I admit I made a brain-wringing kick-off to my music posts. As much as I go with the flow, I tend to get hooked on the physics behind such enthralling motion. What I like, and despise, I gotta understand it. You end up with a screwed-up mind afterwards but the ride is well worth it. I am that meme guy reading about quantum physics for the 100th time and still looking as confused as his first time. That’s how I roll. Speaking of which, rolling is a physical- okay okay 😀
Father of Rock and Roll
In fact this will be a very Chuck Berry-esque post as he is the one that made rock rollin’ down like a landslide. You don’t get named “Father of Rock and Roll” for no reason. 1926-born legend was a huge fan of T-Bone Walker, who was an inventor of various blues genres himself. His disciple would be no less, refining rhythm and blues elements into such showmanship and guitar-centric shaped flask that it would go off for years to come spreading everywhere.
Rock music finds its roots in the United States through inspirations from R&B, blues and country music following in the steps of Chuck Berry. Its electric nature had an electric guitar as the heart pumping out all the heat. Easily grasping the youth by the masses with its stage escapades and helium-fueled lyrics, what Chuck Berry started had carved its own canyon by early 50s. Rockabilly, an early style of rock and roll, arguably the most prominent of them all, would go as far as influencing punk rock but before that new styles such as progressive rock, glam rock and heavy metal would emerge.
It was a sparkle that Chuck Berry had ignited and now what the world had caught was wildfire. Elvis Presley, the Who, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, The Beatles, all hall of fame runners popped during this period when folk rock was predominant.
The British Invasion
It is hard to miss the likes of The Kinks, The Beatles, the Who and the Rolling Stones executing an overwhelming British Invasion on the heartland of rock and roll. Who could not love the proto-punk “You Really Got Me” or ignore “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”s blasting success? 73 million viewers for a TV show in 1964? That’s how you rock the masses.
As post-WW2 kids came of age under the live-by-an-unpushed-button tension of the cold war era, many rock genres fused together to give birth to psychedelic rock, the zeitgeist of the hippie scene of the late 60s. Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and unforgettable Jimi Hendrix. The music was evolving and so were the bands, The Beatles, The Doors, The Rolling Stones – all played their part in psychedelia. Evolution was in its fastest phase as progressive rock with its experimentalist and artistry-emphasized style was encouraged by rock musicians of the time. The Moody Blues were bold enough to collaborate with a full orchestra in their album while King Crimson’s debut album and Pink Floyd’s post-Syd Barrett era created milestones in progressive rock.
Okay, now let me go on with the history of the beautiful music in the next post.
Class dismissed, kids!
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