Who Do You Love

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Recommended: The Effect of Rock and Roll on American Society

Rock & roll music rose out of the chaos and rebellion found in the 1960s. From the Civil Rights Movement, to Women’s Rights, and the Vietnam War, the 1960s was filled with protests, rallies, and concerts. The music reflected the young, rebellious attitude that grew throughout the decade. Rock & roll music originated in the 1950s, when Bo Diddley contributed to its success and evolution. He played a large role in finding the crossover from blues to rock & roll, inspiring many rock & roll acts. Famous elements of rock music can be traced back to Bo Diddley and his well-known song “Who Do You Love.” The band, Quicksilver Messenger Service did a cover of this song, making it fit their original style but still respecting Diddley’s music. This created a rock dialogue with Bo Diddley by incorporating similar musical rhythms and styles. However, the musical discrepancies among QMS and Diddley version echo the cultural transformation in the sixties; Quicksilver Messenger Service highlights this shift from conformity to counterculture by using wild distortion, dynamic changes, and a strange structure instead of rhythmic and uniform sounds.

Bo Diddley was a rhythm and blues artist who used this original style and inventions to transition to rock & roll. What Diddley brought to his music was rhythmic drives, a new tough guitar sound, and distortion. In his song “Who Do You Love,” released in 1956, Diddley showcases what is know as the “Diddley beat” which can be heard throughout the whole song. The “Diddley beat” is three beats, a rest, and then two beats. In this song, there are no chord changes; it stays on the same level dynamically throughout, never getting loud or soft. Diddley relies on the driving rhythms instead of harmonic chords a...

... middle of paper ...

...and dynamic changes that their version does not sound at all like the song that Bo Diddley once sang. Yet Diddley’s sound and influence could still be heard as QMS expanded his ideas of rhythmic drive and distortion of the guitar to fit their generation. The rock dialogue between QMS and Bo Diddley in the song “Who Do You Love” is filled with the unique history of the 1960s and the many social changes that occurred.

Works Cited

Bo Diddley (Ellas McDaniel), "Who Do You Love (1956), on BO DIDDLEY's 16 All-Time

Greatest Hits (Checker LP 2989), 1964.

Negus, Keith, Popular Music in Theory, Wesleyan University Press, 1997.

Quicksilver Messenger Service, Happy Trails (Capitol Records ST-120), 1968.

Townsend, David, “Changing the World: Rock 'n' Roll Culture and Ideology,” accessed February

15, 2012, http://www.dntownsend.com/Site/Rock/rcksum.htm.

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