The Impact of Television on Rock n’ Roll

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Rock and Roll, as a music genre, has evolved greatly with each decade; some of this is attributed to technology. One of the biggest leaps forward made for technology and the music genre is the widespread commercial popularity of the television. Since its introduction, television has caused the growing genre to rapidly reach mainstream audiences. Though it is this day hard to pinpoint the full impact of this invention to Rock n’ Roll, it is hard to argue that it didn’t help shape it into the powerful industry that it is today. From the Rockabilly era, to the British Invasion, all the way to the formation of MTV; television has attributed to these eras and changes seen in this genre. The importance of television is very high as it allowed stars to be made and stars to be pushed aside. Television has also allowed even the most remote people to know what the latest stars were doing. It can be said that Rock n’ Roll would not have gained its social acceptance without television to bring it into the lime light and causing it to rapidly reach the youths of the era.
Before analyzing the history of Rock n’ Roll television, the history of how watching television came to become a popular must come into question. To summarize briefly, the invention of television was in development since the 1870s, however the first demonstration of live transmitted images in motion was in 1925 lead by Scottish inventor John Logie Baird (Radio Shows Far Away Objects in Motion). The image was of Baird’s business partner Oliver Hutchinson (Television), showing a mere five frames per second, it was an impressive sight for the time. With perfection of the invention, electronic televisions had been developed by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin with the help of the RCA radio...

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...so define television.

Works Cited

Tikkaken, Amy, Erik Gregersen, Swati Chopra, Darshana Das, and Grace Young. "Television (TV)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 01 Dec. 2006. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
""Radio Shows Far Away Objects in Motion"" The New York Times [New York City, NY] 14 June 1925: 1. Print.
Nachman, Gerald. "A Really Big Showman ..." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 04 July 2011. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Wallace, Marcie. "Elvis Presley: A Revolutionist." LaGrange College. LaGrange College, n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Forman, Murray. "'One Night on TV is Worth Weeks at the Paramount': Musicians and Opportunity in Early Television, 1948-55." Popular Music 21.3 (2002): 249. ProQuest. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
Amos, Silas. "Champions of Designs: MTV." Editorial. Marketing 30 May 2012: 20. Ebscohost.com. Marketingmagazine.co.uk. Web. 22 Feb. 2014.

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