Overview
In the 1950s, disc jockey Alan Freed was an important figure in the promotion of African American popular music, and he began calling it “rock and roll.” Soon, white artists such as Bill Haley and His Comets and Pat Boone began recording cover versions of black artists’ songs, most of which were more commercially successful than their black counterparts. The most successful of all the early rock and rollers, of course, was Elvis Presley. Presley’s ascent to stardom in the 1950s secured the popularity and commercial viability of the genre of rock and roll.
Objectives
- Recall the technological changes and its impact in the music industry
- Examine the influence of disc jockey Alan Freed
- Identify various rhythm and blues artists
- Examine some of the ways that white artists modified the music of black artists in their cover versions
- Recall the music that Elvis Presley recorded during the 1950s
Introduction
In the early 1950s, many different musical threads came together to create the earliest rock and roll. Artists such as Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino wrote and recorded some of the earliest crossover hits. Soon, white artists such as Bill Haley and the Comets and Pat Boone began recording cover versions of black artists’ songs, most of which were more commercially successful than their black counterparts. Changes in technology, new and hybrid musical forms, and shifts in music consumption patterns all contributed to a reworking of the American popular music landscape that would forever alter the history of popular music consumption in the United States.
