Queen: Original Rock n’ Roll

Hello people (: today I will talk about one of the most amazing bands in Rock n’ Roll history: Queen! This band formed in England in 1971, when The Beatles and The Rolling Stones was what the country considered as Rock n’ Roll. Queen made history because of their originality, their music is a unique Rock n’ Roll style, and also because of the leadership and heart of their singer, Freddie Mercury himself, who provided Queen with beautiful creativeness for their songs.

Before Queen it was Smile, formed by Roger Taylor as drummer, Brian May as guitarist and another guy as the singer who later abandoned them. The band needed a new singer, and like destiny it happened that Roger Taylor had a friend called Farouk Bulsara, who became their awesome singer Freddie Mercury(: (Sánchez, 2).

Freddie gave important ideas to make Queen´s style; he had the idea of a rock band where the visual aspect was very important, a musical spectacle with powerful Rock n’ Roll different to what had been shown in England until then. After getting John Deacon as bassist, they continuing sharing ideas about the band and decided they wanted Queen to be a rocker drama band, with a lot of treatment of the voices and guitars. When they made their first record, Queen´s music was the result of all the ideas they had: in the songs there was a broad use of the voices in chorus, guitars sounding with a very special hard sound, and much orchestral richness with piano and acoustics. Queen’s original and different style was formed. However, their style changed a little or added new characteristics with their third record, and it was all because Brian May was not in complete health like to give a lot of heavy guitar contributions, so it was then when Queen got a lot of pop style, but continued with the hard guitars. An example of this is the song “Killer Queen”(Sánchez, 3).

Queen was just one step to gaining their fame definitely, so they produced their two records “A Night at the Opera” and “A Day at the Races”, which contained amazing songs like “Somebody to Love” and “Love of my Life”. But the most emblematic song in Queen’s career is “Bohemian Rhapsody”. It was recorded for one month, and released in 1975. This song was longer than the others, with complex harmony and very original because of the mix it had of heavy and operatic parts. The radio first refused to play it, but then it noticed it was one of the great songs in Rock n’ Roll (Sánchez, 6). It is a beautiful song, expressing a lot of pain and drama through Freddie’s amazing voice, and releasing it with the anger of the guitar part, and finally ending with a fragile and resigned phrase: “nothing really matters…to me”    :’ D

Queen continued with its successful career, playing live around England and the United States and giving memorable nights to the fans. They even came to Mexico and I think to Monterrey in 1982 :D my Dad told me but he could not go ): But in the beginning of the 90’s when AIDS was more frequent, Freddie Mercury got sick with it and died in 1991. His band mates continued giving concerts to remember him, with the help of other singers. Freddie is remembered as a free person, and a leader with a good heart who never gave up and always had a positive attitude, it will never matter if he was gay.

I recommend you to hear the song “Show must go on” with the lyrics, that song was made in their last record, and from what the lyrics say, Freddie knew he was going to die, but he says beautiful things (:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBOvOatPqnY&feature=related

Works Cited

Sánchez Guarneros, Israel. “Tributo a Queen”. Rock Stars. México: Guarnerius Editores, 2006.

Rock n' Roll in the 90's

Hello there! I have to tell you, I did not wanted to talk about this but later I found it very interesting…as you can see. It was in the 90’s that rock and roll took a distinctive turn. Many people became bored with the soft rock bands and singers in the charts, even with traditional Rock n’ Roll which now included not just the one of the fifties but the other variations that were out there until the 80’s. They needed something different (rocknroll123.com). New Rock n’ Roll variations came up that were very different from the ones that were sounding on the radio by the 1980’s, it was almost a new Rock n’ Roll.

Grunge became extremely popular during the 90’s and was the predominant Rock n’ Roll variation, usually credited to the success of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. With his death came the decline of grunge music, because by the end of the decade most of these bands changed their style (rocknroll123.com). Nirvana’s song “Smells like Teen Spirit”, released in 1991, became the anthem for the rebellion against structure, conformity and commercialism (rockmem.com). This is the real meaning of this song in context of the Rock n’ Roll movement, it is not just a “headbanger song”, the reason why a lot of people like it without knowing what it really means.

