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The Effect of Rock and Roll on American Society
Impact of rock n roll on civil rights movement
The Effect of Rock and Roll on American Society
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Rock & roll music rose out of the chaos and rebellion found in the 1960s. From the Civil Rights Movement, to Women’s Rights, and the Vietnam War, the 1960s was filled with protests, rallies, and concerts. The music reflected the young, rebellious attitude that grew throughout the decade. Rock & roll music originated in the 1950s, when Bo Diddley contributed to its success and evolution. He played a large role in finding the crossover from blues to rock & roll, inspiring many rock & roll acts. Famous elements of rock music can be traced back to Bo Diddley and his well-known song “Who Do You Love.” The band, Quicksilver Messenger Service did a cover of this song, making it fit their original style but still respecting Diddley’s music. This created a rock dialogue with Bo Diddley by incorporating similar musical rhythms and styles. However, the musical discrepancies among QMS and Diddley version echo the cultural transformation in the sixties; Quicksilver Messenger Service highlights this shift from conformity to counterculture by using wild distortion, dynamic changes, and a strange structure instead of rhythmic and uniform sounds.
Bo Diddley was a rhythm and blues artist who used this original style and inventions to transition to rock & roll. What Diddley brought to his music was rhythmic drives, a new tough guitar sound, and distortion. In his song “Who Do You Love,” released in 1956, Diddley showcases what is know as the “Diddley beat” which can be heard throughout the whole song. The “Diddley beat” is three beats, a rest, and then two beats. In this song, there are no chord changes; it stays on the same level dynamically throughout, never getting loud or soft. Diddley relies on the driving rhythms instead of harmonic chords a...
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...and dynamic changes that their version does not sound at all like the song that Bo Diddley once sang. Yet Diddley’s sound and influence could still be heard as QMS expanded his ideas of rhythmic drive and distortion of the guitar to fit their generation. The rock dialogue between QMS and Bo Diddley in the song “Who Do You Love” is filled with the unique history of the 1960s and the many social changes that occurred.
Works Cited
Bo Diddley (Ellas McDaniel), "Who Do You Love (1956), on BO DIDDLEY's 16 All-Time
Greatest Hits (Checker LP 2989), 1964.
Negus, Keith, Popular Music in Theory, Wesleyan University Press, 1997.
Quicksilver Messenger Service, Happy Trails (Capitol Records ST-120), 1968.
Townsend, David, “Changing the World: Rock 'n' Roll Culture and Ideology,” accessed February
15, 2012, http://www.dntownsend.com/Site/Rock/rcksum.htm.
There is without a doubt that the 1950s saw the rise of the King of Rock 'n' Roll, known as Chuck Berry. His musical take on rhythm and blues was a large influence on many successful artists that rose the following decade, but most notably The Rolling Stones. This paper examines the earlier musical career of Chuck Berry and how The Rolling Stones modeled themselves upon him and then expanded themselves further.
Rock n’ roll gave people the voice they did not have in the early years. As the genre of music became more wide spread, people actually began to speak out. Altschuler touches on the exploration of how the rock n' roll culture roughly integrated with replaced and conflicted with preceding cultural values. Many of these values were very touch topics. Besides black civil rights, sexuality were one of the most sensitive t...
The Beatles and the Beach Boys are two of the most recognized, well-known and most popular musical acts of the 1960’s right through to the 1970’s. I will be focusing on the group acts rather than solo performers such as John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison of the Beatles, who took their own stylistic approach to their music after the Beatles’ separation. Each group’s arrangement and use of instruments classify them as part of the overall associated sound and typical subject matter of songs in the 1960’s, yet remain different enough to distinguish between each group’s desired sound.
In the 1950s rock-n-roll established its own marks in history. It spread throughout the decade in a thrilling, substantial, and even livid to those Americans trying to get rid of all sorts of conflicts and challenges that occurred during this time period. As exciting as this music was, the novel “All Shook Up” portrays how rock-n-roll brought many changes to the American culture and later to the sixties. It expresses many concerns such as race relations, moral decays, and communism, but in ways that are partially true.
In the 1950’s country rock and rock in general was a new style of music that was unheard of, with artist like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Jerry Lewis. In the 1970’s the Eagles country rock sound became very popular and when country rock faded in the mid 1970’s, bands like R.E.M. and Los Lobos became popular in the 1980’s because of their songs sounded similar to the country rock songs in the 1950’s and 1970’s. In the 1980’s and 1990’s country rock audiences were any race that enjoyed a country and rock sound that was popular during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Many different forms of country rock came because of the country rock era, with outlaw country singers like Willie Nelson and alternative country singers like Dave Alvin that is similar to country
After many of World War II’s harmful effects, the 1950s served as a period of time of musical change that reflected the dynamic of society as well as the traditional norms and values. Many factors contributed to this transformation. For example, the civil rights movement heightened many racial tensions, and the music produced consequently manifested this tension in itself. Rock-n-roll and R&B music universalized music typically associated with African-Americans, and many African-American musicians gained fame; however, as with any relatively-widespread success, there were many musicians as well who missed their opportunities due to the same racial segregation. While “radical” genres such as R&B and rock-n-roll laid the foundation for music future forms of music, the standard pop, jazz, and country music adhered to traditional values, and thus continued to maintain popularity amidst phenomena such as the Elvis craze.
