Origins of Rock n Roll

I don't think it's any exageration to say that
the vast majority of grownups, especially the
World War 2 generation, looked down
on all rock and roll, teenage music.

Teenagers were a market, records were made for
them, but it was a relatively small part of the
overall market. In St Louis, out of all
the radio stations on the AM dial (no FM yet!),
there was exactly one which played rock and
roll -- and it also played young black, or soul
music.

Of course, this was progress since the early
50s when Alan Freed basically defined the emerging
music that was rock and roll. Exactly how such
separate artists as Bill Haley, Chuck Berry
and Elvis Presley came together, I'm not sure
if anybody knows.

Everybody agrees it is a mixture of black rhythm
and blues (really the type of barrelhouse blues
played in black bars) and white country.

I think it also came from swing -- The Andrews
Sisters singing "Beat Me Daddy 8 to the Bar",
Benny Goodman's "Swing Swing Swing" and Ivie
Anderson singing "All God's Children Got Rhythm" for
Duke Ellington.

The sort of music the World War 2 generation
danced the jitterbug too, combined with the type
of blues played on the piano by the left hand
pounding a beat with the bass keys while the
right hand makes a melody -- I'm sure Chuck
Berry's piano player, Johnny Johnson (who also
is from St Louis and was just recently recognized
for his contributions to Chuck's music and
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)
must have started out playing that way.

Bill Monroe created western swing by combining
it with country music.


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