British Rock n’ Roll revived in the 90’s, since in the 80’s there was not much manifestation of this music. Artists and bands were trying to emulate famous British bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, for example two bands formed in the decade, Blur and Oasis, resembled the Beatles and the Rolling Stones respectively. It was a new proposal and that made this a new sound (rocknroll123.com). Indie rock, founded in the late 80’s, intensified and became more popular in this decade and later became a mainstream, contributing to this new group of variations of Rock n’ Roll that changed it (rocknroll123.com). This is often described like a sentimental, less rude and more personal music.

Just like L.A. was home for the 80’s Rock n’ Roll (L.A. ROCKS), now Seattle became the hub of 90’s rock. Successful bands were the ones with which young people could identify, such as Nirvana, the Cranberries, Oasis and Pearl Jam. This last one became a flagship rock band in the 90’s just because of that, because their lyrics echoed the confusion, anger, heartbreak, and frustration of the lost youth (rockmem.com).

So the Rock n’ Roll movement responded to a new social attitude of the youth of this time. It gave the young people, the teenagers, anger toward government, a fight against conformity, and search for the meaning in life, a search different from the one inspired by previous Rock n’ Roll. The youth was asking where they came from, why they existed and where were they going. Most of them had no identity and Rock n’ Roll helped to create “Generation X”, a name referring to how unimportant and unknown many teenagers felt. This feeling gave a new sound to Rock n’ Roll, creating these very different styles and variations I have mentioned. Now it was a cold, dark music with deep lyrics and fearless expressionism (rockmem.com).

I’ll show you the representative song of the representative Rock n’ Roll variation of the 90’s, even though maybe you already know it because of the “headbanger” concept, but it is interesting to listen to it knowing what it means ;) haha well, I call it interesting.

Works Cited

“Rock and Roll in the 90’s”. rocknroll123.com . Rock N Roll, October 13. Web. November 3, 2011.

“How 90’s Rock and Roll Changed the World”. rockmem.com. RockMem.com: The History of Rock & Roll, October 2, 2011. Web. November 3, 2011.

Jimi Hendrix

Hello there! Now I will talk about the guitarist known as the best of them all: Jimi Hendrix, the Guitar Hero. Even though I have just heard one of his songs and I don’t like him because he is one place above my man, I have heard as many people might have heard too that he occupies a big place in Rock n’ Roll history because he was the first guitar hero. He was the first guitarist who was seen like the best, like a God, and who really made people think guitar heroes could exist if somebody played guitar like that. He is probably best known as a hippie guy with spongy hair, but he is more than that.

He was born in 1942 and died in 1970 at the age of 27. He is also widely recognized as one of the most creative and influential musicians of the 20th century. Jimi Hendrix pioneered the explosive possibilities of the electric guitar. His innovative style of combining fuzz, feedback and controlled distortion created a new musical form (jimihendrix.com).

When he was a teenager he became interested in music, as he was influenced by many major artists at the time including B.B. King, and Buddy Holly. His father told: “he used to be sitting at the end of the bed there and strumming the broom like he was playing a guitar". He also learned to play by himself because he was unable to read music, something that made him concentrate even harder on the music he heard (jimihendrix.com).

After playing with different bands, Jimi Hendrix met Animal’s bass player, who became his manager and later, manager of the band he would form that accompanied Hendrix. However, his first important task was to name Hendrix as Jimi instead of James. The band, Jimi Hendrix Experience, quickly became the talk of London in the fall of 1966 (jimihendrix.com).

The band's first single, "Hey Joe," spent ten weeks on the UK charts. The debut single was quickly followed by the release of a full-length album Are You Experienced. This album is considered one of the most popular rock albums of all time, featuring tracks like "Purple Haze," "The Wind Cries Mary," "Foxy Lady," "Fire," and "Are You Experienced?” (jimihendrix.com).

From demo recordings to finished masters, Jimi Hendrix generated a big collection of songs throughout his short career. His music embraced the influences of blues, ballads, rock, R&B, and jazz, a collection of styles that make Hendrix one of the most popular figures in the history of Rock n’ Roll (jimihendrix.com).

