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Aug 2, 2023 · Rock music evolved into rock and roll in the 1950s as a new style of music. It combined rhythm and blues with other influences. It diversified into many subgenres and styles in the 1960s and 1970s.
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- April 10, 1992
Jan 19, 2024 · Rock can trace its roots to the different musical influences that were emerging and growing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Musical styles such as blues, gospel, rockabilly, and boogie-woogie were gaining audiences in pockets around the country.
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- Overview
- The difficulty of definition
Rock music is a form of popular music that emerged in the 1950s and can be defined as “a form of music with a strong beat”—it is difficult to be much more precise. It is also called rock and roll. Rock originated in the United States in the 1950s and then spread to other English-speaking countries and across Europe in the ’60s; by the ’90s its impact was evident globally.
How did rock music influence the emergence of folk rock?
Folk rock is a hybrid musical style of rock music and folk music that emerged in the United States and Britain in the mid-1960s. Folk musicians, led by Bob Dylan, went electric, amplified their instruments, and sharpened their beat. Dylan, particularly, showed that pop songs could be both a means of social commentary (protest) and a form of self-expression (poetry).
Who are some famous early rock music artists?
Some famous early rock music artists include Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix.
rock, form of popular music that emerged in the 1950s.
Dictionary definitions of rock are problematic, not least because the term has different resonance in its British and American usages (the latter is broader in compass). There is basic agreement that rock “is a form of music with a strong beat,” but it is difficult to be much more explicit. The Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, based on a vast database of British usage, suggests that “rock is a kind of music with simple tunes and a very strong beat that is played and sung, usually loudly, by a small group of people with electric guitars and drums,” but there are so many exceptions to this description that it is practically useless.
Legislators seeking to define rock for regulatory purposes have not done much better. The Canadian government defined “rock and rock-oriented music” as “characterized by a strong beat, the use of blues forms and the presence of rock instruments such as electric guitar, electric bass, electric organ or electric piano.” This assumes that rock can be marked off from other sorts of music formally, according to its sounds. In practice, though, the distinctions that matter for rock fans and musicians have been ideological. Rock was developed as a term to distinguish certain music-making and listening practices from those associated with pop; what was at issue was less a sound than an attitude. In 1990 British legislators defined pop music as “all kinds of music characterized by a strong rhythmic element and a reliance on electronic amplification for their performance.” This led to strong objections from the music industry that such a definition failed to appreciate the clear sociological difference between pop (“instant singles-based music aimed at teenagers”) and rock (“album-based music for adults”). In pursuit of definitional clarity, the lawmakers misunderstood what made rock music matter.
Britannica Quiz
Pop Culture Quiz
- The 1950s. The 1950s were the years when rock ‘n’ roll started spreading throughout the United States, especially among teens. Pioneering artists like DJ Alan Freed are credited for the widespread popularity of rock music in the middle of the 20th century.
- The 1960s: The Beginning of the British Invasion. 1962 marked the beginning of the British Invasion, which was the British take on American rock music. The period was characterized by the domination of British bands over the rock music scene.
- The 1970s – The Emergence of Hard Rock. The 1970s was the period when various subgenres of rock music were born. These include hard rock, soft rock, heavy metal, and glam rock.
- The 1980s – The New Wave and Heavy Metal. In the early 1980s, the heavy commercialization of rock ‘n’ roll witnessed in the previous years was starting to fade off, leading to the rise of even more subgenres than punk.
Rock music is traditionally built on a foundation of simple syncopated rhythms in a 4 4 meter, with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies often originate from older musical modes such as the Dorian and Mixolydian, as well as major and minor modes.
Rock and roll, a popular music craze of the mid-1950s, turned a loud, fast, and sexy set of sounds rooted in urban, black, working class, and southern America into the pop preference as well of suburban, white, young, and northern America.
The origins of rock & roll, as told through pioneers in gospel, blues, R&B, country, folk and bluegrass. The Early Influence inductees contributed more to rock than musical influence—they were also the first to make myths of themselves, to become larger than life. Robert Johnson is at the heart of more than one rock and roll legend.
