Early Rock and Roll

From the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, rock music grew rapidly from a toddler who just learned to walk. During this period, the rock music scene showed a prosperous scene. . First, the two pioneers made a more complete positioning for the concept of rock music, and then, with the support of many rock stars, it presented three different style trends.

1. Bill Haley (1925 ~ 1981)

Bill Haley, the first rock and roll idol worshiped by teenagers, is often called "rock and roll" father". His music style involves country music, rhythm and blues and pop, which also illustrates the three sources of rock music in the mid-1950s.

Bill Haley was born in Michigan in 1925. His father was a textile worker who could play the banjo, and his mother was a piano teacher. Bill Haley learned guitar and sang country songs since he was a child. He also liked and was familiar with rhythm and blues, and founded the band "Saddlemen" in 1950. While Bill Haley was singing country songs, he occasionally discovered that singing rhythm and blues songs in a country style could also be accepted by white audiences. In 1953, he renamed the band "Comets" and consciously combined country music with the powerful rhythms of rhythm and blues. In 1954, Bill Haley recorded "Rock Around the Clock", which initially had only modest results, but became a huge hit when it was combined with the film "Blackboard Jungle" in 1955.

In the 1970s, Bill Haley suffered from paranoia and alcoholism. He died of a heart attack in 1981. As one of the pioneers of rock music, Bill Haley played an indelible role in the birth of rock music.

2. Elvis Presley (1935～1977)

The most influential singer in the 1950s was Elvis Presley , known as the "King of Rock and Roll", has made great contributions to the promotion and popularization of rock and roll.

Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1935. His family was poor since he was a child. His father was a truck driver and he lived at the bottom of white society. Because he lived with blacks, his social status was the same as blacks. Presley was exposed to both white and black cultures from an early age and grew up under the influence of gospel songs in church. He started learning guitar at the age of 11, so he absorbed both white music and black music. In 1948, Presley's family moved to Memphis, and he often went to the black areas of the city to listen to performances by B.B. King and others.

In 1953, after graduating from high school, Presley found a job as a truck driver. That summer, he went to the "Sun" Record Company studio to record two songs as a birthday gift for his mother. At this time, record company owner Sam Phillips discovered the potential of Presley, a white man with a black voice and feel, and signed him. In July 1954, the first album "That's All Right" was released, which was an unexpected success locally. His stage performances (such as twerking and other large movements) have won the love of many young people. In the autumn of 1955, he signed to RCA Victory Records. In 1956, with the release of "Heartbreak Hotel" (Heartbreak Hotel, Example 19), it became famous. In 1958, when his career was reaching its peak, he left the music scene, gave up singing, and enlisted in the army until he was demobilized in 1960. From 1962 to 1968, apart from making movies, Presley had little contact with audiences and lived in seclusion in his hometown in Memphis. In 1967, Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu.

He had a daughter after marriage, but six years later they divorced due to the breakdown of their marriage, and the daughter was awarded to the woman. He was mentally stimulated and depressed. He weighed over 200 pounds, which detracted from his stage presence. Therefore, he started dieting, taking weight loss pills, and taking drugs, which greatly affected his health. Died at home due to heart disease on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42.

A generation of singing king passed away, and the whole country was shocked. By the time of his death, at least 500 million records had been sold. Indeed, Presley's success was no accident. Some say he was the embodiment of rock music. He has a cute appearance and a kind of unconventional rebelliousness; he believes in religion, is filial to his parents, is patriotic (such as volunteering to join the army), and never evades taxes. The most important thing is that he combined two cultures (black culture and white culture) better than any other singer. Moreover, Presley also sang more musical styles based on the two cultures. His songs are both shouting and gentle, and their contents involve different aspects of patriotism, religion, escapism, social commentary, country flavor, and romantic sentiment, thereby meeting the needs of different classes. He became a favorite among different music lovers. After Presley's death, the music industry desperately wanted to find another singer as versatile as him, but it never succeeded.

3. Three stylistic tendencies

(1) Mainstream Rock (Main Stream Rock)

Among the three sources of rock music, we have already mentioned , rhythm and blues is the most important source of rock music. The characteristics of rhythm and blues were also retained and developed in rock music, thus forming the mainstream style of rock music in the 1950s. The role of rhythm is evident in all rock music, but is even more prominent in mainstream rock. Rock music is generally in four beats. In the traditional four beats, beats two and four are weak beats. However, many mainstream rock music emphasizes the intensity of beats two and four. Some mainstream rock music also emphasizes the four beats of each measure equally. Mainstream rock changes rhythm faster than rhythm and blues, and the backbeat is thicker and feels more intense. In a band, the drummer is as important as other musicians. Not only does the drummer simply beat the beat, the piano and guitar often also participate in the composition of the rhythm. And they also work with the bass to form a distinct bass line. The bass of country music and pop usually has a bass every beat or every other beat. After absorbing the elements of boogie-woogie like rhythm and blues, mainstream rock not only provides a simple chord bass, but a short melody. The sound pattern provides three or four tones of the chord, and some also add one or two extra chord tones (Example 20).