At his time guitar was used in its basic form, without the harsh sound of Rock n’ Roll, and nobody played his way then. He was almost the first to start playing guitar in a very different way than before, with a louder guitar that involved blues sound and fast playing, so he was innovative for that time. If you listen to this song you will believe me ;) Another good proof of that he is an excellent guitar player is that he made me like him when I did not before X)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoAXW30mMAg&feature=related

Works Cited

“Jimi Hendrix Biography”. jimihendrix.com. Jimi Hendrix. Sony Music Entertainment, 2011. Web. October 27, 2011.

Edward Van Halen- My man

To me, he is the best guitarist ever :D. This guy is considered a guitar hero for many reasons regarding his playing, it is also considered a guitar God, and God himself by some crazy guys that comment on YouTube hehe. Also the one that taught Chuck Norris how to play guitar.. ;).

He was first known in 1978, when he was 23 years old and his band Van Halen made their first record, which included the solo “Eruption”. His guitar playing is known almost absolutely for that, basically it revolutionized Rock n’ Roll and guitar playing and many more things are said about it, but I’ll quote Guitar World Magazine: “When the wildly innovative instrumental was released in 1978, hit the rock guitar community like a hydrogen bomb. Two-handed tapping, gonzo whammy bar dips, artificial harmonics—with Van Halen’s masterly application of these and other techniques, “Eruption” made every other six-stringer look like a third-stringer” (guitarworld.com). In other words, no one had ever played like that before, with the same speed, precision and innovative techniques such as tapping, his most known. Today, he is considered by many music magazines as the second best guitarist ever, usually after Jimi Hendrix. (why!? D:)

But what I love about this guy,-- I mean, what a lot of people admire on him, is how his playing can reflect that he loves what he does and this has enriched his playing and composition of songs. He just smiles a lot… :) He has said XD, when they asked him what he thought about while playing onstage: “Nothing. It’s like having sex, actually, I swear to God. It’s definitely my first love”.

He used to play drums before, but then he switched with his brother Alex, who used to play guitar and is in the band too, when he was 12. He started to play at that age, and he would escape from school to go home and practice all day o.o, so he learned to play by himself, never took a lesson in his life (how the hell). One thing he did that not every guitarist has done, is that he built his own guitars, most of them, and they are so cool : D haha. He wouldn’t find a guitar he liked, so he made one out of the remaining pieces of different guitars that a factory had dropped, and painted it…and he made the most amazing and original guitar I have ever seen :D haha well, to me: The Frankenstrat (because it was made of parts just like Frankenstein ;). Then he made another one by cutting an Ibanez Destroyer with a saw o.o, The Shark.

At that time his playing was very innovative, so that Guitar World Magazine awarded him with the best guitarist of the year like three years in a row :) (1978-1980). His playing was very original because of the effects he created and used, for example animal sounds; he uses all these effects in the songs, something that no one did before, they just played the guitar very well. Finally, what I love about his playing is how well he does it and the feelings he transmits with it; his songs just make me happy—ok, I don’t know very well how to explain it myself so I will add this quote from Les Paul, very respected guitarist that invented o: multi-track recording, because he just says it perfectly!:

“Eddie’s finger tapping and vibrato work were innovative. It’s something he developed that made him different than all other guitar players. Extremely different. He mastered it very well. Eddie proves a fellow can create his own thing, something that´s recognizable. (..) It´s good to see someone out there that plays his way. That is what makes the man stand out from the boy. (…) It seems like he had his own thing going. And that alone, by itself, makes it very interesting. And the fact that he does it very well means he’s expressing a lot of things he had inside him that others don’t have. They just don’t play that way”

—Les Paul (Zlozower, Neil).

Awesome songs (maybe heavy too, hehe) I would recommend to prove all the subjective nonsense I have just said are: Unchained, Romeo Delight, Feel your Love Tonight, Mean Street and Beautiful Girls ;)

Works Cited

“50 Greatest Guitar Solos”. Guitarworld.com. Guitar World. January 29, 2009. Web. October 16, 2011.

