Rock And Roll

Despite its popularity and spread around the world, rock music has only been around for approximately sixty years. Nevertheless, it has evolved and changed tremendously, creating multiple subgenres, and influencing culture and trends worldwide. This essay will be analyzing its evolution, and looking at its effects on popular culture.

1. Beginnings

Rock in its s earliest years, was rock and roll. Rock and roll, evolved in the fifties, from genres such rhythm and blues. It was brought forward with icons such as Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, instantly sending them over the edge of popularity.
It is said that rock and roll evolved from the music of African American musician, who began to add the electric guitar to their blues. However, as it began to slowly rise to fame, rock and roll was still in need of a white icon, which could make it more perceptible to the wider American audiences (Bennet, 2001). It is considered by many that rock and roll changed the way that music was produced, revolutionizing it.

“Prior to the arrival of rock and roll, popular music had comprised a relatively narrow stylistic spread, bounded by theatre song on the one side, novelty items deriving from music hall and vaudeville on the other” (Middleton, 1990)

On the other hand, another theory states that rock and roll birthed from covering songs and song copying. Cover songs were used to launch artists into their careers, much as they are nowadays. Each artist would add a new element, and making it their own. However, moving forward from covers, artists began to create original songs, which imitate and copy certain aspects of others, adding their own flair, which in turn resulted in the cre...

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...aintains its popularity in later years. Precisely, one of the reasons for the rock craze is that it targets its audience just at their epitome of self-discovery. (Levitin, 2006)
Nowadays, rock can be considered to be one of the most influential musical genres of all times.

4. Conclusion

In conclusion, rock music has changed significantly over the years, creating new styles and continuously innovating. However, it has always been seen as a beacon for rebellion, for change, for freedom of expression. It has been considered by many to be their escape route from the real world, and as the opportunity to show your true self, no matter what form it came in, and what it expressed. The rock world, especially in its later years, would always show acceptance for the new.