Timeline

1936-Robert Johnson Records Pioneering Blues Tracks

1936-Billboard Magazine Publishes Hit Parade

1942-The American Federation of Musicians Strike

1943-The Great Migration

1944-Sister Rosetta Tharpe Records “Strange Things Happening Every Day” 

1945-World War II Ends

1947-Les Paul Innovations

1949-RCA Victor Introduces the 45 RPM Vinyl Record

1952-Alan Freed’s Moondog Coronation Ball

1952-American Bandstand First Airs as Bandstand

1954-Army-McCarthy Hearings

1954-Brown v. Board of Education Decision

1954-First Commercially Available Transistor Radio Introduced 

1954-Elvis Releases First Single

1955-Blackboard Jungle (“Rock Around the Clock” Is a No. 1 Hit)

1957-Buddy Holly Plays the Apollo Theater in Harlem 

1959-Berry Gordy Starts Motown Records

1964-The Beatles Appear on The Ed Sullivan Show

1967-Aretha Franklin Releases “Respect”

1967-FM Radio Rises

1968-James Brown Releases “Say It Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud” 

1971-Shaft Premieres

1971-Carole King Releases Tapestry

1976-The Sex Pistols Release “Anarchy in the U.K.”

1979-Sony Introduces the Walkman

1981-MTV Launches 

1982-Michael Jackson Releases Thriller 

1983-The Compact Disc Is Introduced in the U.S.

1985-“Sun City” Released

1987-Nike Ad Uses the Beatles’ “Revolution”

1987-Guns N’ Roses Release Appetite for Destruction

1988-N.W.A. Releases Straight Outta Compton

1990-Hip Hop’s Ascendancy Hits New Peaks

1991-Country Music Hits the Mainstream

1991-The Year that Punk Broke

1991-Lollapalooza Begins

1991-Emergence of Riot Grrrls

1993-Eddie Vedder on Time Magazine’s Cover

1994-Kurt Cobain’s Suicide

1999-Sub Pop Begins Distributing MP3s

2000-White Stripes Release De Stijl

2001-First iPod

2007-Radiohead Self-Releases In Rainbows

2008-Lady Gaga Ascends to Fame

2013-Obama Celebrates Memphis Soul Music at White House 

 

Rock n' Roll Roots: 

1) There was no place in the South where a black man could make a record until a white man by the name of Sam Phillips opened up his own recording service. He eventually started his own record company "Sun" and continued recording black Blues singers. He played a very important role in the development of Rock n' Roll and recorded giants like Presley, Howlin' Wolf, Cash, Perkins, and Lewis. 

2)New talents came to fill the gap of performers who were under fire during the early 1960s such as stars like Jackson, The Beatles, and The Shangri-Las. 

3)By the end of the 1950s, Rock n' Roll's demographic was largely built up of teenagers, and the tide was turning against Rock n' Roll. The music was a scape goat to the violence and crimes emerging from teens in Americas, and the U.S government went as far as reprimanding djs who played Rock n' Roll tracks on the radio for money, even though it was perfectly legal.

 

Airplay; The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio: 

1)In the glory years of radio, there were sensations like Igram, Brucie, Kasem, Blavet, and Jack that dominated the airwaves, but Rock n' Roll personalities were targeted by congress' payola hearing which booted off famous sensations like Alan Freed.

2)The 1950s marked the decade where a handful of pioneers introduced R&B to White America. Freed branded Rhythm and Blues as "Rock n Roll" and changed the course of American music and culture. 

3)With the introduction of television, the radio had a rapid decline in popularity for a short time, and it meant that technology companies like Sony turned towards the production and broadcasting of television, which meant that radio stations had more local control and could be more experimental with repertoire. This caused the surge of new genres to be heard on the radio like R&B which was extremely influential for the creation of Rock n' Roll.

 

British Invasion:

1)By the end of the 60s, British culture had completely changed. Homosexuality had became legal, censorship ended in the theatre, new movements for the arts, music and theatre were introduced; the Beatles were a big foundation for the cultural and social revolution that took place in the 60s. 

2)Photography started to become a professional practice for the fashion industry. The media was expanding with fashion, and suddenly photographs became very important to peoples lives. One of the commentators mentioned that a lot of the professional and successful photographers didn't necessarily come from rich families or have an impressive education, they were just normal people. 