Zlozower, Neil. Van Halen: A visual history 1978-1984. California: Chronicle Books, 2008.

Guitar Heroes

Also called guitar legends or guitar Gods. What are they? Well, the term does not refer to the Xbox game, it refers to very good, amazing guitarists in Rock n’ Roll history. As Rock n’ Roll has always been related to electric guitars, it is also related by many people to these guitar players. Guitar Legends are people who were born for that, first of all. The best guitarists, the ones that stand above the others; that can be due to several reasons, because they started a new playing technique, because they played with a new speed, because they sounded completely different to the rest, or just because they played really good.

World known and recognized guitar legends who have contributed to the history of music are:

·         Angus Young

·         Jimi Hendrix

·         Jimmy Page

·         Eric Clapton

·         Les Paul

·         Slash

·         Santana

·         Edward Van Halen

And some more…well, who would you like me to talk about in SECOND place? XD

Girls rock!! – The Runaways

Hello there! (: well I won’t reference this time or maybe just one source because I think I can say a lot about this girl rock band :D As I said in the previous post, in the 80’s there were female rockers, like Joan Jett and Lita Ford. Well, these girls started their band, “The Runaways” in 1975, when everybody thought Rock n’ Roll was for men, and they showed everyone not. A lot of you might know Joan Jett from the song “I love Rock n’ Roll”, but she along with Lita Ford was in The Runaways before going solo. As shown in the picture, they are: Lita (the most amazing girl guitarist I have heard by now), Jackie (who played bass), Joan (who played rhythm guitar, sang, formed the band and is so cool), Sandy (who played drums, and very well), and Cherie (who was the controversial singer). They were so young when they started, Cherie was 16, and the rest where 17 ,I think, just like our age! : D I find that really exciting, when I saw their movie I wanted to leave IB.. XD. In the seventies and eighties where there was more easy to leave school and become a rock star, because as I said everyone loved Rock n’ Roll back then.

Joan Jett was a teenager who wanted to learn guitar but nobody would want to teach her, so she had nothing to do (I never saw her doing her homework in the movie) so she spent her nights going to clubs to dope herself and try to find girls like her. So she found Sandy West, the drummer, and their future producer, Kim Fowley, who helped them find the rest of the members of the band. Cherie Currie wanted to be a singer and she did many times at her school, but the people did not like the music she sang and how she dressed (awesome) so they would throw things at her. Lita Ford was the daughter of Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore (very good guitarist, people say, but an a**hole because he treated my man bad) and already had a guys’ band before, but when she met Joan and Sandy she liked the idea of a girl rock band, I like it too XD. So after they met, the first song they wrote was Cherry Bomb, I think about the singer Cherie Currie. They became really famous and did tours even in Japan.

There is a movie about them :D but I think it never came out here in Mexico, because my rocker friends : P didn’t know about it, but I discovered it online and bought it later ;) That movie is based on a biographical book by the singer Cherie Currie, so the movie is REALLY cool because it shows to a very good extent how things were back then and also the actresses seem too much like them, Kirsten Stewart plays Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning plays Cherie Currie : D they act very well, I recommend you girls the movie, and guys also. These girls were all rebel and bad XD something like that, well for some things you will see in the movie XD. Oh, and the movie has and awesome soundtrack :D My favorite songs from them are (they say some nasty things but XD): Cherry Bomb, I love playing with fire, I want to be where the boys are, California Paradise and Hollywood.

This is “I want to be where the boys are”, in the live version which is better, to me. Joan sings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3vXozzdqRw

And here is the trailer of the movie ;) Hope you like it if you see it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIpQ9w27NNo&feature=related

Rock n’ Roll in the 80’s

In this decade Rock n’ Roll was the most popular music together with pop; its sound and style did not change very much from the one of the 70’s, its beat continued depending on electric guitar and bass guitar and it was characterized by heavy beats and fast tempos, meaning a relatively fast rhythm. However, there was a change in the music when some bands started playing with a tougher and hard-edged sound, which is now known as Heavy Metal; it started in the seventies but consolidated in this decade. Other variations also came up in this time (library.thinkquest.org).