Mainstream rock inherits the powerful singing style of rhythm and blues. For white people, the genre rarely existed in the past, but R&B has been around for decades. Mainstream rock often adopts the 12-bar blues structure, or changes it based on it. Such as "Hound dog" and "Jailhouse Rock" sung by Presley, "Lucille" (Example 21) sung by Little Richard, etc. The singer who best embodied the characteristics of this shouting rock music in the 1950s was Little Richard.

Little Richard was born in Macon, Georgia, USA in 1932. He was the third of 12 children in his family. He grew up in a poor family. Under the influence of his family, he believed in God devoutly and participated in the choir of the local church.

Little Richard sang very enthusiastically, singing, shouting and dancing, always looking like he was sweating profusely. In 1957, he devoted himself to religion and stopped all performing activities. In 1962, while touring the UK, he was inspired by the Beatles and determined to return to the rock music scene. By the late 1960s, his style was becoming somewhat outdated, but his influence can still be seen in other rock singers. In the 1970s, he attempted to make a comeback, but was unable to do so due to his involvement in drugs, alcoholism, and homosexuality. In the early 1980s, he once again gave up his wild lifestyle and turned to religion.

(2) Soft Rock

Mainstream rock has little influence from Pop, but other rock music combines elements of Pop to form a relatively soft rock style. rock music style. Some people sneer at this kind of rock music and call it "cheap rock", but it has its own market. Things are often relative. With a relatively strong mainstream rock style, its opposite will definitely appear - mild rock. Presley set a model for the development of gentle rock music, such as "I want you, I need you, I love you" (I want you, I need you, I love you), "Don't", " Songs such as "Love me tender" (Example 22). In the 1960s, more of his works developed in the direction of mild rock, and some of them were almost indistinguishable from Pop.

(3)Mountain rock (Rockabilly)

Mountain rock is usually a rock style formed by white musicians with a country music background and influenced by rhythm and blues. It is a combination of rock and roll and country music's predecessor - mountain music, just like the word "rockabilly" itself represents: a combination of the two words "Rock" and "Hillbilly". Mountain rock originated in the American South in the 1950s and is a precursor to country rock. It follows the singing style of mountain music and usually uses acoustic guitar as the rhythm instrument. In addition, drums that are never used in traditional country music also appear in mountain rock. On the whole, it is difficult to accurately distinguish the difference between mountain rock and mainstream rock. Like mainstream rock, it has a strong and constantly advancing rhythm, but the intensity is somewhat reduced and diluted. The singing method does not require shouting, and the music is Gao is also clear. Some people think that its style is impure and not real rock; others think that this way rock music can be accepted by more people. In fact, Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" used rhythm and blues material and modified it with the familiar country music. It not only laid the foundation for mainstream rock and roll, but also for mountain rock. The most influential representative of mountain rock is the "Everly Brothers" singing group.

The "Everly Brothers" consist of two brothers, Don Everly (born in 1937) and Phil Everly (born in 1939). Following Presley's example, they developed in the direction of mountain rock and achieved great success. Musically, they were not directly influenced by rhythm and blues, and basically maintained the traditional mountain music style, focusing on the use of harmony when singing. In 1988, the "Everly Brothers" were among the first to be officially included in the "Who's Who in Rock and Roll".

Mainstream rock, mild rock and mountain rock, these terms are just used to describe the different tendencies of rock and roll styles. Every singer has his own singing characteristics. Some typically embody a certain tendency, while others do not. Even for the same singer, there are differences in different periods and different works. Therefore, it is not appropriate to rigidly label singers.

2. Other rock singers

In early rock music, in addition to the singers mentioned above, there were many singers who contributed to the development of rock music. The following mainly introduces several representative singers with outstanding achievements:

Chuck Berry

In 1926, Chuck Berry was born in St. Louis, USA. He sang in the church choir when he was young, learned guitar in middle school, and later learned piano and saxophone. Berry grew up under the influence of black music, especially rhythm and blues, which was his main musical foundation.

For Berry, in addition to his songs, his lyrics and guitar playing had a major impact on rock music. Berry's lyrics were of a higher level than the clichés or meaningless syllables of ordinary rock music at the time.

