Craig Mosher's Influence On Rock And Roll

Most people have preconceptions about what influenced the popular genre of Rock and Roll. Many think that Rock and Roll was heavily influenced by either Jazz or Blues music, but there are a few scholars who agree or disagree with this thought. Writer Craig Mosher argues the point that pentecostalism was the biggest influence on Rock and Roll. Not only does Mosher think that pentecostalism was the heaviest influence on Rock and Roll, but Randall Stephens also attests that pentecostalism had a large impact on Rock and Roll. Writer Russell Roberts takes the stand that blues is what influenced rock and roll the most; he even claims that blues is what rock n roll was morphed into. Also, penman Mike Daley stakes to the position that blues is what

most heavily influenced rock and roll. Chris Macdonald takes the approach of saying that jazz influenced Rock and Roll. In an unexpected and not normally voiced thought is by writer Roberto Avant-Mier; Mier says that Latino music still has a heavy influence on rock today and also was involved in making rock and roll the genre of music it is today. This paper, unlike most authors and articles listed above, takes an eclectic view on what influenced rock and roll. This essay examines how jazz, blues, latin, and pentecostal music and culture shaped rock and roll to what is it today.
First this paper is going to examine the influence that pentecostal music and culture had on rock and roll. Writer Craig Mosher starts off saying that “rock concerts resemble sanctified church services and makes other comparisons between rock and roll music and pentecostal music and their church services and concerts (Mosher 95-96). Mosher compares the two genres by saying that “[both are characterized by open emotional displays, exuberance, physicality, the quest for transcendence” (Mosher 96). The main example that Mosher uses is Elvis Presley. He gives Presley's church brought up background. He correlates how Presley grew up taking his girlfriends to gospel concerts and how a few of his background singers were pentecostal singers themselves (Mosher 100-101). He also gives the example of Jerry Lee Lewis; Mosher states that Lewis started singing in the church and then transferred his voice to a the genre of rock and roll (Mosher 101). Both singers incorporate gospel tunes and gospel songs in both their records and concerts. Finally Mosher talks about rocker James Brown and how he liked the music of the pentecostal services and he would even go home and practice the beats and dance of the music. Mainly, Mosher states how the beat, feel, and visual style of pentecostal music was heavily incorporated into rock music (Mosher 102-110). Randall Stephens also takes the stand that pentecostal music is what influenced rock and roll to form it into the kind of music it is today. Stephens talks about black pentecostals music was “louder, more rhythmic, and affective than what had dominated the scene before” and that this new style of pentecostal music was spreading and artists would expand on the new type of music (Stephens 106-110). Overall, Stephens states how the new pentecostal music and culture; the loud music, the shouting and free expression of emotions, the pastors yelling with passion and letting tongues fly out of their mouth was what influenced the move to the new genre of rock and roll. Like Mosher, the main example Stephens gives is Elvis. Stephens writes about how Elvis always wanted to be part of a quartet and shows how Elvis would dress compared to how pentecostal singers would dress (Stephens 110-113). In Image A you can see how Elvis’s slicked back hair is similar to that of his “favorite quarter group” the Stamps Quartet . Also in both image A and image B Elvis and the quarter both have on deep v cut white shirts. In image C you can see where Elvis got his stand out style and wardrobe from, black pentecostal culture. In image C you can see all of the exuberant and flamboyant designs on the women's dresses just as Elvis would dress up like for one of his concerts or performances. Stephens states how this new pentecostal music had a strong response from its audience and was much more influential than any music in the church before and the people loved it so it started spreading like wildfire.
In contrast to Mosher and Stephens is Roberto Avant-Mier’s point of view.

Avant-Mier says that latino music has influenced rock and roll to make the genre what it has become today. Avant- Mier gives the example of Antoine ‘‘Fats’’ Domino’s music. Mier says that Domino's music copied Spanish beats, calypso downbeats, rumba and mambo (Avant-Mier 559). Avant-Mier also gives the example of the Coasters, he says the one of the group’s influence Gil Bernal was an American- Mexican who stayed with the coasters and influence some of their songs and perspective of music. When Bernal and the coasters took some singing classes together and combined what they learned in class with Bernal’s latin roots to make the rock music they produced. Avant-Mier’s final example is Ritchie Valens who had the “greatest [l]atino contribution to early rock and roll history” (Avant-Mier 571). Valens grew up in San Fernando, California with an immigrant family background; his biggest hit “La bamba” can be found in groups like Ramones, the Stooges, the Kinks and the Kingsmen. Mier states that latin music like tangos, rumbas, cha-chas, and mambos, can be found all throughout different kinds of rock and roll back then with the examples he gives and can be found in rock today (Avant-Mier

