The rise and fall (and rise again) of early rock & roll
When I discuss early rock & roll with pop music lovers I’m surprised that many don’t know how and when rock took hold in America. Nor do they know how quickly it disappeared—to be rescued by the Brits.
And few appreciate a simple lesson it teaches us about innovation.
Rock & roll was a combination of many musical elements of course, including Rhythm & Blues, Rockabilly, Blues, Gospel, Boogie-Woogie, Jazz, Swing, and Country. All of these were in full bloom by the late 40s and early 50s when records by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Louis Jordan, Jimmy Preston, Goree Carter, Ike Turner, and Big Joe Turner (among many others) were hinting at what was soon to come.
Although the phrase “rock & roll” was heard in African-American R&B lyrics prior to the mid-50s, it was DJ Alan Freed who helped popularize the term for whites when he was playing R&B and Country to a racially mixed audience, calling his show “The Rock & Roll Party.” Soon “rock” and “roll” were widely used in lyrics and song titles that were marketed to middle-class teens. Big Joe Turner’s “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” became an R&B hit in 1954—but a bigger hit for Bill Haley and His Comets. Then Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock” shot to #1 after the 1955 release of Blackboard Jungle which featured the song as its soundtrack. Rock was about to go mainstream.
But it took Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley—the most influential musical pioneers of the time—to kick down the door and launch the new era.