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Rock 'n' Roll

Listen to 
Buddy Holly
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Challenged the Sanitised, Commodified, 

Predictable Music of the Industry! 

In Fact the Emergence of 

Rock 'n' Roll


Challenged Everything!

RM Radio 
Coming Soon
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When Rock n Roll came along, the  major record makers 

ignored it as a momentary flash. They were very  wrong. 

Almost overnight, small niche companies that  specialized in 

the new music, like Sun Records in Memphis, were swamped

with orders. From  1955 to 1957 the number of  records on 

the trade journal Billboards Top 10 list from independent 

companies quintupled from 8 to 40.  
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Even though losing market share, the major companies were slow to  respond. One

cautious reaction was to issue toned-down remakes of Rock n Roll songs that were 

catching on, in a practice called `covering’. An example was the cover of `Roll With 

Me Henry’ by Etta James - it was covered by a less suggestive song called 'Dance With 

Me Henry’ by  Georgia Gibbs and soon became a hit. This process of modifying a 

song to appeal to 'vanilla mass-market' tastes, and to avoid the risks inherent in doing 

new things, was repeated hundreds of  times. Each time, say cultural historians, artistic

authenticity was compromised.

Etta James - Roll With Me Henry

Etta James - The Wallflower (Roll With Me Henry)

Georgia Gibbs - Dance With Me Henry

Georgia Gibbs- Dance With Me Henry



Covering
The industry practice of `covering’ soon became wide spread. For example, when Little

Richard‘s 1955 recording `Tutti Frutti’ picked up a following, there were white parents

who didn’t want their kids listening to `black music’. As a result that racist phobia 

also contributed to a form of covering, in which major labels issued the same music, 

sometimes toned down, with white artists. Pat Boone, for example covered `Tutti 

Frutti’. However, the kids of America, both black and white wanted the real thing, and

that's’ how Rock n Roll in one sense furthered the cultural integration of American 

society.
Little Richard - Tutti Frutti




Covering

Pat Boone - Tutti Frutti

Cultural Homogenization


Also the certain sameness of sound, or 'sanitization', that major record companies

sought as a means to maximise sales using this well known formula produced a 

phenomenon called 'cultural homogenization', which was worrying as many

historians argue that historically many of the great creative contributions in music have

come from lean and hungry independent companies, or 'indies'. 
 

Rockabilly innovators like Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins, for example, were at their 

best when recording with scrappy little risk taking indies. The result was a new

richness and diversity in the culture, just at that same time when the majors were 

discouraging risk and innovation.
  

For their sales, the majors of the industry instead sought a teen age audience for their 

watered down adaptations of the original, innovative works, resulting in a commercially

safe pop that would sell to a mass audience.

   
Cultural homogenization in the industry remains what some call an elitist-populist issue.

Elitists saw sameness, even if popular, was undesirable because art should always be

exploring new ground. Otherwise, culture stagnates. Populists on the other hand,

trusted the marketplace to shape the direction of the culture.


For the industry, profit can be made by imitating what’s gone before and been 

successful. It’s always safer to be derivative than innovative. Critics note that 

conglomerate parent companies persistently pressure their recording subsidiaries to 

increase profits, which in effect, discourages artistic innovation and risk. This is not to 

say there is no innovation, but there are financial lures and rewards for homogenization 

that supersede a sense of responsibility to foster artistic contributions, hence the 

backing in the 1990s for example of such acts as Paula Abdul, the New Kids, Milli 

Vanilli (who late proved to be fraudulent), Rick Astely and Kylie Minogue.
 
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Rick Astely
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Kylie Minogue
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Paula Abdul
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The New Kids
Picture
Milli Vanilli

Perhaps- the most classic examples of industry sanitisation and homogenization - not to

mention direct `factory created products’ - were the Monkees and the Spice Girls, but

we shall talk about them later, but we can at least look at them now, see below.

The Monkees - I'm A Believer
Spice Girls - Wannabe

Nevertheless, while company dictated commercialism and homogenization became a

factor in Popular Music, they are less a problem these days. Many performers now

come from a different tradition, such as the emergence of 'Garage Bands' with their

low-cost recording and mixing equipment.


Radio Airplay


Still such music as that produced by Garage Bands, still has to get airplay. Record

companies ship new releases free to radio stations in hope of airplay. Few make it.

Stations are inundated with more records than they can possibly audition, most also

stick to a playlist of already Popular Music rather than risk losing listeners by playing

untried records. They also stick to charts of what music is selling and being played

elsewhere - hence there is yet another sanitising, homogenising effect.