Hard Rock and Heavy Metal were the main sounds of the 80’s, Rock n’ Roll variations that had a heavier sound and a harder look. This music was loud, unapologetic and wild with heavy electric guitars and driving beats; bands like Poison, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, and Bon Jovi represented this rock style. There could be lighter and more mainstream sounds and also angry and dark music, for example like Metallica (theclassic80s.com).

A very important point is that Rock n’ Roll wasn’t all about men in the 80s. There were female rockers like Joan Jett, Lita Ford and Pat Benatar who made a name for themselves and contributed to Rock n’ Roll history with their special styles. There were bands like Vixen, Blondie, and Heart that put female rock on the map and made the 80s the decade where the ladies rocked just as hard as the guys. That opened a door for new female bands after the 80s. I will dedicate another post to talk about this! (theclassic80s.com).

Another new sound that was created was soft rock or light rock. It had a sound that was friendlier to conservative and older listeners and the radio was filled with the lighter sounds of bands like Foreigner, Journey, Hall & Oates and REO Speedwagon (theclassic80s.com).

Rock n’ Roll bands occupied a place the same or even more important than pop bands, in the charts and in the society in general, a lot of people was interested in it…….(Now this becomes sentimental)………..Unlike today, what I see in my school and my city is that now people prefer pop and hip hop music, almost just the people that were teenagers in the 80’s really like Rock n’ Roll. It is ok, I guess, what they like, but sometimes I would like to go back in time when the majority of people appreciated Rock n’ Roll music, when everybody thought it was the best thing :D

I like Rock n’ Roll so much as you can see, besides from its amazing music, skill and creativeness, because it is like freedom to me, as I said in the first post, and because it is fun. Scorpions along with my favorite band Van Halen is an amazing band that played the Rock n’ Roll I like. With the fun and positivism of their music they make me love it (: For example, with this song and video    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmE_l_dN9UM&ob=av2e   (tell me what you think about it : P), I can dream that I leave IB and become a rock star XD…..no but I won’t leave IB, because I like it ;) I like being both a nerd and a rocker.

Anyways o.o all what I have said is mainly the reason why I started the blog, because I love Rock n’ Roll and because I would like to make other people like it..! :}





Works cited

“Rock and Roll in the 80s” theclassic80s.com. TheClassic80s.com. n.p., n.d. Web. September 22, 2011.

“Rock and Roll in the 80’s” library.thinkquest.org. Oracle Think Quest. Oracle, May 2, 2009. Web. September 22, 2011.

AC/DC: Hard Rock since the seventies

Hello there! I will pause the historical writing a while and talk about one of the first great bands on Hard Rock, because contributions to music from bands like this simply make history. As I mentioned in the previous article, in the 70’s a new Rock n’ Roll variation was heavy metal, but it had come from hard rock, a previous variation of Rock n’ Roll. AC/DC is a hard rock band, or high voltage band as many people would say.

AC/DC was officially founded in 1973 by the brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. They lived in Sidney, Australia, where Rock n’ Roll had already had its influences through musicians like Chuck Berry; Malcolm and Angus were amazed by his playing and started to have interest on playing guitar. They were also influenced by his older brother George who had his own band: The Easybeats, authors of the famous song “Friday on my Mind”. So Malcolm Young became playing electric guitar, and so Angus, because he would pick up the guitar when his older brother left it aside. Angus Young became more and more interested in playing guitar, and when he was 17 he would practice with his band Tantrum right after school. Malcolm also had a band, Velvet Underground, but he proposed Angus to join his band as a second guitarist in 1973. He needed someone capable of sounding hard, with long hair and high boots. It would be their sister who suggested them the name “AC/DC” for the band, what meant “alternating current/direct current” referring to the high energy of the group (ac-dc.galeon.com).

