Rock and roll is the popular music that originated in the Southern United States during the late 1940s. It is combination of African American blues, country, jazz , folk, electric blues, Chicago blues, boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues and gospel music as African American, Europeans and Americans living in the close proximity of Southern United States mixed their traditional music and gave birth to rock and roll. However this genre of music didn’t become famous until 1950. It is played with a wide variety of instruments like Electric guitar, drums, later bass guitar or string based guitar, optional piano and saxophone. Elvis Presley was a strong believer of the co-ordination of music with the body language and rock and roll is a type of music at which your body can’t stop moving at beats and rhythm of melody.
NOTABLE ROCK AND ROLL SINGERS AND BANDS:
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Elvis Presley
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Carl Perkins
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Jerry L. Lewis
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Fats Domino
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Little Richard
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Buddy Holly
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The Big Bopper
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Ritchie Valens
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Chuck Berry
Rock and roll has a very rich history, it was evolved in 1950s, and with time many forms and variations originated from the original music, but each variant become a separate genre, a few examples are:
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Rockabilly that was played in 1950s by white singers, most famous songs of that time are, “That’s All Right (mama)”, “Rock Around The Clock”, “Heart Break Hotel”.
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Doo wop, which was a blend of harmony of multiple vocals with a background backing lyrics and very light use of musical instruments. Major hits “The Great Pretender”, “The Coasters” and “Yakety Yak” and most famous and successful bands of that era were The Crows, The Penguins, The El Dorados and The Turbans.
However in 1960s, the craze of rock and roll declined after the collapse of major singers and bands of that time in United States of America, but British singers help a great deal in preservation and revival of this genre.
On April 20th, 1983 the foundation of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was laid in Cleveland, Ohio after considering many cities of Unites States. Hall of Fame is a museum and complex devoted for preserving the memories and histories of greatest singers, bands, engineers and instruments players of rock and roll. Current President is Terry Stewart. The Hall of Fame has collected 500 songs that gave a new dimension to the rock and roll music genre from 1920 to 1990. The credit of most represented on the list goes to The Beatles, who has seven songs, followed by Elvis Presley and The Rolling Stones with six songs each, and The Bob Dylan, beach boys, Led Zeppelin and Chuck Berry each have five.
Today rock and roll is a special class of music and still played in discos and parties. It has also introduced many dance styles like twist, funk, disco, house, techno, and hip hop and still on the roll of developing more.
