Rock
'N' Roll
also known as rock and roll, is a defined supergenre of music that originated
in the United States in the 1950s,
and quickly spread to the rest of the world.
It later evolved into the various sub-genres of what is now called simply
'rock'.
From the mid 1950s to the current time, rock has been one of the most
popular forms of music in the western world.
The heart of rock and roll is the rhythm, which is basically a boogie
woogie blues rhythm
with an accentuated backbeat, almost always on snare drum.
Rock and roll is typically played with two electric guitars (one lead,
one rhythm), an electric bass guitar, and a drum kit.
Keyboards are a common addition to the mix.
In the rock and roll style of the early 1950s, the saxophone was often
the lead instrument,
replaced by guitar in the mid 1950s.
In the earliest form of rock and roll, the late 1940s, the piano was
the lead instrument,
and indeed, rock and roll was a direct outgrowth of boogie woogie piano.
The massive popularity and worldwide scope of rock and roll resulted
in an unprecedented level of social impact.
Far beyond simply a musical style, rock and roll influenced lifestyles,
fashion, attitudes, and language
in a way few other social developments have equalled.
The social impact is so large that rock stars are worshipped worldwide
and often performances of several artists in diverse arts and cultures
are scaled to and appreciated as being close to that of a "rock
star".
Rock
and Rebellion
From its beginnings, rock and roll has been associated with youth, rebellion,
and anti-establishment.
The blend of black influences, suggestive lyrics, and wild response
by the younger set
made rock and roll appalling and threatening to the older generation.
The ability to shock the elders in turn became part of the appeal of
the music to young generations.
Attempts to control the influence of rock often turned comical;
after several previous television appearances became controversial,
Elvis Presley was famously shown from the waist up
(to avoid offending viewers with his suggestive hip swivels) on the
Ed Sullivan Show in 1956.
Hollywood was quick to capitalize on the trend,
turning out a series of rock-and-roll themed exploitation films designed
to thrill teenagers and horrify adults.
As the original generations of rock and roll fans matured,
the music became an accepted and deeply interwoven thread in popular
culture.
Beginning in the early 1970s, rock songs and acts began to be used
in a few television commercials; within a decade this practice became
widespread.
Starting in the 1980s rock music was often featured in film and television
program soundtracks.
While mainstream rock music was no longer able to shock or offend,
new forms of music, particularly punk rock in the late-1970s and rap
and hip-hop in the late-1980s,
emerged to fill this role; people who as youths delighted in the effect
rock and roll
had on their parents found themselves railing in a similar fashion against
their children's music.
Sex,
Drugs, and Rock and Roll
The rock lifestyle has always
been popularly known as being associated with sex
and drugs.
Many of rock and roll's early stars (as well as their jazz and blues
counterparts)
were known as hard-drinking, hard-living characters;
during the 1960s a decadent rock lifestyle
became more publicly known, aided by the growth of the underground
rock press which documented such excesses,
often in exploitative fashion.
Musicians
had always attracted attention from the opposite sex;
Groupies, girls who followed, spent time with
and often did sexual favors for band members, appeared in the 1960's.
While some groups (notably most of the Beatles) eschewed such attention
in favor of long-term relationships,
other groups and artists did little to discourage
it, and many tales (both true and exaggerated) of sexual escapades
became part of rock music legacy during the heyday
of the rock era.
Drugs were often a huge part of the rock
music lifestyle.
In the 1960s psychedelic music arose;
some musicians encouraged and intended listeners of psychedelic music
to be under the influence of LSD
or other hallucinogenic drugs as enhancements
to the listening experience.
Jerry
Garcia of the rock band Grateful Dead said:
"For some people, taking LSD and
going to Grateful Dead show functions like a rite of passage....
we don't have a product to sell; but we do have a mechanism that works."
The popularity and promotion of experimentation
with drugs by musicians
may have influenced use of drugs and the perception of
acceptability of drug use among the youth of the period.
When the Beatles, once marketed as clean-cut youths, started publicly
acknowledging using Cannabis, many fans followed.
Journali st Al Aronowitz wrote
"...whatever the Beatles did was
acceptable, especially for young people.
Pretty soon everybody was smoking it, and it seemed to be all right."
The relationship of rock music to the hippie and
counterculture movements,
which espoused use of marijuana and other drugs, is complex and intertwined,
and it is not always clear in which direction influence flowed.
What is clear is that by the end of the 1960s
drugs and rock music were part of a common youth scene
and that both some rock musicians and some rock
fans were experimenting with many types of drugs.
In the
late 1960s and early 1970s however,
much of the rock and roll cachet associated with drug use dissipated
as rock music suffered a series of drug-related
deaths,
including those of Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix,
Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison.
Although some amount of drug use remained common among rock musicians,
a greater respect for the dangers of drug consumption was observed,
and many anti-drug songs became part of the rock lexicon, notably
"The Needle and
the Damage Done" by Neil Young (1972).
Many rock musicians,
including Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend,
Steven Tyler, Scott Weiland and others,
have acknowledged battling addictions to many substances including cocaine
and heroin;
many of these have successfully undergone drug rehabilitation programs,
but others have died.
The lessons
of the excesses of the earlier eras were not always learned;
some early punk rock was vociferous about
promoting the abuse of drugs.
Late 1970s acts such as
The Stranglers, The Psychedelic Furs, and The Only Ones
reflected their use of heroin in their
lyrics
in a fashion that sometimes seemed to cross over into advocacy.
Later bands such as Guns N' Roses, Jane's Addiction,
Primal Scream, Ministry
and the subsequent Grunge rock movement of the
1980s were associated
with a resurgence in abuse of heroin and other
hard drugs.
The Madchester bands of the late 1980s
and early 1990s such as Happy Mondays also
promoted drug use
in their lyrics and in their image, as did later Britpop
acts like Oasis, Blur and Suede.
More recently, it has mainly been rap and hip hop,
(and a few electronica) acts which have been glamorizing
and promoting drug use in songs,
though a few current rock acts like The Libertines
and Brian Jonestown Massacre have been as well.
It's
Only Rock 'N' Roll
by the Rolling Stones
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)
If I could stick my pen in my heart
And spill it all over the stage
Would it satisfy ya, would it slide on by ya
Would you think the boy is strange? Ain't he strange?
If I could win ya, if I could sing ya
A love song so divine
Would it be enough for your cheating heart
If I broke down and cried? If I cried?
I said I know it's only rock 'n roll but I like it
I know it's only rock 'n roll but I like it, like it, yes, I do
Oh, well, I like it, I like it, I like it
I said can't you see that this old boy has been a lonely?
If I could stick a knife in my heart
Suicide right on stage
Would it be enough for your teenage lust
Would it help to ease the pain? Ease your brain?
If I could dig down deep in my heart
Feelings would flood on the page
Would it satisfy ya, would it slide on by ya
Would ya think the boy's insane? He's insane
I said I know it's only rock 'n roll but I like it
I said I know it's only rock'n roll but I like it, like it, yes, I
do
Oh, well, I like it, I like it, I like it
I said can't you see that this old boy has been a lonely?
And do ya think that you're the only girl around?
I bet you think that you're the only woman in town
I said I know it's only rock 'n roll but I like it
I said I know it's only rock 'n roll but I like it
I said I know it's only rock 'n roll but I like it, like it, yes,
I do
Oh, well, I like it, I like it. I like it...