3)The Beatles had a huge effect on the English economy. They sold a plethora of merchandising, records, etc, which all was sold to America and attracted many tourists to England. 

 

Motown:

1)Motown was one of the leaders in pop music in a time that black artists had no musical or cultural freedom in the U.S.A. With only 800 dollars, Berry Gordy was able to found the Motown record label. 

2)Some of the most famous artists that have recorded at Motown records include Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, etc. 

3)Many famous civil rights leaders visited Motown like Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, etc. 

 

Greenwich Village:

1)Singing was banned by the city on Washington Square Park on Sundays. People were outraged and a protest of 300 people marched into the park with Izzy Young leading the rally. When the protesters began singing, the cops started becoming forceful and began arresting handfuls of protesters singing. 

2)Many of the commentators in the documentary said that they were initially never impressed by Bob Dylan until they heard his later albums; and the reason why people found him as such an impressive figure in music was the message that his tunes conveyed, not his talent in signing our guitar playing.  

3)There was a great sense of community in Greenwich Village which allowed for freedom of expression in political views, sexuality, civil rights, and music. A lot of the prejudices and injustices that were occurring in the 20th century were being spoken out against in music. 

 

Questions:

1)Many Rock n' Roll superstars like Presley or Berry created Rock n' Roll through their influences of blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, and boogie-woogie. Thats how other genres were created to, for instance Soul was created through the influences of Gospel, and R&B traditions. 

2)In the 1950s all the way through the 70s, Rock n' Roll was played by both black and white performers. Many sub genres of Rock n' Roll like Motown had hits that conveyed or expressed the social prejudices in America. Radio and television broadcasted performers regardless of race even in times of segregation. 

3)Congress would issue payola hearings on djs which would get them in legal trouble and would stop Rock n' Roll from being broadcasted on radio stations. Even though paying djs for playing tracks on the radio was perfectly legal at the time, the government would try to boot djs off the radio like this. 

4)It is believed that Alan Freed used the phrase, "The Rock and Roll session" to describe fusion of Country Blues and R&B for his shows. 

6)The community of Greenwich Village was very diverse and accepting of different cultural views that people had; whether it be sexual views, political views, etc, many songwriters wrote about issues in society and it defined a whole new generation of music. 

A. The Birth of Rock

1)Love songs have been around for thousands of years, and can be traced back all the way to ancient Greece and Egypt. And in contemporary music, love is one of the most predominant themes embedded into music. Every genre of American music, from pop, jazz, funk, blues, gospel, rock n' roll and soul have produced songs about love. Pop songs inherit much from their historical predecessors, and they demonstrate how cultural ideas about love change over time. New musical styles allow for old subjects to be approached in different ways, thats one of the reasons why love is such a huge theme in pop tunes. 

2)The Blues was music played by poor African Americans to reflect their common experiences of racial segregation and life in the Jim Crow South. It was one of the few forms of music that African Americans could articulate their emotions, experiences, and attitudes. They composed songs about the challenges of their lives as sharecroppers, the Mississippi River floods, and the harsh mastery of white landowners. 

3)Over six million African Americans migrated from the South to northern cities like Detroit, Chicago, and New York City in search for better jobs and lives through 1910 to 1970. There were plenty of reasons and incentives to leave the South; it was very racially segregated, low paying jobs, while the North offered more of a safe-haven against segregation and racism. While the North was growing larger in population, jobs emerged in service industries, factories, and domestic work for African Americans that migrated to the North. Due to slavery, many African Americans' lives were displaced and the blues offered a means to connect as they struggled in the northern cities. This caused the Blues to be popularized in urban regions and give it a central place in American culture. 

4)The electric guitar played a major role in the transformation of Blues music starting in the beginning of the 1940s. Starting in the 1930s and 1940s, country blues began traveling at a rapid pace from the southern cities to the northern cities. Blues pioneers like Muddy Waters and T-Bone Walker began using the electric guitar which redefined the sound of the blues. The electric guitar in Blues helped popular music inch even closer to the Rock n' Roll era. 

5)The easiest way to explain how the origins of rhythm and blues occurred was when the major Swing bands when out of business due to the wartime economy and the expensive costs of keeping bands on the road, smaller groups developed. These smaller combos retained emphasis on the horn sections, and with less musicians, their sound left more room for other instruments. Electric guitar technology was becoming more popular and advanced, which meant that when guitar players got more space, they met it with more volume. With that, the R&B sound progressed towards Rock n' Roll. The key difference among early Rock n' Roll and R&B was that Rhythm and Blues featured a more "raw" sound to it. 

