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Historiography rock n roll changing america
Historiography rock n roll changing america
History of rock and roll and its impact on american culture
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When Rock arrived on the music charts in the 1950's, a merging of African-American and White music, it made a huge impact on society. As a general rule I am not heavily into music, but I was drawn to Rock for some inexplicable reason. It is just the music I like. This genre will be difficult to write about because the origin of Rock is unclear; there are traces of Rock's style back into the 19th Century. It is also a very broad subject and I will have to compress a lot of information into as few pages as possible. Be that as it may, Rock is, in my opinion the best music genre on the charts.
There is so much information on Rock that I will have to have questions I want to find the answers to about the music. My first question will be, "What instruments are commonly used in a rock band?" This will not be hard to answer as it is a very easy question that has a definite answer. The next question will be, "Who were the first artists to produce Rock music?" This is also an easy question were I will discuss the first Rockers. Continuing on, my next question will ask, "How was the term Rock and Roll' created, and by who?" This may turn out to be a hard question to answer because I am sure there a multiple answers. "Has Rock become more or less popular since its inception?" will be my next question. For this question I will have to look for a survey or poll of some type and present its data. My final question will be, "How has the Music been changed over the years and who changed it?" This will also be an easy question, albeit a long answer. For that question I will be referring to Alternative and Grunge Rock, my preferred form of the music.
For my information I will mainly be using the internet. I also may get some of my answers from a dictionary or encyclopedia. My main sources on the internet will be the online encyclopedia at wikipedia.org, and anything I can find at google.com. I will also be asking my father who is more into classic rock, but a fan none the less. He has been listening to rock since the 60's when he was about my age.
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.
All Shook Up: How Rock n’ Roll Changed America, written by historian Glenn Altschuler, is a fascinating analysis of the impact that rock n' roll music has made upon American culture. Glenn C. Altschuler received his Ph.D. in American History from Cornell in 1976 and has been an administrator and teacher at Cornell since 1981. He is currently the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies and the Dean of the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. He is the author of several books on American history and popular culture, more popular for All Shook Up. (Wikipedia).
Rock n - roll In the 1950s rock-n-roll established its own mark in history. It spread throughout the decade in a thrilling, substantial, and even livid manner 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 decay, and communism, but in ways that are partially true.
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.
I. First I will start by discussing the various genres that created rock music in the 50’s and 60’s.
Beginning with the late 1960’s counterculture in San Francisco, music and drugs will forever be inter-linked. Hippie bands such as the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, and Phish are associated with marijuana, mushrooms, and LSD. Modern electronic “rave” , or club music is associated with MDMA or Ecstasy. When one thinks of rock and roll, sex and drugs immediately come to mind. While the use of drugs is not essential for the creation or performance of all new music, it was certainly in important factor for the counterculture music of the late 1960’s. While some of the most important and influential music was made with the help of psychoactive drugs, it was often to the detriment of the artist. Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and countless other tremendously talented artists had their lives cut short due to drug use. Drugs were most often good for the music, but deadly for the music makers.
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”.
Rock ‘n’ roll and 20th Century Culture According to Philip Ennis, rock ‘n’ roll emerged from the convergence of social transformations which resulted from World War II (Ryan 927). Despite its pop culture origins, rock music is arguably one of the strongest cultural factors to develop in this century. Artists such as Lennon, McCartney and Dylan defined the emotions of a generation and, in the last decade, it as even been acknowledged by members of the establishment which it hoped to change as a major influence in the country. In order to understand how rock went from a sign of rebellion to a cultural icon, it is necessary to understand where it came from.
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 ...
Rock music is a term that should be familiar. Originally dubbed “rock and roll” in the 1940’s and 1950’s, rock and roll is almost always fronted by an electrical guitar and heavily influenced by blues, R&B, and even country music. By the late 1960’s and early 1970’s rock and roll began to be shortened to just “rock music”, and the entire style starting branching out into other sub-genres such as punk rock, heavy metal, garage rock, hard rock, among others. The sub-genre in question however is Alternative Rock, which is generally defined as despite following the fundamentals of rock music, it strays away from what is considered “mainstream” at the time by using concepts such as extensive underground music association, muddied or distorted guitars, more prominent use of power chords, and even a sort of rebellious or defiant attitude in lyrics and sound.
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...
In conclusion this report has helped us understand the significance of Music in America. Also, the impact it has on music we listen too. Music is very much like a big chain reaction. Rock ‘N’ Roll, much like music today, stood out and was in a way rebellious. Parents now hate Rap and we love it. People in the 70’s loved Rock ‘N’ Roll and parents hated it. This shows that maybe no matter how much older people deny it, the time gap and generation gap is not too far apart. Without Rock ‘N’ Roll the World would without a doubt be changed. Any guess to that of which way would be a good one.
What has the power to make you get up and move, to both inspire you and enrage you? Rock, rap, “pop”, country, and blues are all forms of this phenomenon we call music. Music has been a part of each and everyone of our lives. How often have you heard a song and it brought you back to a place in your past, or reminded you of someone? Chances are you were listening to music that fell into one of the two most popular categories, rock or pop. Both rock and pop can be considered movements in society, however the motivation for these movements were on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Also another thing that they have in common is that once the artists are famous the may both have a tendency to fall off the deep end. This may entail spending thousands of dollars on drugs and alcohol. Eventually many of both pop and rock stars end up in rehab. Even though the lines between rock and pop can be blurred at times there are many distinct differences.
It was also kind of difficult for me to explain rock & roll specifically, because it contains many of the elements of the different genres from some of the earlier music we studied. I just know that rock & roll wouldn’t have become what it is today, if it were not for our musicians in the past which has allowed us to learn and grow from them.