The first roots of rock music

Claire Abe — Sun, 15 May 2022 10:00:00 +0000

Hi!

Now we know roughly what rock music is. But what influenced it? What allowed rock to be created?

In the post What’s rock music and creators, we already know (in the big lines) that rock music is a meeting between different musical styles.

In today’s post, we’re gonna talk a little more in-depth about the genres that influenced it.

DISCLAIMER: This post is based on some of my knowledge and is backed up and supplemented by research done before its writing. You can find the sources at the bottom of the page.

WARNING : the use of the words “Black” and “White” in my post are not racist, or prejudicial. I don’t want to disrespect anyone.

Rock has :

ROOTS IN BLACK MUSIC

Which include:

Blues

It’s a vocal musical genre, which is also instrumentally derived from African-American work songs. It appeared in Mexico and in the South of the USA during the 19th century. The singer expresses his sadness and misfortunes through it.

Blues imposes itself as a crucial element of rock n’roll with the following:

The blues scale: sequence of notes on which two degrees are lowered (if we take the C scale: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C, it will give C- E_b – F – F# – G – b _b – (C) in blues)
Syncope: accentuation of a downbeat (2-4) extending over an upbeat (1-3). This produces a break effect.
A musical form of its own: 12 measures repeated in a loop (the measure is the division of a musical piece into parts of equal time periods)

Blues also bring the taste of original tones including guitars and «impure» voice types.

Here are some artists from this genre: Big Mama Thornton, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown

Boogie-woogie

The Boogie-woogie is a jazz-specific pianistic style consisting of playing blues on a fast rhythm.

It appeared in the early 20th century and is associated with the south and southwest of the USA. It was originally called “fast western-style” or “western rolling blues”. Clarence “Pine Top” Smith is arguably the precursor.

The concept of boogie-woogie is simple. With the left hand, the pianists continuously repeat small patterns that follow the harmonic line of the blues. On the right hand, the pianist plays riffs.

It uses 12 measures like blues and the basic rhythm is given by the bass. The latter uses the:

Eight to the bar: 8 eighth notes per measure. A measure is the division of a piece of music into equal parts, and an eighth note is worth half a black note in music.
Walking basses: way to accompany bass/contrabass, consisting of improvising a note per time according to a defined harmonic grid.

Boogie-woogie will make the good days of rock n’roll, especially with pianists such as Fats Domino or Little Richard. Decades later, it will ensure a huge reputation for bands like ZZ Top or AC/DC.

Among the great names of boogie-woogie, we can mention in addition to Clarence “Pine Top” Smith: Jimmy Yancey, Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, and Meade « Lux » Lewis.

Rhythm n’blues

Rhythm and Blues is derived from blues, jazz, and gospel. First called «race music», it will become rhythm and blues in the late 1940s. «Rhythm» denotes an accelerated tempo, and «Blues» refers to the 12 measures of the genre.

The real specificity of rhythm and blues is that it is played by Black people for Black people. It emerges in the south of the USA and will follow the population’s migration to the major metropolises.

The link between rhythm and blues and rock n’roll is so direct that many rhythm and blues songs recorded between 1945 and 1954 could belong to the 1950s rock n’roll register!

One of its essential elements is the band’s formation. They are generally composed of:

Drums,
Bass,
Guitar,
Piano,
Singer and/or saxophonist.

Those bands have been themselves influenced by jump blues bands (a kind of big band for poor people).
From those jump blues bands, the brass and woods were abandoned, only stay the piano and guitars that can perform solos and riffs as well as accompaniment.

We can identify 3 trends in this genre:

The one from New York and Los Angeles: based on small formations and «screamed» singing in the «blues shouters» tradition.

2. The one from the South and Middle West: marks the synthesis of rural blues and electric guitar.

3. Vocal groups

Afro-American music

Rock n’roll music borrows some technics from those kinds of music, like the riff. The latter is a short musical phrase repeated several times in the piece.

