Rock and Roll has been around for a very long time and has grown and changed. But how did it all begin, who were its artists and what new media devices helped promote the new music?
The History of Rock and Roll, The Golden Decade 1954 - 1963 is a very good website to begin our look at early rock and roll. The site is easy to navigate and contains a lot of information. The visitor can choose to view the site in frames or non-frames. I suggest starting with the Roots and Influence section and clicking on the various links that appearing interesting. This site is good beginning to the study of rock and roll. But it contains a lot of information that has not been properly cited so the visitor should not use this site as a final resource.
This website contains many videos and articles related to the history of rock and roll. There is a wonderful video series called All Access: The Story of Rock. Each of the videos is a couple of minutes long and explores different artifacts that were significant in a specific artist’s career and its place in rock and roll history. The short articles about the regional influences on the development of rock and roll as the Memphis Music Scene and Hello Cleveland: The City’s Rock and Roll Legacy.
Classicbans.com contains a biographies section that lists many of the early rock and roll artists. Unfortunately many of the links to videos are not working. What I find fascinating about this site is the Rock and Roll Interviews section. Each of the interviews offer a excellent insight into the lives of the artist and how they were influences.
The Beatles were and still are an icon of British rock and roll. This website offers many samples of the music and videos created during their 12 years together. There is a good article about their history and eventually break up. It is a good site that catalogs the music well and wets the appetite the listener to want more.
Television was very influence in the early rock and roll. It offered a visual medium that could be broadcast from coast to coast. Young people no longer had to wait for an artist to come to their area to hear rock and roll live. And the MTV of the times was American Bandstand and its host Dick Clark. This article does a very nice job discussing the influence of television on the American music scene.
It is said that America
Bill Haley and the Comets song “Rock Around the Clock” is a good representation of early rock and roll. It would become the anthem of young people everywhere. This site contains a very good article with links to a live performance and also to the opening credits of Blackboard Jungle.
This is a personal website of a music teacher, Park Slope. There is a page that contains several good video examples of 1950’s rock and roll, The History of Rock and Roll – 12 Bar Blues. The instructor posted several videos showing the use of 12 bar blues. By listening to each of the videos the listeners gets a good picture of early rock and roll, how it was being performed and the influence of blues.
Jerry Lee Lewis was one of the most controversial rock and roll artists of his time. This site contains an excellent VH1’s Behind the Music documentary about his life and influence on rock and roll. While the video is about Lewis there is also a lot of information about rock and roll and music.
