Rock
& Roll
In
its purest form, rock & roll has three chords, a strong, insistent back beat,
and a catchy melody. Early rock & roll drew from a variety of sources, primarily
blues, R&B, and country, but also gospel, traditional pop, jazz, and folk. All
of these influences combined in a simple, blues-based song structure that was
fast, danceable, and catchy. The first wave of rock & rollers -- Chuck Berry,
Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Bo Diddley, Bill
Haley, Gene Vincent, the Everly Brothers, and Carl Perkins, among many others
-- set the template for rock & roll that was followed over the next four decades.
During each decade, a number of artists replicated the sound of the first rockers,
while some expanded that definition and others completely exploded the constrictions
of the genre. From the British Invasion, folk-rock, and psychedelia, and through
hard rock, heavy metal, glam rock, and punk, most subgenres of rock & roll initially
demonstrated an allegiance to the basic structure of rock & roll. Once these
permutations emerged, traditional rock & roll faded away from the pop charts,
yet there were always artists that kept the flame alive. Some, like the Rolling
Stones and the Faces, adhered to the basic rules of traditional rock & roll
but played the music fast and loose. Others, like proto-punk rockers the Velvet
Underground, the New York Dolls, and the Stooges, kept the basic song structure,
but played it with more menace. Still others, like Dave Edmunds and Graham Parker,
became rock & roll traditionalists, writing and recording music that never wavered
from the sound of the late '50s and early '60s. Although the term "rock & roll"
came to refer to a number of different music styles in the decades following
its inception, the essential form of the music never changed.