The relationship between the radio and record industries is a two-way street. The

stations need 'records' (or songs), and the recording industry needs radio to air its

products. Recordings that win airplay are almost assured success. This interdependence

expanded to television in the 1980s when cable (MTV) built their programming on

video versions of Popular Music. So it's all a two way street with the recording industry

depending on radio and music videos to promote new music. (There also can be the 

illegal avenue of 'Payola' - the paying of bribes to radio people to promote new 

recordings.)

 
So within the industry, it can be considered that both artistic dynamics and corporate

forces work to shape the nature of Pop Music.


But Outside The Industry There Has Also Been The Role Of 

Governments And Other Forces Shaping And Censoring Pop Music 

Particularly For Example - The Radical Right In Politics

The Role Of Governments And Censorship           

Picture
Bill Haley & The Comets
 
There has also been the role of governments and their 

censorship activities alongside many of the 'Right' in public

politics. Campaigns to ban records are nothing new. In the 

roaring 20s, some people saw Jazz as morally loose. White

racists of the 1950s even called Bill Haley’s rock `nigger

music’. War protest songs of the Vietnam period angered many 

Americans.

 
While US Government attempts to censor records have been rare, the Federal

Communications Commission (FCC) sometimes kept records off the market. The FCC 

can take a dim view of stations that air objectionable music, (ie. language, drugs, etc) 

which guides broadcasters toward caution. 


As for the role of the 'Radical Right' (conservative and reactionary political interests) in

the US. The politically active radical right has long affected what record makers do. The

radical right has campaigned against specific artists and records in protests to Congress

and the FCC, it has also staged boycotts against stations and held record - burning 

rallies in the past.


The Effect
   
What effect have the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the radical 

right had on the recording industry? Both have influenced, depending on geography 

and political climate, the nature of Pop Music in the US. Fear of these powers, for 

example, forced CBS to remove Dylan’s `Talking John Birch Society Blues’ from his 

second album and from the Ed Sullivan Show.  Pete Seeger was blacklisted from 

commercial radio and TV for nearly 17 years. Ed Sullivan changed the title of the 

Rolling Stones: 'Let’s Spend The Night Together’, to `Let’s Spend Some Time 

Together’. Further, Barry McGuire’s 'Eve of Destruction' and Crosby, Stills, Nash and 

Young’s `Ohio’ were blacklisted in many parts of the country. Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway

To Heaven' came under heavy criticism as well, because it was assumed to be referring

to drugs and sex. Moralists long have objected to some lyrics and pressured record-

makers to change their sources of music. Naturally, stations do not want to risk their 

licenses and because the music industry is so dependent on airplay, hardly any music 

that might offend makes it to market. For example, the  British also banned/censored a

number of songs during the Falklands War, as did the US government in the Gulf War -

so it can be a widespread practice.


But For Our Purposes We Are More Interested In The Politics Between

The Machine And Society


But we are not so much interested in the internal politics of the 'machine' because as 

we know in Western society, it reflects capitalism. What is more interesting is the 

politics of the  interface between the industry and the popular culture of society itself. 

In other words - the interface between the music itself and the people and the impact 

this has had, not just domestically but globally, and also the process which has

seen the industry project Westernization and other values to the world. And we are 

interested in what has happened post 1950 and the emergence of Rock n Roll.


With the Emergence Of Rock n Roll There Was More Power In The

Artists Hands

   
But power to do what? Surveys indicate that only 3% of youth really listen to the

lyrics in Pop Music, but nevertheless there still is considered an overall effect that Pop

Music has on its audience. And it this is what we shall look at.


Despite many studies being undertaken, to many it is unclear whether people's values

and mores are actually affected by lyrics. Most seem to indicate very little. Most people

use it as background noise, few (3%) are fully attentive to lyrics. However many critics 

nevertheless argue that the lyrics of Pop music can have an insidious subliminal effect. 

For example, some songs repeat their simple and explicitly sexual messages over and 

over, as many as 15 to 30 times in one song. Surely such messages find their way into

people's subconscious - even if they can’t recite the lyrics.

Now To Examine The Emergence Of Modern Popular Music Since 
The 1950s

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We now need to turn to the emergence of modern Popular

Music with our dividing line being the 1950s - as there was a

perceptible change in the nature of Popular Music in the mid 

1950s. And the music that followed reflected the system -

internally and externally.  But in looking at modern Pop - we

first need to discern the different styles of what we now 

know became 'Rock', as these styles or sub-genres first 

emerged.


For our purposes Rock n Roll itself was significant for it ushered in a whole new era. 

One which we will no longer examine in terms of the internal politics of the music 

industry but more what the music itself projected externally in terms of the implicit 

political culture it reflected, and indeed influenced in turn.