6)In the 1930s and early 1940s, popular music was dominated by Big Bands that played Swing; bandleaders consisted of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, and Benny Goodman. However, the end of WW2 caused the era of the Big Band to decline at an abrupt pace. The size of the U.S military expanded from 2 million in the early 1940s to over 12 million in the 1945s. This diminished the number of qualified instruments available to perform in these large scale orchestras. On top of that, many musical businesses temporarily converted to producing ammunition and war supplies for WW2 which halted the production of musical instruments like the saxophone. During the downfall of Swing, music genres like R&B sold very well because costs for touring were astronomically less expensive than Swing orchestras (R&B combos were very small). "This combination of shrinking bands, the rise of solo performers, and the increasing popularity of more marginal styles of music provided the seeds from which Rock and Roll would grow in the 1950s..." (techrock.org).

7)The American Dream can best be described as "...the idea that every person who calls him or herself an American has the opportunity to achieve a better life, to find a voice within the structure of the “nation,” to rise—is a concept that deeply permeates our American identity". Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash were two major musicians that helped showcase the American Dream. Presley grew up in the midst of the Great Depression, with his family constantly moving and living in a series of rented houses and apartments. He showcased the possibility of achieving the American Dream, he went from being a truck driver to becoming a Rock n' Roll superstar. 

8)Two months after the ruling of the Brown v. Board of Education, Presley released his first single on records, titled "Thats All Right", a 1940s R&B tune that was originally recorded by African American Bluesman Arthur Crudup. The single showed that black and white culture could be integrated on a disk that would have an enormous influence on millions of Americans. 

9)Doo Wop emerged as a musical phenomenon in the 1950s, where singers would replace instruments and even mimic them sometimes. Semi-professional and amateur groups were taken off of the streets in neighborhoods like Harlem and put into recording studios. 

10)Chuck Berry began his music carry in 1955 when he released an album titled "Maybellene"; it immediately shot to no.1 on Billboard's R&B charts and no.5 on the Pop charts. By the end of the decade, Berry had released dozens of incredibly influential pieces like School Days, Roll Over, Beethoven, Sweet Little Sixteen, Johnny B. Good, etc that would be covered by everyone from the Beach Boys to the Grateful Dead. Berry was a guitar player and his instrument was a central competent to his recordings. He eliminated horns and piano as the focal point for Rock music, and could be considered as the founding father for guitar based Rock n' Roll.

11)The popularity of the guitar soared in the early 1950s through the 1960s. While pianos were selling around 200,000 a year, the sales of the electric guitar increased up to 400 percent. In 1958, 300,000 guitars were being sold, but by 1965, over 1.5 million guitars were being produced to the public. The sales had a lot to do with the appearance of the electric guitar in popular music, it could be heard every where in recordings, a trend that had started in the 1950s. By 1969, musicians like Hendrix and Clapton had made the electric guitar an iconic figure for Rock n' Roll. 

12)Bo Diddly has been celebrated for his percussive sounding and rhythmic driven sound of his ensemble, with his guitar playing at the center of attention in the band. Diddly's approach to sound involved everyone in his combo playing with a percussive sensibility. Rhythm was emphasized over melody, accompanied by a vocal style, very similar to Rap. His best know guitar rhythms influenced many artists after him; the "Bo Diddly Beat" can be heard on recordings of The Rolling Stones, B.o.B, Bruce Springsteen, and many others. 

13)Gospel music was formed from the experiences of slavery, west African culture, and the hardships of American life in the South. As the Great Migration transported millions of African Americans to northern industrial cities and the influence of the African American church spread, the overall influence of the general music spread and increased. The rich lyrics and melodies of Gospel greatly influenced American Popular music, exerting an influence to everyone including the Girl Groups in the 1950s, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons in the early 1960s, and many of Elvis Presley's works. 

14)From the early 1920s to the 1950s, the radio played as a major role and influence in American life. Entire families would gather around it to listen to current news events, live music, conversations, drama or hit series. Some predicted that the radio would disappear from American life in the 50s, but instead the radio reinvented itself. Recorded popular music dominated radio in the early 1950s, and as major radio networks like CBS switched their attention to television, local areas received control, allowing for more experimentation with radio programs. Many radio stations began playing a larger range of music like Rhythm and Blues, and eventually Rock n' Roll was on the radio. 

