Rock and Roll clearly had an impact on both the social and musical world when it first hit. The lyrics, tempo, instrumentation, background influences and timbre were all the different qualities that made Rock and Roll what it was in the 1950’s.
In the 1950’s rock and roll was a very influential musical genre on the music industry and our overall culture. The tempo, instrumentation combinations, and timbre, were very different from the other music genres. And the lyrics were so different and suggestive that there was a major culture shock.
1950’s Rock and Roll was a very sexually suggestive music genre which was a new "thing" and adults were appalled while the teenagers were intrigued by the suggestive language in these songs. Like an example would be “I'm like a one eyed cat peeping in a sea food store" those lyrics-from “Shake, Rattle and Roll” by Bill Haley were considered suggestive and thought of as horrible to most adults, and fun and rebellious to most teens. The lyrics in a lot of songs would say things that seemed rebellious and appealing to the targeted audience which were the teenagers.
Most rock songs in the 1950’s had a quick and upbeat tempo. This music was sort of the “get up and dance” type of music. A lot of the songs were around one hundred and forty to two hundred beats per minute. Also, most of the songs had a time signature of 4-4.
Rock and Roll music in the 1950’s used mostly the same instruments,
the few main instruments that Rock and Roll artists used were:
- lead vocals
- drum sets
- upright bass
- electric guitar
- back up vocals
- rhythm guitar
http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=3zm6ulTr55jX8M&tbnid=iKwkJ3yNyw8aCM:&ved=0CAcQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ihd-wallpapers.com%2Felectric-guitar-1706%2F&ei=OGcYVOv3G-SIsQS9wILYBQ&psig=AFQjCNGDsKk9LylI_bTv-6yuw7c8VpqfVw&ust=1410971823781183
Most rock artists were previously artists, or at least influenced by the musical genre of rhythm and blues. There were also some rock artists who were previously country and folk artists.
A lot of the artists have a sort of “shouting” quality to their singing voices. Some of their voices could be considered raspy. And example of someone who you'd be likely to hear on the radio who has a "shouting
quality when the perform would be David Cook from season seven of American Idol, especially in his song "Light On" .
The music you’d hear on the music nowadays seems to be it’s own, new type of music, but most new genre’s of music come from Rock ‘n Roll. A lot of music in the 21st century is alike to the 1950’s rock in a few different ways. Many artists from this time who are considered both pop and alternative use the same or similar vocal embellishments as artists like Buddy Holly from the 1950’s. One artist that definitely has similar embellishments as Buddy Holly is Ellie Goulding. So really, Rock and Roll had a big influence on not only that time period, but this one too.
For more information on Rock and Roll in the 1950's you can visit these sites!
http://www.rockmusictimeline.com/1950s.html
http://americasmusic.tribecafilminstitute.org/session/view/rock
http://www.esto.es/rock/english/history.htm
Sources used for this blog:
Stuessy, Joe, and Scott Lipscomb. Rock and Roll: Its History and Stylistic Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990. Print.
Charlton, Katherine. Rock Music Styles: A History. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.