570-571).
Another less recognized point of view about what influenced rock and roll is how jazz influenced rock and roll. Chris Macdonald states how the popular genre of old jazz influenced rock and roll saying that “ interracial politics and transculturation, challenges to Euro-American attitudes towards the body, constructions of youth cultures and leisure practices, [and their] responses to demographic shifts brought on by urban migration” (Mcdonald 130-133). Mcdonald states how jazz was one of the three types of music present before rock and roll and that jazz did eventually converge into rock and roll. Instead of giving examples like the other authors Mcdonald's talks about the different concepts of jazz and rock and roll. Mcdonald first starts of by relating how jazz and rock and roll both broke American standards together by disintegrating race roles and race expectations. Mcdonald shows how jazz was african american music being played by caucasians, but rock and roll then was expanded upon from the base of jazz music to really start breaking down american culture and the social norm (Mcdonald 133-134). Mcdonald gives the example of how jazz opened the door for rock and roll by starting features of african american on sogn tracks which was busted open by rock and roll and african american having their own angles and even concerts. Also, Mcdonald takes to the point of how jazz started the trend for music being geared more towards the youth and how the youth started changing once they heard jazz and all of the new beats and social change it encouraged (Mcdonald 134-135). After the war, Rock and Roll really was able to bust down the door for the youth because people were looking to something new to satisfy their appetites and the youth had new ideas and morales they wanted to follow and rock and roll provided that, but without jazz cracking open the door for rock and roll, this new genre might not have been as welcomed as it was. Finally, Mcdonald talks about how jazz influenced the way that people dressed, much like rock and roll did. Mcdonald states how jazz represented the “loss of whiteness” and the reconstruction of whiteness. White men, women, boys, and girls started to racially cross dress like black men, women, and children just like people started doing in rock and roll post war era. Mcdonald closes up by stating that without the main genre of jazz rock and roll might not have become the powerhouse of music that it is today and that the “socio-cultural work” that jazz did continued under the name of “rock and roll” (Mcdonald 136-143).
Finally, the most commonly paired type of music to rock and roll is blues. Many people tie together blues and rhythm and blues as the genre that changed rock and roll forever. Writers Russell Roberts and Mike Daley agree with the idea that the blues made rock and roll what it is today. Daley starts off by discussing the how the revival of the blues in the 1960’s and the discourse that was happening in pop music of the time led to the popularization of rock and roll (Daley 161). He then goes on to talk about how the blues “unspoken obverse of the romanticization...the loss of innocence… [was the catalyst of] of mainstream rock” (Daley 162). Daley discusses the three innovations of the rock era; “technology and technique, rhythm and time, and the scope of musical resources” and that all of these innovations were made possible by african american musical aesthetics (Daley 162-162). Daley even gives examples of how caucasians were starting to want to hear more african american music for what it was as the blues in the blues revival. Daley closes his argument by showing how the two different cultures started to become united through the blues revival that encourages segregation when rock and roll came around, and finally he finishes by saying that the blues used these tropes in their music making, listening, and purchasing patterns that helped change rock and roll (Daley 165-166).
Similarly to Daley author Russell Roberts argues that blues was the heaviest influence on rock and roll and that rock and roll is just a morphed version of the blues.

The author starts off by giving some background information on the blues and how the blues actually became music. Then, the authors transition quickly into how the blues and rock and roll are intertwined. They say that “blues guitarists were the first to use rock 'n' roll techniques, such as feedback and distortion”(Roberts). After this they transition on to say how rhythm and blues came about saying how Muddy Waters, an R&B singer had a “heavy electric guitar sound” that influences kids that grew up to be famous rock singers. In the 1950’s Alan Freed began playing R&B songs on his radio station and and referred to the morphed blues music as rock and roll; kids loved this new type of music and were now constantly listening to it (Roberts). The authors acknowledge how people did not originally like blues and the new rock and roll music because of the black influence and black culture it brought to the table, but when Elvis Presley came up in rock and roll people started to accept this new genre. The authors finish up the article by telling how after the new rock and roll style was in, the blues were out even though rock and roll is an expanded version of

blues.
After looking through all of the articles and analysis of the authors comments, quotes, and facts the evidence laid out proves that not just one genre influenced rock and roll, but many do. What the authors in most of these pieces do is forget about the other genres that have influenced rock and roll and only speak subjectively. All of the research articles and pictures that are shown lay out how jazz, blues, pentecostal, and even latin music have all added some flare to make rock and roll the amazing genre of music that it is today.