Rock n’ Roll

Rock and roll is a type of music that developed in the United States in the 1950s. Rock and

roll bands usually feature singers and electric guitars.

Popular music began to change in America after World War Two. The big bands of the 1930s and early 1940s were replaced by small groups or single performers with back-up singers.

Black musicians such as Louis Jordan, Fats Domino, and Muddy Waters were recording rhythm and blues records before 1950, but most American radio stations would not play them. White audiences thought that black music was crude and indecent. But in 1951, Alan

Freed, a white disc jockey in Cleveland, Ohio, began to play their music on his program. He called it “rock and roll.”

As this music became more popular with white teenagers, white singers from the south started to blend rhythm and blues with country and western music from Appalachia. It became the new rock and roll.

In 1955, Bill Haley & His Comets recorded “Rock Around the Clock.” It was a hit all across the United States, and white teenagers became huge fans of rock and roll. Elvis Presley recorded his first rock and roll song in 1954 and he went on to become the first rock and roll star.

The demand for rock and roll music increased. White singers like Pat Boone performed and recorded songs written by blacks, but they would change the lyrics or the music to suit white audiences. It would be several more years before black performers and their music were accepted by most white Americans.

Rock and roll has influenced musicians around the world, from British rock in the 1960s to

alternative rock in 2004. Most of today’s popular music is based to some degree on 1950s’

rock and roll.