A brief history of RockN'Roll

Rock and roll is a type of music originated in the United States in the 1950s that would later develop into a more international style called ‘rock music’.

It was influenced by African-American genres such as blues, jazz, boogie woogie, country and gospel music. It is characterized by the use of electric guitars, a strong rhythm and simple phrase structure.

It all started thanks to a ‘cultural collision’. The migration of former slaves to cities such as New York, Detroit, Chicago and Buffalo meant that white and black people could hear each other´s music or even mixed them. Thanks to white artists that started to be influenced by black music, rock and roll was born.

During World War II, large bands of jazz were not economic at all so they started to be replaced by small ones with guitars, bass and drums.

During that time, ‘jump blues’ developed (guitar riffs, shouted lyrics, prominent beats).

From this mixture, rock and roll was created.

‘Country boogie’ then supplied many of the elements that are nowadays characteristic of rock and roll.

As the process of the creation of rock and roll is quite evolutionary, there is not one record that was the first rock and roll record. Bill Haley’s ‘Rock around the clock’ is seen as one of the most important records of the beginnings of rock and roll but it was preceded by many recordings from earlier decades.

In the 1940´s and the early 1950´s, the piano or the saxophone usually were the lead instrument. However, they were replaced by guitar in the late 1950´s.

Rock and roll arrived at a time of technological changes. The electric guitar, amplifier and microphone were developed during those years.