Nov 11, 2010

The History of Rock and/or Roll
Rock and Roll begins WAY back in the 1800s
What? (yes – according to me)
New Orleans
- this is an American city in the Deep South that is the birthplace of JAZZ music, according to most
- it has an interesting history
- it was a port city – it was the destination for a huge number of boats, ships, traders and dock workers, and all the industries and services around that
- a MIXTURE of many different kinds of people – black slaves, white wealthier people, Europeans, Creole people (native/black/white mix), Spanish, etc
- multicultural mix of music and styles and everything
- this created a high energy and high action environment
- a) Sporting Houses
b) BUMBUM PITCHER
- this is a nice way to say a brothel (house of ill repute, a whorehouse
- these were places where a lot of different men would show up for the obvious, but the owner would have music and a bar to generate more interest, money, and time spent – music back then meant a piano player –
- the kind of music that works in this environment is more action packed
b) Slavery
- this horrible and I am not saying that it is good
- before the 1860s America used African people as slaves – owned them, sold them, used them like animals and they were in the US for 400 years
- they formed their own mini-culture inside America – a mix of African roots, religion, deep pain, and a secret kind of communication
- black culture was “underground” – HOWEVER, in New Orleans, black people were a little more powerful and more visible
- there was a square called Congo Square where black folks gathered on Sundays and had some time to relax etc
- whites would come and watch them sing and dance and so on
- the black folks started this dance called THE CAKEWALK
- this dance was a mockery of wealthy white people (who could afford cake) and the exaggerated movements were about white, wealthy people parading and showing off
- the weird thing is that white people started loving it, watching it and copying it
c) Jazz –
- a strange music came up that combined European marching band music and African/black culture music together
African music is interesting – polyrhythmic – multiple layers of percussion
- chanting and call and response – work songs
- train shuffle –
- more powerful dancing – full body (many whites considered it totally depraved and sexual (what were a lot of white people actually thinking? AWESOME)
in Jazz music, black performers began to get well known – their “spin” on the music was more interesting, more powerful, more exciting

Scott Joplin
- wrote music
- became famous as a performer and songwriter (with white folks)
- his sheet music sold in the millions
- came up with a kind of music called RAGTIME
- started a piano craze
- syncopated piano style – left and right hands do different things off time from each other
- his music caught on with many and people started playing off his style and making their own
- like JellyRoll
JellyRoll Morton
- he called himself the inventor of Jazz, but he wasn’t
- he played very well, lots of style
- dressed up, played for white folks
- educated and Creole (part black, part European)
- played in brothels when he was your age
- his music was a kind of black jazzy dance music
- more exciting kind of piano – stride and piano blues
Then people took his style and went with it into new areas
Real piano jazz and blues in the 20s and 30s
Black performers traveled and took this music all over America and it spread
The 1920s
- a couple of things were happening that were unusual that helped spread this black-influenced music
a) A Dance Craze
- in the 20s there was a dance craze that took America by storm and it was for a dance called The Foxtrot
- there were a bunch of similar dances that were in many ways influenced by blacks and black culture (eg The Black Bottom

- there was a touring company that did these dances and people went bananas for the styles and dances that came along with this whole scene –
- racy clothes, short hair for girls (“bob”), sack dresses, showing leg, guys wearing flashy suits, etc – often linked with listening to jazz and dancing
- jazz becomes popular
b) Blues becomes its own style
- blues was a kind of black folk music that was played in the country, compared with jazz that was urban
- Charley Patton was one of the key originators who influenced a lot of black kids
- he played guitar tricks (behind the back, with his teeth, etc), danced when he played, had a howling voice (blues moan or holler), he had a twangy guitar with bent notes (“making it talk”)
- this was music FOR black people – did not cross over into white audiences like jazz did (not for a long time)
- The weird thing: black women started performing piano versions of blues songs and THEY crossed over – became rich and popular
- the most famous was Bessie Smith
- she started a pattern that we can see today in performers like Lady Gaga
- powerful stage presence, showy fashions being important, aggressive sexuality, focus on her looks and her body, strong female image
- taking charge of her own music and career
- she had a HUGE powerful voice because this was all pre-microphones
- “belting it out”
- she died young – she was in a car crash, she got a big cut and a white hospital wouldn’t treat her because she was black – she got sent to a black hospital and bled to death
she combined jazz and blues
1930s –
- the style of jazz and blues changed
- jazz goes pop – it becomes mainstream
- it grew up and became the standard music for white (mainstream) audiences
- the new jazz pop was called swing or big band and it was all about the dancing
- white performers jumped in and started getting all the attention
- Glen Miller, Bennie Goodman, Artie Shaw
- Big stars playing for movies, big money and they had HUGE bands
- Black performers and artists need to change it up, take it up a notch and get something new

Some black performers decided to break the whole pattern and do something completely new and rebellious – they started doing jazz music you couldn’t really dance to – it was technical and super difficult to play and very fast and showy and all about talent and solos
- this was called bebop – super cool music
- - started getting popular with rebels and alternative audiences in the 40s
The other music of the 30s that wasn’t popular was the delta blues (popped with black audiences in a small area of the US)
A performer called Robert Johnson totally revolutionized blues with his style, which was supposedly given to him by Satan
THIS music is the music that really leads to rock and roll
Guitar power, yelling and moaning, high pitched and strange guitar sounds, hitting the instrument, percussive and loud
Was really influential
Post WWII
- kids want faster, quicker paced, smaller band fun music to dance to
- big bands are old people’s music, uncool and too slow
- Louis Jordan is a black performer who catches this new sound and it is called R&B
- Small bands, electric guitars, fast, fun, goofy, sometimes simple
- Catches on with white kids in the early 50s
- Loads of bands traveling around and white kids start trying to get into the sound –
- A black radio station (WLAC) comes on and some cool white kids tune in to this awesome new sound
- A few white record labels start cashing in on that black sound – they record these black artists but they can’t sell huge numbers because of racism – white kids can’t or won’t buy these records like they want to
- The Magic Ingredient is discovered by Sam Phillip in Memphis in the mid-50s at Sun Records
- “I need to find a white, Southern boy who is pretty who can sing black style.”
- who did he discover?
- ELVIS