From Folk to Popular Music. Rock-and-Roll

Rock-and-roll is perhaps the most popular genre of music in the world today. Concert tours by major performers are important international cultural events. The production and distribution of records, instruments, videos, and other artifacts associated with rock-and-roll is a multi- billion-dollar, worldwide enterprise.

Like other forms of popular music, rock-and-roll can trace its ancestry to various folk music traditions originating in the southern and southeastern United States. In contrast to jazz and country music, rock-and-roll is a recent innovation. Jazz and country were fully developed art forms by the 1920s, whereas rock-and-roll did not emerge until the early 1950s. Rock-and-roll has been strongly influenced by these earlier forms of popular music, as well as by folk music.

In contrast to earlier genres of popular music, rock-and-roll originated only after the development of modern recording and communications technology. Technological innovation has always been central to rock-and-roll recording and performance. The electric guitar has been a central instrument in rock-and-roll bands throughout the genre's history. Synthesizers, electric pianos and organs, and many other amplified instruments characterize rock-and-roll bands.

Several distinct centers of innovation have played an important part in the development of rock-and-roll. As was the case with jazz, the conservatism of the music industry in New York retarded that city's critical acceptance of rock-and-roll. Performers and producers in other cities felt more freedom to experiment with this new and innovative genre of popular music. In the 1950s, major contributions to the early history of rock-and-roll came from Philadelphia, Cleveland, (the site of the rock-and-roll Hall of Fame) Memphis, and Detroit. By the 1960s, California had become a dominant center of rock-and-roll innovation.

Rock-and-roll soon diffused throughout the world, and performers from many different countries achieved worldwide popularity. British musicians, in particular, have contributed to the development of rock-and-roll throughout the years. The "British Invasion" of the 1960s brought lasting international fame to the Beatles and stardom to many other performers (Figure 6-7).

Figure 6-7 The "British Invasion." The "British Invasion" of the 1960s helped diffuse rock-and-roll throughout the world. The Beatles were the most popular new British group

Since that time, numerous British performers have recorded chart-topping songs popular throughout the world. Just as American innovators of rock-and-roll came from outside New York, many early rock-and-roll stars in Britain came from working-class backgrounds and from outside London. The Beatles were born and raised in Liverpool and felt little pressure in their early careers to conform to the conservative standards of the London popular-music industry.

More recently, many internationally popular rock artists have come from outside the United States and the United Kingdom. Examples include ABBA from Sweden, the Bee Gees from Australia, Jan Hammer from Czechoslovakia, and Sade from Nigeria. Distinctive aspects of music from their own folk cultures are often integrated into their compositions and performances.