The density, intricacy and mainly its evasion by old school populace has made this topic not being talked about a lot .The topic ofcourse is ‘Rock Music’…This modest
work of mine would lead to a better understanding of Rock n’ Roll. To have a proficient perception of Rock music though you need to identify yourself with it.
Rock music is very complex. In fact it’s stylistic scope is too broad to be encompassed by any single definition. The nearest description suggests Rock music to be a kind of music that symbolizes and speaks for the young society. The music has it’s own characteristic heavy beats. There was the Rock of the 50’s, Rock of the 60’s, 70’s and so on. There had been several famous composers, groups and bands who have confirmed the various characteristics of this music in all decades.
Rock n’ Roll of the 1950’s was when Rock music was born .It surfaced from rhythm and blues, a music similar to jazz played by the black americans. This kind of music started to attract teenagers. D.J. Alan Freed was the one who introduced this music and later gave it the name Rock n’ Roll. Record companies distributed records played bywhites but composed by blacks. Whites were frustrated because there weren't any white artists and they didn't want the blacks to be the stars until Bill Haley appeared with his "Rock Around the Clock". In this decade, Elvis Presley introduced a music that was sexual, suggestive and outraged dull old populace. In time he changed the style of the music by adopting a country and western style and became a national hero. By the end of this decade and the start of the next, Rock n' Roll started to decline because it was formula ridden and it was too sentimental. Teenage audiences transferred their allegiance to Folk music. In 1963 the renewal of Rock n' Roll came when The Beatles began playing.The Beatles, for some the best rock group ever, were from Liverpool, England. Through the 60's, The Beatles dominated the record industries and with their dominant instrumentation, which included: electric leads, rhythm, and bass guitar, drums and sometimes an electric organ, changed the name of Rock n' Roll to just Rock. During the 1960's many other styles of music arose from Rock like, Motown, Soul music, Jazz rock, Folk-rock and others. Folk-Rock the most appreciated of these derivations and was first suggested by Bob Dylan. This kind of music brought to folk music a hard beat and amplification; and to Rock, a new poetic style. First it was characterized for its surfing music, a very joyful music that reflected the fun people had while surfing. The Beach Boys were the onesWho introduced this kind of music. At the end of the century this happy kind of music changed to a more rebellious style that was designated the name of "hippie music". Groups that played this music were Country Joe and others. Along with this hippie ideas popularity of hallucinogenic drugs produced a psychedelic style of music called Acid Rock. By the end of the 60's thedistinctions between Rock n' Roll and Rock were evident. The early instruments- saxophone, piano, amplified guitar, and drums- had been changed to electric guitar and bass, amplified drums and other electronic devices. Not only did the instruments change but so did the ideas behind the music. Groups like The Beach Boys, Crew Cuts and The Everly Brothers were replaced by more imaginative, non-descriptive names groups like The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and Holding Company. The Who, the most famous of these groups, were originally from England and were reknowned because of their bizarre stage performances, they would destroy their instruments after their performance finished. The Who was one of the first rock groups. In the 70's, the common barriers of rock broke into more divisions, like hard rock and mellow rock. Hard Rock was extremely loud and electronically amplified and Mellow Rock was softer and with acoustic instruments. In 1972,in Jamaica, a new style of music was created called Reggae. Reggae is a mixture of rock, soul, calypso and Latin music. The king of Reggae was Bob Marley. Other styles more in rocks borders, since Reggae was more latin than rock, were created in the middle of this century, like: bubble gumrock, a funny playful music directed to the youngest fans, Punk Rock, which is aloud, hard rock style derived from acid rock and marked by its extremes ofcostume and staging , and Heavy Metal, which continued the approach to Acid Rock but with a simpler musical dimension but relying upon the power of repetitiveness, loud volume, and electronic distortion. One famous group of Heavy Metal was Led Zeppelin, a British group that was formed in 1968 by Jimmy Page (lead guitar), Robert Plant (lead singer), John Paul Jones (pianist and bassist) and John Bonham (drummer). Most music of this decade was intended to be listened to, but not to be danced. But this intention wasn't kept by Disco music that arose in 1977 and was especially for dancing. One great group of Disco music were the Bee Gees. Disco music was described by rock fans as mechanical, commercial and unlyrical. At the end of this decade, rock, again became a dominant cultural force. Then the rock music of 1980’s, at the start of this last decade, rock groups became more production oriented, mainly because of the sudden explosion of videos. This new sensation was a good way to sell music to the people. Heavy metal bands were greatly pushed by videos, but most helped were the popular performers like Michael Jackson, Prince and Boy George. At the same time, there of nostalgia to return to the older pre rock music, like rhythm and blues, which was suggested by played by Elvis Costello. By the middle of the 80's, almost every country had begun to support indigenous music, andat the end of this "a vigorous talk-song style called rap became extremelypopular among urban black teenagers" Rock music teaches to appreciate things in a different way. Since rock is not an exact science, it can change. In fact Rock music helps to unwind . I think rock has become social phenomena. So do you people ‘Rock’ as well………..