When in big orchestral jazz bands it is performed by clarinets, saxophones, trumpets, or trombones; in rock music, it’s the guitar and choirs that take over.

PS: You need to know that the majority of the White audience doesn’t know Black people’s music. Only a few curious and those with a social condition that leads them to share the daily life of the Black population know and love these sounds (Hello racism and segregation!). It is up to them to create rock n’roll by mixing these sounds with their own cultural background.

ROOTS IN WHITE RURAL MUSIC

When immigrants land in the USA, they also come with their own cultures (including music). Some of them will last long after their disappearance on the European continent.

The Appalachian repertory

One of the most famous (and important) examples of the development of rock n’roll is this repertoire. It was imported to the USA by English and Scottish settlers. This music style was named « old-time music » or « songs from Dixie » when it started to be known.
With time, those rural kinds of music will be gathered under the name COUNTRY. This genre differs according to the region and has different styles.

Country and western

It’s the most influential country style. It’s popularized by singing cowboys in Hollywood westerns and television shows. Thanks to this, America transmits the image of a new hero: white, hard-working, and patriotic. This image is used to represent the cultural traditions of “real Americans” and expresses the Conservative ideology.

Among the artists representing this kind of music, we can find Gene Autry and Patsy Montana. However, it was decades later that Johnny Cash made it much more popular by mixing it with rock n’ roll.

Western swing

In the late 1930s, western swing was one of the most popular dance music.

From Texas, it’s the synthesis between country music and jazz, as well as other rural music. This style will leave a lot of room for improvisation. It’s played by a string orchestra (guitars, banjo, fiddle violins, steel guitars, etc.) and complemented by drums, saxophones, trumpets, or piano. It was originally called «hot dance country music» before becoming western swing.

The fathers of the genre are Bob Willis and Milton Brown

Bluegrass

In the same period, Bill Monroe develops bluegrass music. It’s a mix of Euro-American melodies on very syncopated African-American rhythms. This music is performed on makeshift and European instruments such as dulcimer, violin, banjo, acoustic guitar, and steel guitar.

dulcimer
source: Wikipedia

steel guitars
source: Wikipedia

Country music gives also to rock n’roll music :

The desire of returning to natural voices,
The use of clean and clear sounds,
A form of instrumental virtuosity.

The American variety

For softer rock songs, we can find many references to American crooners such as Nat «King» Cole, Eddie Fisher, Tony Bennett, and Franck Sinatra. Love me Tender by Elvis Presley is a good example of the influence of American variety in rock.

ROOTS IN RELIGIOUS MUSIC AND WORK SONGS

In the 1930s and 1940s, agriculture and religion were two pillars in the South Americans’ lives.

Work songs

The long work hours in the fields, where people break their backs every day, are punctuated by work songs. Thousands of children and teenagers are in contact with this kind of music. A few of them will become rock stars like Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, or Carl Perkins decades later.

Religious practices

Another side of the musical baggage of these rockers is religious practices. South churches are dominated by different forms of Protestantism. In most cases, music has an important place.

As for the black parishes, they perform gospel music whose swinging rhythms evoke jazz, boogie-woogie, or blues.

This religious background has two consequences :

An impregnation in rock n’roll, especially through extroverted vocal and scenic behaviors,
A tension between their religious education and the various rock temptations.

You have to know that to sing rock is to choose the devil’s music, as the bluesmen did before them.

All these musical genres continue today to influence and inspire artists. Whatever their musical styles and in addition to other «more current» musical styles. These artists then transpose them in their own ways.

Personally, I find it very interesting to see the various influences that have led to rock. It shows that all musical genres can mix and create something unique.

We can already see that the mixes are made on several levels. The songs of African-American workers have influenced the blues and rhythm and blues, which themselves will influence years later the rock n’roll. How amazing it is!

That’s it for now. You can listen to all the artists and songs I mentioned in this article right below. Also, feel free to share if you liked it or if you think it might interest someone you know.

Spotify Playlist

Also, you can see all the drawings / caricatures right here !

See you soon !

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