Since then AC/DC would start their presentations, filling the audience with energy and amazement, as they could not believe what they were seeing: some short guy dressed as a scholar, joined to a guitar, jumping around like crazy, “with high voltage on his veins”. Before dressing as a scholar, Angus would play dressed in awkward and funny costumes, such as a gorilla, a swordsman, TV characters, and comic characters like Superman. In 1974, they move to Melbourne, where they would get a manager, who would get Bon Scott for them as the singer of the band. Before, Bon had been a truck driver, and obtained some degrees as a percussionist in school when he was 16. The band was very successful with him, playing tours around the world. But he died in 1980 tragically after being drunk, and the band then hired Brian Johnson, with who the band remains today and involves in tours (ac-dc.galeon.com).

In Angus Young’s words…. X)

Guitar World Magazine, January 1993 (Maile, Ashley).

Your performance style is so strenuous. Have you ever hurt yourself onstage?

Sure. I’ve lost teeth. I mean I don’t go out there to do myself a deliberate injury, but when you are on the road for that length of time, you’re bound to twist an ankle or something. (…) I’ve jumped off amps and fallen ass over it -made a complete full of myself.

What was your most embarrassing moment onstage?

Well, I’ve had my pants fall off. All of a sudden my wedding tackle was out there for all to see. You know, I’ve even had my shorts stolen a couple of times.

(…)

You’ve said somewhere that you can’t play guitar well unless you’re jumping around like a lunatic.

Yeah, well I go with the guitar, because I’m pretty small. On most people, a Gibson SG looks small –like a violin. On me, it looks like a big guitar. I’ve got small fingers, too. Now, when most people bend a string up, their finger bends the note. With me, my whole body’s got to go. [He mimes how he uses his entire forearm to bend a string.] I hug the guitar, if you want to get technical about it. Now for vibrato…[he convulses with laughter as he illustrates]…I’ve got to shake my leg a little. When you are a little guy, there’s not much pull on the strings, especially with the heavier gauges.

The most important thing for me onstage is playing the guitar. The whole epileptic routine –whatever I do up there –comes out of that. I do become a little… “possessed”, as Malcolm says.

(…)

One last thing: what’s the origin of the schoolboy get-up?

My sister. As a kid, I’d come right home from school and pick up my guitar, without changing out of my school suit. At dinnertime, I’d still be in the school suit, playing away. My sister always remembered that. She thought it was cute. (…) At least it’s worked for us.

Works cited

“Historia de ACDC”. ac-dc.galeon.com. ACDC: Let there be rock. n.p., n.d. Web. September 15, 2011.

Maile, Ashley. “Angus Young”. Guitar Legends 7 September 2010: 84-88. Print.

The Rock n’ Roll of the 70’s

In the Seventies rock continued on its path of fusion with other musical forms. Rock n’ Roll presented more and more variations to the point that new subgenres were created; it was in this decade that this music changed the most. For example, country rock and jazz rock was created; by the middle of the decade some of these variations started to miss the dancing that used to be part of rock n’ roll music. In the seventies, rock started to be produced just for radio and albums. That helped to start off a new fad, the disco fad, but it did not last long. From there, a new variation began, the disco fad returned rock n’ roll back to its beginnings, and new bands came up whose music resembled the original rock; they were called the “new wave”, and one example was Elvis Costello (rocknrollzone.com).

On this decade, society had not yet accepted rock n’ roll completely, and it came to the point of relating it to the devil when some teenagers and gangs started acting violently. However, nothing stopped rock n’ roll, in those years musicians now studied it to be true professionals. Also, people were talking about it as an artistic, cultural and social revolution (azheavymetal.com).

Progressive rock develops as another variation, which wanted innovation, progress and better messages. That is why bands of this music sound very different from each other, because they achieve new combinations for their melodies. Examples of bands are Pink Floyd and Genesis (azheavymetal.com).

Punk rock also came up in the United States, LA and San Francisco area, as a variation; this is the most aggressive descendant of rock n’ roll, it is violence applied to the musical instruments. The people in this movement had a new special ideology, they were against any form of authority that tried to impose a “must be”. Two bands of punk were the Ramones and Sex Pistols (azheavymetal.com).

And finally, Heavy Metal developed. Some of the bands of this rock n’ roll variation started to talk about satanism, and they had more energy and violence. Bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, the last two became a big spectacle due to their live performances because they liked to recur to satanic images. Other rock n’ roll subgenres came up from Heavy Metal, but I will talk about them in other post (azheavymetal.com).

