The Rock and Roll Era

The Rock and Roll Era

History of the Rock & Roll Music

The Rock Hall (2010) in an online piece terms music to be a significant part of the American history. It terms music to have shaped, formed and modified since America has come into being, while also directly reflecting the changes that has taken place in its society, and representing the culture and important events of its history. It associates music to represent different views and emotional insights that any other form of historical archive lacks to give, as music has a pulse and is more alive than mere text.

While, Scaruffi (2009) describes the history of the rock and roll music as not being a single one time event in history, but rather a multi-volume series of events that led to its birth. Similarly, The Rock Hall (2010) states the early influence of Folk and Blues Music as roots for the advent of the rock and roll music genre in the twentieth century. The other influences on the formation of the rock and roll are that of the jazz, pop, country music, rhythm and gospel. The influence of these genres gave rock and roll its political and social voice in the later years. Speaking about some of these genres, the Blues is one of the oldest musical forms in America, with its audiography tracing to the civil war. The blues came into being as a creative and vocal release of the many African Americans who faced hardships in the earlier twentieth century. These songs represented their anger and frustration against the social prejudice they received from the society. Some of the known music from this era includes scores by Bessie Smith's 'T.B Blues' that depicted the havoc of tuberculosis, and 'Bourgeois Blues' by Lead Belly (The Rock Hall, 2010).

Conversely, the popular folk songs in the decades of 1930's-40's by Woody Gutherie, depicted life's hardships and protest oriented music by him such as 'Do Re Mi' and more, led to his arrest and other legal charges because of his blunt and propagating lyrics. His songs today are classics, but it paved way for strongly influencing the social aspect of the rock and roll era.

The Rock and Roll Era

The beginning and the founding members of this genre of music is debated largely, but according to many music and cultural experts who believe that it was the year 1954, when Rock and Roll emerged in the mainstream. The lure of this music genre lied in its appeal to the youth, for whom this music represented message and beat and rhythm of modern tunes. In addition, the technology employed in producing musical records too faced a remarkable change as the record dick size reduced to 35 and 45 revolution per minute-rpm, from the 78 rpm. The new record size and the improved sound quality led to more and more purchasing and listening to these records per their convenience, which gave resulted in a new boost for the music industry whose growth ...