Music has continued to change throughout each decade, but the 1960s was the most influential decade in the history of music. Starting in the early 1950s, rock music was first introduced. Major record labels were releasing new “cover songs” which were originally made by black artist, but now by white artist (Rock and Roll). These cover songs changed a few lyrics from the original songs to avoid copyright issues and to also make the song more appropriate for the white listeners. The biggest star of the 1950s was Elvis Presley, who was known as the “King of rock n’ roll”.
Through Elvis Presley, rock ‘n’ roll changed the face of American music, and influenced a whole generation’s political philosophy. Composer Leonard Berstein once said, “He introduced the beat to everything and changed everything-music, language, clothes; it’s a whole new social revolution-the 60s come from it” (Wattenberg 6B). To his credit, Elvis embraced rhythm and blues not as a from to be imitated, but as a form to honored and interprete... ...
The ‘60s were the age of youth, as millions of children’s from post World War II became teenagers and rebelled against the conservative fifties. Denying civil rights to African-Americans and liberation to teenagers in previous decades and Vietnam War, created a vortexes which lead to massive rebellion against the status qua. Music of the 1960s was characteristic of the revolution that was going on during the decade. It was a time of rebellion and counter-culture in which the teenagers and college students were critical of government, business, religious institution and other various aspects of life. Era marked by civil rights movement, Vietnam War, environment of drug abuse and sexual freedom formed new music like: folk rock, soul and psychedelic rock. These genres starkly contrast the teen idol music of ‘50s pop mainstream. Writes John Covach; “World was exploding, and rock musicians were listening more closely than ever.”(Covach, 152) Such stark contrast in pop music directly relay to changing social culture in America, which further echo’s the relationship between music and culture.
Music can be traced back into human history to prehistoric eras. To this day archeologists uncover fragments of ancient instruments as well as tablets with carved lyrics buried alongside prominent leaders and highly influential people. This serves as a testament to the importance and power of music, as well as its influence in society. Over its many years of existence, music’s powerful invocation of feelings has allowed it to evolve and serve many purposes, one being inspiring change. American journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson once said, “Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel. Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is fuel.” This fuel is the very things that powers the influence of Rock ‘n’ Roll on American society, that author Glenn C. Altschuler writes about in his book, “All Shook Up – How Rock ‘n’ Roll Changed America.” Between 1945 and 1965 Rock ‘n’ Roll transformed American society and culture by helping to ease racial integration and launch a sexual revolution while most importantly developing an intergenerational identity.
Mainstream music in the 21st century is known to blend many different genres. Chuck Berry has influenced such genres as rhythm and blues (R&B), country, and today’s pop music. He realized at a young age he had to play more than just “black” music as a black artist. He had to appeal to whites since most Americans in the 1950s were white.
The rise of rock and roll into the limelight is to a large extent attributed to the teenagers of the 1950’s. Early rock music listened to by teenagers during the 1950’s was formed by blending together Rhythm and blues with country music. This kind of ...
Rock 'n' roll came from a type of music called rhythm and blues (R&B), which consisted of doo-wop and gospel music. It was popular mostly in the south during the 40’s but it soon grew to urban cities. It was Les Paul’s invention of the electric guitar in 1952 that added a new sound and made rhythm and blues into the rock 'n' roll we all know and love today. Most of the artists from R&B were African American, and in their song they would reference sexual matters. So together it gave a bad connotation towards the music and their race, therefore both were never fully accepted in the north. The term “rock” was slang mostly used by African Americans meaning a form of music that was easily danced to. Meanwhile “roll” was usually a euphemism for sex, such as “a roll in the hay”. It was Alan Freed who first popularized the term “rock and roll” for this gen...
Rhythm and blues, also known as R&B, is something that I really enjoy. I am a singer and along with country music, R&B is my favorite thing to sing. With rhythm and blues, there is a song for every emotion, so most of the time the songs can be very relatable. The songs have a variety of subjects like sex, work, and even drinking. In this paper I will briefly discuss how rhythm and blues started, how it evolved into today’s music and why I like it so much.
Have you ever been influenced by some important person that helped you be the person that you are today? I have been. The people that have had influence on me are the most important humans beings, my family. But before I begin talking about my family, I want to describe to you the place that we spend most of the time together which also means something important to me and my family. This place is called the family room. This room is small but cozy. It is painted in white and has three windows decorated with beautiful curtains. By the windows you can appreciate a nice view of some beautiful trees and a nice pool. On the walls there are some family photos like the ones that show where my brothers and I were born, my graduation photo, some family members photos like my grandparents, and some paintings made by one of my brothers. Also inside this room there is a nice home theater that includes a nice stereo and TV, and a new compact computer. But this is not all, this room has some very comfortable furniture and I can say that they are comfortable because I use them to watch TV, a movie, or just sit and rest. Also the furniture is used by my brothers to sit and play nitendo, to study, or play with the computer. But from all this furniture there is one chair that is the most cozy chair that I have ever sat upon and that is my father's chair. So this is our room, which is very important to us and has a lot of special things, but the most special part of this room is when it brings my family together.