Rock'n'Roll

MUSC 1800: Popular MusicRock’n’Roll

Dr. Matthew C. SaundersLakeland Community College

C-1078

Performance Report

• Have you attended a concert for your performance report yet?

• Remember that you will need:– A reaction to the concert– Evidence that you attended

• Make sure that your event qualifies as explained in the assignment.

What is “cool?”• The idea of “cool” comes into being in the 1950s, and rock’n’roll is

the vehicle through which “cool” is presented to a mass audience.• Five main elements of rebel cool, ca. 1950-1990

– Oppositional style (psychopathic rebellion)– Experience of the sense of the body– Detached emotional style– Masculine regeneration– Sexual liberation

Adapted from: Quartz, Steven and Anette Asp. Cool: How the Brain’s Hidden Quest for Cool Drives Our Economy and Shapes Our World. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015, pp. 175-196.

Why is the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland?

• Alan Freed (1922-1965)– Disc Jockey, WJW

850– An aircheck from

1954

• What does “rock’n’roll” mean?

Rock’n’Roll and Teenagers• Disposable income• Reaction • Crossover appeal• Teenaged performers– Frankie Lymon– Paul Anka– Ricky Nelson

Cover Versions• Nothing new• No copyright for

an arrangement• “Cleaned up” • An example:

“Shake, Rattle, and Roll,” 1954– Big Joe Turner– Bill Haley and the

Comets

1955: Rock’n’roll becomes mainstream

• Bill Haley: “Rock Around the Clock,” 1955 (TV, 1956)– First rock’n’roll song to be a Number One pop hit

R&B Rock’n’Roll Stars• Chuck Berry (b. 1926)– “School Days,” 1957– “Roll Over Beethoven

,” 1956

• Little Richard (Richard Wayne Penniman)• “Tutti Frutti,” 1956• “Good Golly Miss Molly,”

1957

R&B Rock’n’Roll Stars• Antoine “Fats” Domino

(b. 1928)– “Ain’t That a Shame,”

1955– “My Blue Heaven,” 1956

Country Rock’n’Roll Stars

• Buddy Holly– “That’ll Be the Day,” 1957– The Day the Music Died

(February 3, 1959)

• Elvis Presley (1935-1977)• “Don’t Be Cruel,” 1956• “Hound Dog,” 1956 (Ed

Sullivan Show)