Led Zeppelin represents in this video to a very good extent the evolution rock n’ roll had in the seventies, also how the social attitude changed and collective hysteria continued. It is also an AWESOME song ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlNhD0oS5pk&ob=av2n

Works Cited

“History Essay: Rock 'n' Roll in the Seventies”. rocknrollzone.com. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Zone, n. d. Web. September 8, 2011.

“La Evolución Continua- La Década de los 70” AZHeavyMetal.com. Historia del Rock n Roll. N.p., n.d. Web. September 8, 2011.

The Rock n’ Roll of the 60’s and The Beatles

The sixties were the years when Rock n’ Roll started to spread all over the world, the reason why it began to have variations since the original thing of the fifties. Rock n’ Roll becomes world music.

Yet in 1957, even thought everything seemed to be on peace, the world was still resentful of World War Two. The people and the cities were damaged; men and women, in order to reconstruct their world, started to live in hard routines. But, instead, the young people refused to live like that. They started to follow the new American music genre and movement of Rock n’ Roll very closely (Sánchez, 1).

At the beginning of the sixties, Elvis Presley and Bill Haley had already produced their masterpieces that started Rock n’ Roll. Soon this music started to expand throughout the world, taking different forms depending on the place where it settled (Sánchez, 1). After the United States, the most significant country was the United Kingdom. As this music movement became more successful and the young generation felt identified with it, more teenagers wanted to be part of it, among them, the young John Lennon (Sánchez, 1). He is the official founder of the Beatles in 1957.

The development of the Beatles as a rock n’ roll band is parallel to the development of the movement in many ways, and at the same time the Beatles influenced changes in this music. They started their music career mixing the recently resurged “skiffle”* with the American rock n’ roll, contributing to the variations in rock ‘n roll music (Sánchez, 1). After the skiffle stopped being used, they looked for a new sound, the main characteristic that shaped the original rock n’ roll music in those days. The Beatles started playing at clubs, mainly in The Cavern, as many other bands would do in and since that time. The media realized the success to come for those new bands of the rock n’ roll movement and started promoting them through television, as The Beatles would appear in TV shows at the beginning of their career. By 1963 it was almost impossible to get a ticket for one of their concerts, and if you got one, you would see how police officers tried to stop the crazy fanatics. The “Beatlemania” would assimilate the feeling of collective hysteria that would come in the future for the next rock n’ roll bands and for the movement in general; this feeling would contribute to the increasing independence of the young generation from the adult people (Sánchez, 6). When the Beatles separate in 1970, rock music goes through new variations and changes, just like every member of the quartet changed their personal interests in music.

The Beatles were so successful and special in those years because of the things they pioneered in. They were one of the first groups of young boys that also wanted to compose their own songs and get their own new sound. They were revolutionary at their time, because they proposed a variation in Rock n’ Roll which was just what the young generation needed at the time, change, happiness and independence, brought by the Beatles through music (:

The revolution continues.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKHgVN7Bjww&feature=fvst

*Skiffle: “originally used in the U.S. in the 1930s to describe mixtures of blues, boogie woogie, and other popular black music” (allmusic.com).

Works cited

Sánchez Guarneros, Israel. Rock Stars. México: Guarnerius Editores, 2007.

“Skiffle”. allmusic.com. All Music, n.d., Web. August 31, 201.

The Rock and Roll of the 50’s and Elvis Presley

Well, from where we left, I consider Elvis as the one who created rock n’ roll, because no other artist has had the same impact and innovation on rock music and society as him. But first of all, let’s talk about the Rock n’ Roll of the fifties, the so-called “original Rock and Roll”.

This music attracted and took hold of the young generation of the United States as it shook their senses with a new rhythm, beat, energy and almost tribal passion and excitement they had never had before. At first only middle class “white” teenagers felt attracted to it and that it was their own (rocknrollzone.com), but with the fusion of “black” blues, Rock n’ Roll soon became music for everybody. Or maybe not for everybody: the society other than the teenagers, the elder people and the authority, completely disapproved it (rocknrollzone.com). Parents hated it; the cultural mix of white and black people presented Rock n’ Roll as “racial music” and caused its censure for being too rebellious, sexual and anti-social for the people in those years. The elder generation saw this music and heard it as a manifestation of evil itself (rocknrollzone.com).

