
Boys, Crew Cuts and The Everly Brothers were replaced by more imaginative,
non-descriptive names groups like The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother
and Holding Company. The Who, the most famous of these groups, were
originally from England and were reknowned because of their bizarre stage
performances, they would destroy their instruments after their performance
finished. The Who was one of the first rock groups.
In the 70's, the common barriers of rock broke into more divisions,
like hard rock and mellow rock. Hard Rock was extremely loud and
electronically amplified and Mellow Rock was softer and with acoustic
instruments. In 1972, in Jamaica, a new style of music was created called
Reggae. Reggae is a mixture of rock, soul, calypso and Latin music. The
king of Reggae was Bob Marley. Other styles more in rocks borders, since
Reggae was more latin than rock, were created in the middle of this century,
like: bubble gum rock, a funny playful music directed to the youngest fans,
Punk Rock, "a loud, hard rock style derived from acid rock and marked by
its extremes of costume and staging" ("Rock Music", Encarta, p.1), and
Heavy Metal, which continued the approach to Acid Rock but with a simpler
musical dimension but relying upon the power of repetitiveness, loud volume,
and electronic distortion.
One famous group of Heavy Metal was Led Zeppelin, a British group that
was formed in 1968 by Jimmy Page (lead guitar), Robert Plant (lead singer),
John Paul Jones (pianist and bassist) and John Bonham (drummer). Most music
of this decade was intended to be listened to, but not to be danced. But
this intention wasn't kept by Disco music that arose in 1977 and was
especially for dancing. One great group of Disco music were the Bee Gees.
Disco music was described by rock fans as mechanical, commercial and
unlyrical (which is true). At the end of this decade, rock, again became a
dominant cultural force.
The last but not least section of this essay is rock of the 80's. At
the start of this last decade, rock groups became more production oriented,
mainly because of the sudden explosion of videos. This new sensation was a
good way to sell music to the people. Heavy metal bands were greatly pushed
by videos, but most helped were the popular performers like Michael Jackson,
Prince and Boy George. The influence of British bands of punk, disco,
reggae and pop-rock was still big in the U.S. Rock scene. At the same time,
there of nostalgia to return to the older pre rock music, like rhythm and
blues, which was suggested by played by Elvis Costello. By the middle of
the 80's, almost every country had begun to support indigenous music, and
at the end of this "a vigorous talk-song style called rap became extremely
popular among urban black teenagers" ("Rock Music", Encarta, p.1.).
Rock music taught me to appreciate things in a different way. I've
learned this since rock is not an exact science, it can change. In fact
Rock music helps me relax ( I would have been able to finish writing this
essay with rock music). After writing this essay I have learned the origins
of rock and the branches of it, but that wasn't my intention. I wrote this
essay to express myself with it because I feel I can show myself with rock
music. I think rock has become social phenomenal.