To a certain extent, it reflects the psychology and requirements of the new generation of American teenagers in the 1950s. Berry's singing adopts a shouting style, but the pronunciation is clearer. His guitar playing has attracted a large number of followers. It can be said that Berry set the template for rock and roll guitar style ten years before the emergence of guitar genius Jimi Hendrix.

Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis, born in 1935 in Ferreide, Louisiana, USA, is a white rock and roll man hand. He was born into a poor family in a small southern town. He was influenced by rhythm and blues and gospel songs since he was a child. He is accustomed to using a 12-bar blues structure and boogie-woogie-style piano playing. Lewis is good at performing fast hard rock songs, with very fancy performance postures, and always has various body movements to match when playing the piano.

Lewis's deviant behavior in marriage (multiple illegal marriages) ruined his musical future. Although his time in the rock music industry was not long, his influence was huge. His unique combination of country music and rhythm and blues, his piano style, singing style, and even lifestyle influenced his contemporaries and subsequent generations. He always wanted to be the king of rock music, but this dream was ruined in his own hands.

Buddy Holly

Buddy Holly became a legend after his death. His songs were still popular into the 1960s and even into the 1970s.

"Fats Dimino" (Fats Dimino)

"Fat" Domino was born in New Orleans, USA in 1928. He was born in a musical family. He started learning piano at the age of 9 and dropped out of middle school at the age of 14. Attend a show.

Domino, like Little Richard, is a Southern black man. They both play (piano) and sing, and their musical backgrounds are both rhythm and blues. However, his style appears more refined, more controlled, less violent and less dazzling. His singing was also not as gruff and non-threatening as Little Richard's. His personal life is even more impeccable.

Not all rock music in the 1950s was new works. Another approach was to adapt old pop songs in the style of rock music, adding rock bass parts and obvious rock beats. Domino has achieved outstanding results in this regard.

5. Surfing Music

The rise of rock music has been opposed by many people. This kind of opposition comes from various aspects such as education, religion, administration, and students' parents. They criticize rock music from various perspectives such as morality, management, youth education, and social atmosphere.

By the late 1950s and early 1960s, the rock music wave seemed to have passed. Among the many stars mentioned earlier, Little Richard turned to religion; Lewis quit rock and roll due to scandals in his life; Chuck Berry went to jail for hiring prostitutes; Buddy Holly died; Domino and Presley's The songs also all turned towards pop direction. Among the three types of rock music: mainstream rock, mountain rock and mild rock, mainstream rock seldom introduces new things, and it is difficult to achieve the dominant position it had in previous years; mountain rock is moving closer to mild rock. At the same time, some new styles emerged, with surf music having the greatest influence.

As a type of rock music, it simply combines the interest in pop music with the love of surfing, singing about waves, beach parties, motorcycles, girls, the experience of surfing, etc. The surfer singer's biggest social concern is the sales of suntan lotion at the local drugstore, but he is indifferent to social issues.

The earliest surf music appeared in 1956. The representative work is Roy Orbison's "Domion", which has a wave-like rhythm and guitar sound.

But surf music spread and had a national impact when "Surfin'" and "Surfing Safari" were released by The Beach Boys in 1961 and 1962 respectively. Caused by a song.

The "Beach Boys" are composed of five middle school students in Southern California, they are Brian Wilson (Brian Wilson) and his two younger brothers, plus their cousin Mike Love (Mike Love) ) and a friend, Al Jardine. Wilson is the core figure of the band. Their representative works include: "Surfin' U.S.A", "Surfer girl", "Fun, Fun, Fun", "Help Rhonda" ) and "California girl" (California girl), etc. As time went on, Wilson became increasingly interested in the use of recording technology, and became dissatisfied with the carefree surf music. In 1966, they spent more than six months and experimented with four different recording studios to release one of their best-selling songs, "Good Vibrations", which topped the pop charts in December of the same year. . At that time, once the speed, beat, key and texture of a rock song were determined, it would basically not change much during the duration of about two and a half minutes. "Good Spirit" was different. It had many variations in tempo, texture, rhythm and timbre, mixed with multiple sounds, and was perhaps the most complex song to date. At the same time, only the "Beatles" were conducting similar experiments. After that, the "Beach Boys" continued to launch a series of works, but they never achieved the same success as before. In the minds of listeners, the sound they made was still associated with the simple surfing game.

Historically speaking, surf music is only a short-lived transitional music, but its highly individual musical characteristics attracted many young listeners at that time. If we make a simple summary of the characteristics of surf music, it can be roughly divided into the following points:

(1) The music is mainly natural sounds;

(2) The rhythm is brisk and rich. Power;

(3) The vocal part has a chorus composed of a large number of dense chords;

(4) Pay attention to the use of electric guitar effects;

(5) The musical structure is mostly in the form of stanza-rhapsody.