15)Many Americans were eager to hear music performed by African Americans in the 1940s, especially the sound of Rhythm and Blues, or Jazz, In 1949, WDIA hired a group of African American disc jockeys to gear Rhythm and Blues and other styles entirely towards African American audiences on public radio. However, two white djs, Hunter Hitchcock and Dewey Phillips championed music like the Rhythm and Blues, and featured it on radio that brought white and black audiences together. 

16)Due to the postwar economic boom in the late 1940s, middle-class teenagers had more leisure time and spending power than the previous generation of teenagers. If they held jobs, they were able to keep their earnings without having to contribute finances towards the well being of their families. Businesses soon realized the success of gearing advertisements towards teenagers-advertising everything from soda pop to cars. Companies in every category of the entertainment world were on top of this marketing strategy, recognizing the affinity of this new demographic for Rock n' Roll in the 1950s, the entertainment industry soon shaped a mass-market phenomenon for this new demographic of American listeners. 

17)As teenagers had more freedom in the sense of economic means, an increasing amount of fear and anxiety towards them became real and imagined. The amount of crimes committed by teenagers was rising significantly throughout the nation. Also, teenagers seemed to be challenging the social fabric of America. Many questioned and blamed movies, comic books, and even music like Rock n' Roll for these misbehaviors committed by adolescents. 

18)While people like Alan Freed battled accusations of Rock n' Roll encouraging delinquent behavior, many Rock n' Roll icons like Presley gave up music temporarily for other pursuance in life. "The absence of these original crossover artists created a vacuum that made room for a new class of performers—the so-called “teen idols”—who were positioned to broaden the Rock and Roll audience while also alleviating anxieties about the music’s potential to corrupt youth."

19)One of the first movies that introduced Rock n' Roll to mainstream audiences was the movie, Blackboard Jungle, the movie played "Rock Around the Clock" at such a high volume in the beginning of the movie, teenagers would stand up and dance in the isles. This movie sent that piece at the top of the Billboard charts shortly after the movie premiered. After that, many other movies featured Rock n' Roll songs to the audiences of movie goers. 

 

People

Curtis Mayfield-As a songwriter, singer, producer, intrusmentalist, and record label owner, Mayfield was one of the major influential proponents in psychedelic funk, rhythm and blues, and soul music of the 1960s and the 1970s. Many of his pieces reflected a theme of the need for the civil rights movements; some of his pieces like "People, Get Ready" were embraced as an anthem for the movement. Some of his most commercially successful songs include Superfly, Back to the World, Pusher-man, and Freddie's Dead. 

Johnny Cash-Cash's influence ranges from the 50s Rockabilly explosion, the 60s multimedia stardom, and the late life comeback in the 90s. Despite his refusal to play the traditional rules of Country music, he was still remained a beloved star in the Country field for decades. His most successful hits include: Hurt, Ring of Fire, Riders in the Sky, and Rhythm. 

Micheal Jackson-In spite of the strange circumstances circulating his death, Jackson was a musical force noted for his gifts as a performer, writer, singer, and arranger. At the pinnacle of his career in the 1980s, Jackson broke down many of the rigid barriers that stood between R&B, Pop, and Rock genres in  the music industry at the time. At the age of 11, he was the lead singer of the Jackson Five, setting a record with the four singles they produced: I Want You Back, ABC, I'll Be There, The Love You Save-these songs all reached the no.1 spot on the Billboard pop charts.

Grateful Dead-The roots of the Grateful Dead go back to the early 1960s when the band consisted of Jerry Garcia, Ron McKernan, and Bob Weir formed an acoustic band playing mostly country, blues, and folk tunes. Later, the band went electric and added bassist Phil Lesh and drummer Bill Kruetzmann, and transforming the band into the Grateful Dead. The majority of critics believe that the Grateful Dead reached their peak during their output of Country and Folk-flavored albums in 70s, including Workingman's Dead, and American Beauty. 

