America Rocks and Rolls [ushistory.org] (2024)

FAQs

What was the controversy with rock and roll? ›

Because rock and roll originated among the lower classes and a segregated ethnic group, many middle-class whites thought it was tasteless. Rock and roll records were banned from many radio stations and hundreds of schools. But the masses spoke louder.

It made an important impact on America and the world by inspiring and contributing to social and cultural change. Rock signified rebellion and young people's rejection of their parents' music, attitudes, and expectations. It also offered a bridge between races, classes, religions, and cultures.

One of the moral panics associated with the first wave of rock 'n' roll was the fear of race mixing - that young black and white kids would get together over this music that had a rhythmic, primitive, sensuous beat.

Particularly significant influences were jazz, blues, gospel, country, and folk. Commentators differ in their views of which of these forms were most important and the degree to which the new music was a re-branding of African-American rhythm and blues for a white market, or a new hybrid of black and white forms.

It was also in North America that "Rock and Roll Part 2" became popularly associated with sports, as a number of professional teams began to play the song during games to invigorate the audience. Since Glitter's convictions for child sex offences, the song's continued use has been controversial.

One of the main complaints of parents had to do with the sexual nature of rock In' roll lyrics and of some of its performers. They feared that the lyrics of songs like Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis would inspire the destruction of sexual morals and abstinence.

Cultural historian Charles Panati says that to some parents the music of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley was disturbing, frenzied and sexual. Parents and clergy believed that rock 'n' roll was the cause of the nation's social ills and youthful rebellion.

Some of the early Rock and Roll artists were Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, and Bill Haley and the Comets. The first number-one single of Rock and Roll was "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets.

By the '80s, music had gone from albums to eight tracks, tape and CDs and soon after the dramatic rejection of Disco, as rock and roll was continuing to splinter into even more cultural sub-generes, MTV arrived. It was with MTV that it argued the acceleration of Rock and Roll's eventual demise began.

Many claim that the defining moment that makes Cleveland “the birthplace” of rock started back in the early 1950s, with help from radio disc jockey Alan Freed. His radio show on WJW in Cleveland was gaining popularity because of the kind of music he was playing for his mostly white audience.

Who was the most famous singer in the 50s? ›

Elvis Presley, who began his career in the mid-1950s, was the most successful artist of the popular sound of the Rock and Roll Era, with a series of network television appearances, motion pictures, and chart-topping records. Elvis also brought rock and roll widely into the mainstream of popular culture.

It can be argued that Elvis Presley had the greatest impact on rock and roll, transforming it into a global phenomenon with his charismatic performances and unique vocal style.

The rock and roll lifestyle was popularly associated with sex and drugs. Many of rock and roll's early stars (as well as their jazz and blues counterparts) were known as hard-drinking, hard-living characters.

Many saw rock music as a sign of cultural and moral decline, and some even believed to hear hidden satanic messages in its lyrics. But, even as fundamentalist preachers waged war against Rock & Roll, the young generation was raising rock music to a new religion.

Parents fought with their teenagers about the music which threatened every part of the older, conservative generation. They said the male singers sounded immature and their exhaling grunts were offensive. Some despised everything about the music -- the chaotic rhythm, its howling and screaming.