General+Information

ORIGINS
The term "rock and roll" was first used by a disc jockey named Alan Freed in 1951. Gospel, rhythm & blues, jazz, country & western, pop, and folk music were all old forms of music blended together to create the innovative and unique rock and roll music that emerged in the early 1950s.

In the pre-rock-and-roll era of the early 20th century, jazz and swing bands reigned supreme and the soothing voices of Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby dominated pop music. Beginning in the 1920s, people in the music industry began to realize the profitability of entertaining African-American audiences. Soon, black musical performances and comedic shows were aired on the radio to target those audiences, and thus black-only "race records" or "race music" was born.

World War II ended in 1945, and the subsequent decades saw considerable prosperity as the United States emerged comparably unscathed by the ravages of war and as new technology meant an increase in productivity. This economic boom meant that the teenagers had more pocket money and more purchasing power. This, in combination with more leisure time, tended to make the youth more independent and rebellious against their parents. Also during this period, the radio was not easily censored, and the white youth who went to the store to purchase music records with their extra pocket money did not find black music in short supply. This aided in the exposure of white teens to African-American music such as rhythm & blues.

In the 1950s, Americans were still divided by segregation, despite measures taken against it such as the Supreme Court ruling in the landmark case //Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas// (1954). One of rock and roll's primary roles in bringing about social change involved breaking the racial barriers; black and white musicians played this mixture of black and white musical elements to integrated black and white audiences.

ALAN FREED
When Alan Freed coined the term "rock and roll", he purposefully gave the African-American-influenced music a name that would make it seem more acceptable to white listeners or to avoid the negative association with race records. Freed, known to radio listeners as "Moondog", hosted the first major rock and roll radio show, "Moondog's Rock 'n' Roll Party". Though not an actual artist himself, he nonetheless played a major role in popularizing rock and roll music and breaking white intolerance of black music.

In 1952, Freed organized and was one of the major personalities behind the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert. At this event, black rock and roll groups and artists such as Paul Williams & The Hucklebuckers, Tiny Grimes & The Rockin' Highlanders, and Varetta Dillard were to be showcased; however, the concert ended after the first song due to problems caused by 20,000-25,000 people trying to fit into a building with a maximum capacity of 10,000. The crowd was somewhat integrated, but African-Americans were the primary attendees. Despite critics of the overbooking and failure of the concert, this historical concert helped launch Alan Freed and his "rock and roll" music into widespread fame.

Bill Haley and His Comets, like many early rock and roll bands, did not start out as a rock and roll band; they adapted and evolved into it. Bill Haley and The Saddlemen, the original name of the group, actually started out as a country group. The "Comets" part of the name arrived with their conversion to rock and roll. How did they accomplish this? They incorporated rhythm and blues rhythms and instruments into their country western music, creating an integration of African-American and white musical elements, aka rock and roll. In 1955, Bill Haley and His Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" rocked not only America but also the United Kingdom as the first major rock and roll hit.

The next big thing was larger-than-life Elvis Presley. Presley was born in Mississippi as the poor son of a truck driver in 1935, and later his family moved to Memphis where he, a young white teen, would hang out in the black section of town. His talent for music was discovered when he visited a recording studio to record songs for his mother; he appealed to producer Sam Phillips because he was white, which would make him more acceptable to white Americans, and because he had an African-American musical style, which would make the rebellious white youth, along with blacks, happy. When "Heartbreak Hotel" came out in 1956, Presley indeed become a national star.

However, the older generations of America did put up a good fight to dim this star in the eyes of their innocent children. When he performed on the Ed Sullivan television show, he was shown only from the waist up because his gyrations were seen as too sexually suggestive. Parents became horrified as their children started to dress and act like him and listened to his "devil" music. To be an Elvis fan meant to rebel against the morals and values once held dear. To be an Elvis fan also meant an acceptance of African-American music, which was significant for the pro-segregation and anti-black atmosphere of the 1950s. Presley went as far as openly giving credit to African-Americans and their musical influence when questioned about his style.

Another famous rock and roll performer during the 1950s who grew up in poverty was Jerry Lee Lewis. Early on, Lewis exhibited an unusual talent for the piano, a talent that he would use to play the rebellious rock and roll music. When a young man, Lewis was sent to the Waxahachie Bible College by his deeply religious parents. However, after caught playing a religious song with a boogie-woogie style he was expelled. Lewis would come to be one of the controversial rock and roll greats with hits like "Great Balls of Fire" and "Whole Lotta Shakin'". His songs weren't the only thing that was controversial; he was a married to three women at one time, one of whom was his 13-year-old cousin, and his son and one of his wives mysteriously drowned in his swimming pool, earning him the nickname "Killer".

One of the greatest black rock and roll musicians during the 1950s was Chuck Berry. With his unique mix of rhythm and blues and country, he entertained both whites and blacks. One of the things that made him so successful with white audiences was his designing songs that spoke of social problems and concerns that were felt by all 1950s youth, regardless of race. This important rock and roll founding father's greatest works include "Johnny B. Goode" and "Maybellene".

Richard Penniman, better known as "Little Richard", was a unique black rock and roll artist. In just listening to his hits such as "Tutti Frutti" or "Good Golly, Miss Molly", with the screaming, the aggressive piano playing, and the famous whooo-ing, one can capture some of the outrageous and convention-breaking expressions that made rock and roll exciting for the younger generations and horrifying for the older ones.

REBEL LYRICS
Some rock and roll music was not openly rebellious; many talked about relationships and love, but their racially mixed styles made them rebellious against segregated social norms. However, there were some songs that were lyrically rebellious. For example, "Yakety Yak" by The Coasters talks of the nagging of parents and the teenage desire to resist their authority, and "Money (That's What I Want)" wishes for a better life through economic means.

The original rock and roll of the 1950s is said to have died down by the early 1960s. Some even consider 1959, the year that rock and roll giants "The Big Bopper", Buddy Holly, and Richie Valens tragically died in a plane crash, as the death year of rock and roll as well. Don McLean would seem to agree as he talks of Buddy Holly and "The Day the Music Died" (the day of the plane crash) in his famous song "American Pie".