Marvin Gaye-Out of all the performers that passed through Motown Records' Detroit hit factory in the 1960s, Gaye can be seen as one of the most iconoclastic musicians. Not only did he possess a smooth voice and talent for composing snappy pop tunes that fueled his career, he also revealed a deeply personal songwriting talent that helped rewrite the rules of Soul music and establish himself as one of the most influential creative forces for R&B. Throughout the 70s, Gaye had success album after album, starting with Lets Get It On, I Want You, and Here, My Dear. 

Tom Petty-Tom Petty has proven to be one of the most enduring American hitmakers, earning wide respect for maintaining a consistent level of creative integrity throughout a four decade career as a musician. He racked up quite a number of Top 10 singles while still remaining faithful to his backup band, the Heartbreakers. Some of his most famous works include Damn the Torpedoes, Hard Promises, and Full Moon Fever. 

Village People-During the Disco Era, one of the most influential and famous groups were the Village People. In their heyday, the group was able to win acceptance with mainstream audiences who embraced their catchy hits such as YMCA, Macho Man, and In The Navy. The group was created by songwriter Jacques Morali and business partner Henri Belolo, who aimed to appeal the disco's gay audience through tongue-in-cheek use of popular gay fantasy archetypes. 

Stevie Wonder-Blind since infancy, Wonder was a multi-instrumentalist prodigy who established himself as a virtuoso and visionary for the music industry. He was the first Motown artist to rebel against the company's restrictive hit-factory approach and win creative control of his own musical expression and output. His greatest hits include, I Wish, Isn't She Lovely, Faith, and Duke. 

Son House-Son House ranks as one of the leading influential Country Blues singers of the prewar era. He has two distinct periods-one in the South during the 1930s (Country Blues), and one in the North during the 1960's (Folk revival). During the 1930s he produced Blues hit after hit, including: Death Letter Blues, Signing the Blues, Downhearted Blues, Ponyline, Walkin the Blues, etc. 

Ritchie Valens-Even though his musical career was very short lived (he died at the age of 17), Valens is best known for his single, La Bamba, which endured as a classic during the Rock n' Roll era even though it was initially overlooked upon release. 

 

Videos and Articles

Billy Joel-As an adolescent, Joel never received high marks or good grades in high school, he spent a majority of his time playing in bands or getting into trouble. He says when he reached his senior year in high school his grades were so low that they he couldn't graduate, and actually never finished high school. He spent around a year playing gigs in bars until ended up in recording studios for Columbia and Platinum records. His most famous hits include New York State of Mind, Piano Man, Uptown Girl, Piano Man, and Just the Way You Are. 

 

Aretha Franklin and Gospel Influences-One of the greatest impacts on popular music today could be soul and gospel music interpreted and sung by Aretha Franklin. Franklin's producer says that there is a much stronger influence of gospel in contemporary soul music than there is in blues, for every 12 bar blues pattern, 10 different gospel patterns can be noticed. 

 

Carole King-The Merv Griffin Show features Carole King as a guest performer and interviewee for one of the episodes. She begins the show by sining one of her own hits from her album Tapestry, "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman", and then she is later interviewed by Griffin and discusses how she balanced her musical career and her personal life.

 

Beatlemania, Discussed by Epstein-This video has an interviewer asking Epstein (The Beatles' Manager) about the mass hysteria and chaos that the Beatles were supposedly causing for audiences at the time. The interviewer goes as far as to ask why the Beatles were "enslaving" audiences with their music. The manager can be seen laughing at a lot of the absurd questions asked by the interviewer; its interesting to see how people would view or label certain types of music as "dangerous" back in the 20th century. 

 

Black Flag-This group is possibly one of the most hated, vilified, and harassed band in recent memory. Most people associate them with a particularly virulent and violent kind of music punk rock. The band was originally formed in the late 70s, with the combo playing high energy material inspired by Ramones' debut album. What is interesting about Black Flag is that they challenged the musical status quo in Southern California, the U.S, and around the world. 

 

...Howlin' for the Wolf-Chester Burnett was born in West Point near Aberdeen, Mississippi on June 10th, 1910. He was raised on a plantation and worked in the farms until his fathers death in his late 30s. In 1948, he settled in West Memphis and put together a band that included Willie Johnson and Steel playing guitar and drums. They got a 30 minute broadcasting advertisement spot on radio station KWEM. The broadcasts significantly boosted Burnett's reputation as a musician and he quickly shot up in high popularity and reputation. Some of his greatest hits include Spoonfull, Killing Floor, The Red Rooster, and How Many More Years.