A BRIEF ALTRENATIVE HISTORY OF ROCK by Alan L.

Chrisman
Rock music has only been around for only about 60 years now. But it has become such a part of
our culture that we may have forgotten that. When it started in the 1950s, it was considered
only for teenagers and adults didnt take it seriously. Its early pioneers Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley,
Little Richard, Buddy Holly, etc. were just trying to make as, boy genius/ producer, Phil Spector
said, little symphonies for the kids, but only of 2-3 minutes duration.
Its early founders almost all came from the southern U.S. There are reasons for this, because
early rock n roll was basically a combination of two forms, rhythm-blues and country (which
some have called white mans blues, like Hank Williams), which at the time could only have
been heard in the South. Sam Phillips at Sun Records in Memphis, Tenn., said if he could find a
white man who could sing with the soul of a black (which he did with Elvis) he could have cross-
over hits. He was also to do that with rest of the million-dollar quartette, Johnny Cash, Jerry
Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. These white artists called this new music they created rockabilly.
Where a performer came from had a lot to do with the kind of music they created. Rock is a
hybrid and rock comes from the cities. Black blues musicians may have originally come from
rural areas (again the South), but it wasnt until such as Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker
moved north for jobs after the war, that blues turned closer into electric rock and became
Chicago Blues and Detroit Motown. Texas is interesting, for example, because so many artists
came out of it: Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Roy Orbison, Del Shannon, Janis Joplin,
Willie Nelson, Bob Wills, for it had not only the two prerequisite forms but swing and Tex-Mex
too. Other cities became centers that became known for certain sounds or styles, Nashville
(country), New Orleans (Jazz, Acadian, R&B/ Prof. Longhair, Fats Domino), Memphis Soul and
later in the 60s, San Francisco (psychedelic) and L.A. Even folk (although rural originally)
wasnt popular until it moved into the clubs of New York City and Boston. Liverpool was a
seaport, as was Hamburg, Germany, where The Beatles got exposure to American records.
Bob Marley came out of Kingston, Jamaica and helped combine ska and American Soul to form
reggae. Chuck Berry, probably more influential than Elvis, was from St. Louis, half way between
the North and South and wrote perfect little vignettes using black music to reach white kids. In
other words, it required a cross-current of cultures and styles to reach a greater (but, ironically,
more accessible) synthesis. As Charlie Gilletts classic books title says, rock is truly the Sound
of the City (1970). Rhythm from black music combined with more melodic white music and
made a new form- rock, which helped lead to a wider racial bringing together of society even.
But there have also been, I think, several myths about rock. There seems to be this idea that
the closer an artist is to its roots, the more authentic he or she is. There has been this concept
that somehow the more pure its form the better, such as blues-based or acoustic folk. The
whole history of rock is in some ways the borrowing of black music by whites, as jazz also
came from black culture. But too many white rock artists, I think, have tried to sound too much
like black singers in their voices. Rock has been mainly for white audiences, until fairly recently.
Still the myth has persisted. The same with folk music; Bob Dylan realized he had to compete
with The Beatles by moving to electric despite the folk- purists boos and Jimi Hendrix showed
how the electric guitar could express more than acoustic. Bands like the Rolling Stones or Led
Zeppelin , because of their closer blues influences , have been considered by some critics more
legitimate and rock. But The Beatles were considered more of a pop band, because they
came from that background too. The elitists always looked down on popular culture, because it
was popular.
In the 60s, fans were often split between the two; The Beatles being the good guys and the
Stones the bad boys. But it was more because of the marketing images created by their
managements. They were actually friends and the Beatles had written the Stones first hit for
them and had helped them get their record contract. Often the Stones would follow The
Beatles in their directions and even album names and covers (Sgt. Pepper, Satanic Majesties
Request; White Album then Beggars Banquets, Let it Be, Let it Bleed). The Beatles were the
artistic revolutionaries and the other groups almost always followed in their lead. The Beatles
moved from being pop stars to becoming artists, rare indeed, (for more on The Beatles story,
see my book, Its A Long Way Home (& How Beatles Music Saved My Life). But Dylan moved
from underground folk to pop acceptance. Of course, rock always had that rebel persona. It
seemed if an artist lived fast and died young (Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Kurt
Cobain all died at age 27), it could only help your legacy.