The first stars to come up were musicians like Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Carl Perkins. While Chuck Berry established the ground rules, Lewis and Perkins contributed with a country feel with Little Richard topping it all off with his showmanship. But if Elvis Presley is the King is because he put all these styles together in a way that changed popular music for all time: the original Rock n’ Roll consolidated (rocknrollzone.com).

Elvis possessed an amazing voice that could communicate any rock 'n' roll style almost to perfection; he connected with his music and his audience. His most successful era encompassed 1956-1963 (rocknrollzone.com). He mixed 'black' and 'white' styles and became popular and controversial because of his television performances. Teenage girls became hysterical over his sexual gyrations, particularly the one that got him nicknamed "Elvis the Pelvis" and which TV cameras were not permitted to film (imdb.com).

Rock n’ Roll music when it came up, besides from bringing new social attitudes, and rising a new generation of teenagers, brought new forms of artistic expression: new ways to perform and dance, as Elvis’ dances. A fifties’ Rock n’ Roll band used instruments such as basses, electric and acoustic guitars, drums, piano and saxophones to perform, typical of this new music. About dancing, the music’s rhythm and beat inspired new forms of it, many of which exist to this day (rocknrollzone.com).


My favorite Elvis Presley song ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYsPqoDPjCI

Works Cited

“History Essay: Rock 'n' Roll in the Fifties”. rocknrollzone.com. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Zone, n. d. Web. August 25, 2011.

“Biography for Elvis Presley”. imdb.com. IMDb, n.d. Web. August 25, 2011.

What is Rock n’ Roll?

Rock n’ Roll can be defined as many things by dictionaries, but studying how it came up and developed through history affecting and changing culture and society, it can be defined better. It is normally defined as a music genre, but it involves more. For me, Rock n’ Roll is freedom. It is a music genre, a culture, and a way of living.

It is considered by many as not just a music genre, but an artistic, social, and cultural expression as well as a lifestyle (Univision.com). Since its start it represented a big change for music and culture, breaking schemes, and moral and behavioral traditions (Univision.com). Rock n’ Roll came up from the American culture of the mid-fifties, as a way of singing and playing music that excited the young people as they saw in it a way of releasing their disconformities and rebelliousness (esto.es). As a music genre, it is said to be the result of the fusion of other three: rhythm and blues, jazz, and country (esto.es).

The term “Rock n’ Roll”, generally, is used nowadays as a synonym of “rock”, and both words refer to all the variations or “last names” (esto.es) that evolved from the original Rock n’ Roll of the fifties. “Rock” began to be used after 1960, when the original thing changed for the first time (azheavymetal.com).

Two musicians are seen as the official creators, and it is argued about whether one was the creator or the other: Elvis Presley and Bill Haley.  They both recorded a song in 1954 that is considered as the beginning. Elvis is the worldwide known King of Rock n’ Roll; he recorded his song “That’s All Right” on July of that year (Univision.com) and made history: there had never been music like that before. However, others argue Bill Haley created it on April of the same year with his song “Rock around the clock”, because he sang with more rhythm and speed than he had ever done, mixing the styles of boogie woogie and blues, and creating the original Rock n’ Roll (azheavymetal.com).You decide who started it all ;)

Elvis Presley- That's All Right http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWgprZu4Hk4

Bill Haley- Rock around the clock http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O21xFX7QBpE

Works Cited

“¿Qué es el Rock and Roll?” AZHeavyMetal.com. Historia del Rock n Roll. N.p., n.d. Web. August 18, 2011.

“Historia del Rock” Univision.com. Univisión. Univision Communications Inc., 2008. Web. August 18, 2011.

“Rock and Roll: Un apunte social” Esto.es. Rock and Roll. N.p, n.d. Web. August 18, 2011.