Rock (music)

:For other uses of "Rock", see Rock.

Rock spreads and diversifies

Diversification of American rock

Main article: American rock

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With the runaway popular success of rock, the style began to influence other genres. Vocalized R&B became doo wop, for example, while uptempo, secularized gospel music became soul, and audiences flocked to see Appalachian-style folk bands playing a rock-influenced pop version of their style. Places like Southern California produced their own varieties of rock, such as surf. For some years, the so-called San Francisco Sound shared equal esteem (and nearly equal popularity) with British super-star acts like the Rolling Stones, the Who, Cream. Young adults and teenagers across the country were playing in amateur rock bands, laying the roots for local scenes, garage rock and alternative rock.

Related Topics:
Doo wop - Gospel music - Soul - Surf - San Francisco Sound - Rolling Stones - The Who - Cream - Garage rock - Alternative rock

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Surf music

Main article: surf music

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The rockabilly sound reached the West Coast and mutated into a wild, mostly instrumental sound called surf music. This style, exemplified by Dick Dale and The Surfaris, featured faster tempos, innovative percussion, and processed electric guitar sounds which would be highly influential upon future rock guitarists. Other West Coast bands, notably The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean, would capitalize on the surf craze, slowing the tempos back down and adding harmony vocals to create the "California Sound."

Related Topics:
Surf music - Dick Dale - The Surfaris - Electric guitar - The Beach Boys - Jan and Dean

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Australia

Main article: Australian rock

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After Johnny O'Keefe's last major hit in 1961, Australian popular music was dominated by clean-cut family bands. Bubbling beneath the surface, however, was a group of pioneering bands like the surf band The Atlantics.

Related Topics:
1961 - Surf - The Atlantics

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British rock

Main article: British rock

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The Trad jazz movement brought blues artists to Britain, and in 1955 Lonnie Donegan's version of "Rock Island Line" began Skiffle music which inspired many young people to have a go, including John Lennon whose "The Quarry Men" formed in March 1957 would gradually change and develop into The Beatles. This primed the United Kingdom to respond creatively to American rock and roll which had an impact across the globe. In Britain skiffle groups, record collecting and trend-watching were in full bloom among the youth culture prior to the rock era, and color barriers were less of an issue with the idea of separate "race records" seeming almost unimaginable. Countless British youths listened to R&B and rock pioneers and began forming their own bands. Britain quickly became a new centre of rock and roll.

Related Topics:
Trad jazz - Lonnie Donegan - Rock Island Line - Skiffle music - John Lennon - The Quarry Men - 1957 - The Beatles - United Kingdom

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In 1958 three British teenagers formed a rock and roll group, Cliff Richard and the Drifters (later renamed Cliff Richard and the Shadows). The group recorded a hit, "Move It", marking not only what is held to be the very first true British rock 'n' roll single, but also the beginning of a different sound — British rock. Richard and his band introduced many important changes, such as using a "lead guitarist" (virtuoso Hank Marvin) and an electric bass. Richard inspired many British teens to begin buying records and follow the music scene, thus laying the groundwork for Beatlemania.

Related Topics:
Cliff Richard - Move It - British rock - Hank Marvin - Electric bass - Beatlemania

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By the early 1960s Rock 'n' Roll was fading into lightweight pop and schmaltzy ballads, but at clubs and local dances British rock groups were starting to play with an intensity and drive seldom found in white American acts, heavily influenced by Blues-rock pioneers like Alexis Korner. From around 1963 the British rock scene began to dominate pop music world-wide. First reinterpreting standard American tunes, these groups then infused their original rock compositions with an industrial-class sensibility. Foremost among these was The Beatles, who became one of the most influential and the most popular act in the history of rock and roll. The Beatles brought together an appealing mix of image, songwriting, and personality.

Related Topics:
Rock group - Blues-rock - Alexis Korner - British rock - The Beatles

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British invasion

Main article: British Invasion

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After their initial success in the UK, The Beatles launched a large-scale US tour to ecstatic reaction, a phenomenon quickly dubbed Beatlemania. Although they were not the first British band to come to America, The Beatles spearheaded the Invasion, triumphing in the US on their first visit in 1964 (including historic appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show). In the wake of Beatlemania other British bands headed to the U.S., notably the Rolling Stones (who disdained the Beatles' clean-cut image and presented a darker, more aggressive image), and other acts like The Animals and The Yardbirds. Throughout the early and mid-60s Americans seemed to have an insatiable appetite for British rock. Other British bands, including The Who and The Kinks, had some success during this period but saved their peak of popularity for the second wave of British invasion in the late 1960s.

Related Topics:
The Beatles - Beatlemania - 1964 - Ed Sullivan Show - The Rolling Stones - The Animals - The Yardbirds - The Who - The Kinks

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1960s garage rock

Main article: Garage rock

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The British Invasion spawned a wave of imitators in the U.S. and across the globe. Many of these bands were cruder than the bands they tried to emulate. Playing mainly to local audiences and recording cheaply, very few of these bands broke through to a higher level of success. This movement, later known as Punk rock or Garage Rock, gained a new audience when record labels started re-issuing compilations of the original singles; the best known of these is a series called Nuggets. Some of the better known band of this genre include The Sonics, ? & the Mysterians, and The Standells.

Related Topics:
Punk rock - Garage Rock - Nuggets - The Sonics - ? & the Mysterians - The Standells

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Bob Dylan and folk-rock (starting 1963)

Main articles: Bob Dylan, Folk-rock

Related Topics:
Bob Dylan - Folk-rock

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As the British Invasion led by The Beatles picked up steam, a homegrown American trend was making itself felt, led by Bob Dylan. By 1963 the 22 year old Dylan had assimilated a variety of regional American styles and was set to create a new genre, usually dubbed "folk-rock". From 1961 to mid-1963 Dylan had kept his distance from rock and roll even though his first adolescent musical forays owed more to early rockers like Buddy Holly and Little Richard than to any of the more obscure folk and blues artists he would later revere as paradigms (in particular, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly and Robert Johnson). Dylan and others on the new folk circuit tended to view The Beatles as bubblegum (that is, tritely commercial), but admitted to a grudging respect for their melodic originality and energetic, danceable delivery. In 1963 Dylan's release of the album The Times They Are A-Changin was a watershed event, bringing "relevant" and highly poetic lyrics to the edge of rock and roll. The Beatles listened to this album incessantly and moved away from the exclusively romantic/interpersonal themes of their songs to date.

Related Topics:
Bob Dylan - 1963 - 1961 - Buddy Holly - Little Richard - Woody Guthrie - Leadbelly - Robert Johnson - Bubblegum - The Times They Are A-Changin

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In 1964 and 1965 Dylan threw off all pretense to roots purity and embraced the rock beat and electrified instruments, culminating in the release of the song "Like a Rolling Stone" which, at over six minutes playing time, changed the landscape of hit radio and ushered in a period of intense lyrical and structural experimentation on both sides of the Atlantic. Dylan would continue to surprise fans and critics with tour-de-force albums in many styles, but, from 1964 on, he has worked mostly within the rock and roll framework. His influence on all rock sub-genres is incalculable, probably equaled only by The Velvet Underground's. Among Dylan's most important disciples was Neil Young, whose lyrical inventiveness, wedded to an often wailing electric guitar attack, would presage grunge.

Related Topics:
1964 - 1965 - Like a Rolling Stone - Neil Young - Grunge

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