Another myth was that rock has to be working class. Interestingly, white blues guitarists like
Eric Clapton would dress-down in blue jeans while many black originators like B.B. King, would
dress-up in 3-piece suits. Bob Dylan, although he was a Jewish upper middle-class kid from
Minnesota , fabricated a whole Woody Guthrie 30s dustbowl image. Later Rolling Stone
Magazine would try to cast Bruce Springsteen as the new working-class Dylan. But most of the
60s rock artists, like most of the hippies came from affluent backgrounds. The Beatles
(although workingclass by North American standards), except for Ringo, came from lower
middle-class homes. Mick Jaggers father taught at The London School of Economics. Madonna
was a Catholic girl from conservative Michigan before she became the Material Girl and
professed Woman Power. Michael Jackson sang safe black music for white audiences and
middle-class blacks mainly, and thus claimed to be the King of Pop, not Rock. Punk, although it
may have been working class originally in England with the Sex Pistols, by the time it reached
North America, became embraced by performers and kids from the suburbs. Andy Warhol-
influenced decadent/art rockers like Velvet Underground and David Bowie were actually
bourgeois. So theres always been a bit of a shell game in rock.
As I said, where people come from determines the type of music they make. Canada is more
known for its folk singers, like Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, and Leonard Cohen. Again it
was a mainly rural environment. Its best and few rockers, the Guess Who and Neil Young, both
came from tough-city, Winnipeg. The Band, part-Canadian and part-American, learned from
Ronnie Hawkins from Arkansas. Alanis Morissette from Ottawa, would follow Madonna in her
female middle-class angst. Ottawas best 60s-70s rock bands, The Staccatos and The Five
Man Electrical Band, leader Les Emmerson said, Ottawa always had the harmonies,
reflecting its government-town homogeneousness. Reading Ottawa-born Paul Ankas recent
autobiography shows just how rock n roll has changed.
Before Elvis came in the middle 50s, pop music was pretty sterile. Also again right before The
Beatles in the 60s, it had become mainly manufactured teen idols or Bobby Bobbys as Jerry
Lee Lewis called them, usually from white northern immigrant backgrounds But The Beatles
changed all that and wrote their own songs. Even Elvis didnt write his own songs. Adults and
critics didnt take pop music seriously until The Beatles and Sgt. Peppers. And suddenly it
became art as well. At its best, it could be poetry in motion.
It seemed whenever rock music became too predictable and pretentious, a reaction would
develop and try and shake it up. But by the 80s and 90s it had become too bloated. Record
companies had become too big and radio stations were owned by conglomerates with set play
lists. Rock always had its theatrical side (Chuck Berrys duck walk or Jerry Lee Lewis and Little
Richards jumping on the piano), but with MTV, video became more important than the songs.
Rap and Hip Hop which had come from the black ghetto began to take over, but, like disco in
the 70s, it consisted of mainly repetitive beats with little melody and words that seemed made
up on the spot. Pop music, for the most part, has seemed to regress to all the facility of a
commercial. The Baby Boomers, the first generation to carry their music on into their maturity,
found their own beloved songs used nostalgically to try and sell them cars and consumer
products.
Music seems to have reverted back to the manufactured pop and teen American Idols like the
early 50s and early 60s eras. There are likely to be no more Elvis or Beatles to rescue it,
because they were unique to their times. Todays technology has changed everything. Music
became available 24 hours a day and is perhaps taken more for granted by a new generation
that can just download it for free (and not have to pay the artist). There are few record
companies so artists have to be their own and yet compete with everyone who thinks they are
a musician and wants to be a celebrity, posting their own videos and hoping they will go viral on
overnight (usually only the most superficial) . Every performer says theyre an artist even
though a whole committee may write their songs and it has begun to take itself all too
seriously. Pop music has become ubiquitous, but it seems to have lost a lot of its charm and
fun even. As I say, rock often has gone through these periods before and been rescued. But its
been years now since anyone has really shaken it up. With all the technological and cultural
changes, its unlikely to happen again unless a truly revolutionary, unforeseen artist or artists,
would somehow emerge in the future.

Long Live Rock n Roll!
Alan L. Chrisman, 2014
Ottawa, Canada
www.rockthistownproductions.com