Popular music revolution
Popular music revolutionMusic has undergone many changes throughout and history and prehistory. These changes were always somehow connected to sociological movements at the time. Rock music evolved mostly out of a need by young people of the fifties to break away from so-cietal norms. America had just come out of the Korean War, and men looked to settle down into a peaceful life. Also just prior this time period, Senator Joseph McCarthy ac-tively encouraged citizens to conform with his infamously false accusations of Commu-nism. �McCarthy spectacularly charged that there were scores of known Communists in the Department of State� (Bailey 887). This made people fearful that they would be tried as Communists and led most to conform to a common societal standard. When the nation emerged from this era, teenagers sought to rebel against their parental authorities. They created everything from new styles of clothing to new styles of music to promote their newfound individuality. The new style of music evolving at the time was called Rock and Roll. �Rock has been influenced by country music, by the blues, by classical music, by calypso, by traditional folk styles, and by a variety of other music conventions� (Belz vii). This variety reflects the varied backgrounds of young people at the time. Early successes in this new music genre included Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, and Chuck Berry. This music only succeeded because the conditions in society and the opinions of the youth in that time period allowed it to succeed. This music revolution is not unique. Similar revolutions will occur if and when the circumstances permit. Modern music is going this direction, but has not reached the point of a new genre as of yet because conditions in so-ciety have not allowed a radical change.
One of the most obvious elements which separates rock music from previous forms of musical expression is a dominant rhythm accenting a strong beat. Rhythm is de-fined as �a basic element of music concerned with the duration of tones and the stresses or accents placed upon them� (Columbia Encyclopedia). Rhythm, developed in the 12th century, was not a new phenomenon; however, previously, the only musical genre to place so much emphasis on rhythm was Rhythm and Blues, from which rock derived much of its sound patterns. These �had their roots in slavery, borrowed their rhythms from church, and took their vitality from the intensity with which people who endured hard lives en-joyed good times� (Fabulous Decade 104). Although this emphasis on a driving beat originally sprung from R&B, it quickly mutated into its own unique form. This presuma-bly was to facilitate dancing to the beat, and this became the reason many parents and other adults protested this type of music. Many performers� onstage dancing styles were considered �lewd and inappropriate for their children.� This became another reason for the music�s...
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