The 1950s saw the rise of Chuck Berry, considered the King of Rock 'n' Roll. His musical take on rhythm and blues (R&B) was a large influence on many successful artists that rose the following decade; most notably The Rolling Stones. I examine Chuck Berry’s early career and how The Rolling Stones modeled themselves from his style, and then expanded it. During the 1950s, many R&B artists, such as Little Richard, used the piano as their main instrument. His music had that rock 'n' roll exuberance, soulful voice, and in your face shouting that is a common ingredient in rock today (“History of Rock & Roll-The 1950s”). A prime example is the energetic piano riffs from “Tutti Frutti”. However, when Chuck Berry translated the “boogie woogie” riffs from the piano to the electric guitar, it set the standard to the rock 'n' roll sound (“History of Rock & Roll-The 1950s”). The electric guitar riffs sounded more upbeat and moving than anything that could ever be done on a piano. It was his guitar playing that left a large influence in the coming decades. Robert Christgau states, “Berry's limited but brilliant vocabulary of guitar riffs quickly came to epitomize rock 'n' roll...every great white guitar group of the early Sixties imitated Berry's style”. The riffs from his famous …show more content…
The country incorporation allowed Chuck Berry to reach larger white audiences. His records had biracial appeal and became successful in the business, “A good blues single usually sold around 10,000 copies and a big rhythm and blues hit might go into the hundreds of thousands, but "Maybellene" probably moved a million” (Christgau). Still, like other race records of the time, white artists would perform covers, made possible by Tin Pan Alley, and Berry’s records were no exception. Overall, Chuck Berry’s records still managed to become successful in a business that oppressed black
What emerged after the explosion of rock and roll in the 1950s abandoned the roll and has now come to be known just as classic rock. This rock that was created following the decade of The King became a completely unique and different sound that changed the musical landscape and what was once a single, unified genre gave way for multitudes of variation in its sounds. These new sounds, that came mostly from abroad, had been notably influenced by the American rock of the 1950s, such as Elvis, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry. These pioneers of rock came to be the essential reason for the arrival of the British Invasion and other sounds that defined the decade of the 1960s.
Jimmy Buffett is a singer/songwriter who is considered to be a popular artist for his laid back, beach bum lifestyle that makes many of his followers wishing to live the life in paradise like many of his songs. He has many unique things he has done that you don’t hear often from other artist he is very business-savvy that owns many casinos and restaurants in Margaritaville(Key West, FL). He has a loyal following that still is going to this day and keeps him from going down in popularity which has led him to being the one of the popular artist on the live circuit. On top of all this he also holds quite a few nominations and awards and also holds a very unusual record. The record he holds would be none other than be the largest margarita, which
This paper will be an updated version of my last paper which talked about a portion of Barry Gordy's background, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Temptations and their start at Motown. How Motown was the first American music label owned by an African-American, the first music label to successfully market black artists to white mainstream audiences. How Motown was responsible for discovering, mentoring, and perfecting a lot of American popular music's most influential and successful artists and the best albums and artists and what new artists have entered Motown.
“We stuck to who we were at Motown, and the world came around.” Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown records relayed at the Occidental College’s 125th commencement ceremony in 2007. Motown was “the new voice of America” due to its great impact and influence on the music industry and society. Numerous events were happening in America at that time and Berry Gordy identified several of these factors to target the music of Motown and its artists to young audiences in specific ways. There were various social, musical and cultural factors that were critically important and of these factors, Gordy identified the segregation and the civil rights movement, the music and cultural aspects of the black community at that time.
The book depicts the story of culture conflicts of the music, which arose from the introduction of the foot-tapping, hip-swaying music now known as rock n' roll (Graarrq). The outcome of rock n’ roll coincided with tremendous uproar in the movement to grant civil rights to African American. Trapped in the racial politics of the 1950s, rock n’ roll was credited with and criticized for promoting integration and economic opportunity for blacks while bringing to “mainstream” cloture black styles and values (Altschuler). Black values were looked over and kind of not important to whites. Whites were very much so well treated then blacks were, however no one spoke out until the outcome of rock n’ roll.
Charlie Pride did it in 1971. Darius Rucker did it in 2009. That’s it. Two black men, spanning thirty-eight years, are the only black artists to win a Country Music Association Award. With country music rooted in bluegrass and rhythm and blues, why aren’t there more black country music stars? When considering the roots of country music, and how closely related country is to blues, bluegrass and honky tonk music, an examination of what happened to all the black musicians seems warranted, no? This paper examines the dearth of black artists in country music and the careers of one of the few black artists who has had commercial success in this genre of music.
	For as long as anyone can remember, B.B. King has reigned as the "King Of Blues." With his Gibson guitar named Lucille, along with his unique vocals, king has put out some of the most down-home sounds in African-American music.
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 development of Rock ‘n’ Roll in the late 1940s and early 1950s by young African Americans coincided with a sensitive time in America. Civil rights movements were under way around the country as African Americans struggles to gain equal treatment and the same access to resources as their white neighbors. As courts began to vote in favor of integration, tensions between whites and blacks escalated. As the catchy rhythm of Rock ‘n’ Roll began to cross racial boundaries many whites began to feel threatened by the music, claiming its role in promoting integration. This became especially problematic as their youth became especially drawn to ...
DeWitt, Howard A. Chuck Berry: Rock ‘N’ Roll Music. 2nd Ed. Ann Arbor: Pierian Press, 1985.
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.
Powell, A. (2007). The Music of African Americans and its Impact on the American Culture in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Miller African Centered Academy, 1. Retrieved from http://www.chatham.edu/pti/curriculum/units/2007/Powell.pdf