Let's Now Take A Brief Glimpse At The Emergence Of Rock n Roll 

And Some Of Its Later Variants (Styles) Post The 1950s Which Have 

Become Simply Described As Rock (even Disco is included in this), 

Which Have All Formed Part Of Modern Western Popular Music.
  

Rock 'n' Roll

Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock

Go To 

Rock 'n' Roll
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Go To 'Rock'
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'Rock' - Its Early Version

Beatles - A Hard Day's Night


Psychedelic Rock

The Beatles - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

Go To 

Psychedelic 

Rock

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Go To Glam 

Rock
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Glam Rock 

Marc Bolan & T Rex -  Get It On


Country Rock

Eagles - Take It Easy

 Go To 

Country Rock

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Go To 

Progressive 

Rock

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Progressive Rock

Queen - We Will Rock You


Folk Rock

The Byrds -  Mr Tambourine Man

Go To Folk

 Rock
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Go To Grunge
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Grunge

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit


Disco

Night Fever - Saturday Night Fever


Go To Disco
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Go To Punk

 Rock
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Punk Rock

Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK


Surf Rock
Dick Dale - Surfing Drums
Go To

Surf Rock
Picture


Now - All The Above Styles (Genres) And More Of Music Are Political Statements In Themselves!  Why?


Because they all reflect eras, and the dominant Western political culture at the time -

which as we know is the Western capitalist system. To quote one expert, Frith:

`Rock music is capitalist music. It draws its meanings from the relationships of 

capitalist production, and it contributes, as a leisure activity, to the reproduction of 

those relationships; the music doesn’t challenge the system but reflects and illuminates

it. Rock is about dreams and their regulation, and the strength of rock dreams comes 

not from their force as symbols, but from their relationship to the experience of work

and leisure: the issue, finally, is not how to live outside capitalism (hippie or bohemian 

style), but how to live within it. The needs expressed in rock - for freedom, control, 

power, a sense of life - are needs defined by capitalism. And rock is a mass culture. It

is not folk or art but a commoditised dream: it conceals as much as it reveals. For every

individual illuminating account of our common situation there are a hundred mass 

musical experiences that disguise it. Rock, for all the power of its individual dreams, is 

still confined by its mass cultural form. Its history, like the history of America itself, is 

a history of class struggle - the struggle for fun.'



Now Collectively This Form Of Music Has Power. It Has Projected 


And Assisted Cultural Imperialism, Globalism And The Westernization


Of The Global Community. 

   
The emergence of Rock in all these forms nevertheless produced an implicitly

politicising process as we shall see later - a process with much power (for 

Westernization).  



Collectively Western Rock Has Been a Tool of Westernization and Cultural

Imperialism
and its stylistic changes and evolution has reflected different eras,

processes and  developments. At times it has reflected both domestic and international
 
politics. It has reflected the First Cold War, Detente, the Vietnam War, the Second Cold
 
War and many developments in the the Post-Cold War era. For example, the music of

the 1960s Counter Culture reflected the despair of Vietnam, and a basic questioning of

of US and Western values.

 
The spread of Western Popular Music has also reflected international power change - ie

Globalisation and Westernization, it has aided it and not only reflected domestic change

but also sometimes spearheaded such change,  hence one of the themes we examine

is Pop Music as a US\Western cultural tool that has swept, and still impacts on, the 

world.
 

Thus, Western Pop Music has long been considered a tool of Cultural imperialism - a

means of Westernization or Globalisation of the World. Music reflects different cultures

and as such can also become a tool or even weapon of international conflict.

 
Can we therefore marry international politics with Rock n Roll? We can! Can we

marry domestic politics with 'Rock'? We also believe we can as music typifies or

is symbolic or characteristic of generations or cultures. And in the West, it has been

typical of subcultures within dominant forms of our Western Society.

      
In The Next Segment, we examine the implicit politics of modern Western Pop Music

and in so doing draw the connections and perhaps impact the industry has had. We

shall start off next time again with the emergence of Rock n Roll but this time we will 

concern ourselves with the political views/ messages/themes projected implicitly by

this music to the rest of the world. But as we do, we must always remember music can 

impact differently on audiences - and we therefore must always keep this in mind.


 
To Go To Segment 3: 'The Implicit Politics Of Rock n Roll' - 


Click Below


For A Video History Of Rock N Roll - See Parts 1-5 Below

Segment 3
Part One
History of Rock n Roll Part 1

Part Three
History of Rock n Roll Part 3
Part Two
History of Rock n Roll Part 2

Part Four
History of Rock n Roll Part 4


Part Five
History of Rock n Roll Part 5


Go To Segment 3

Segment 3
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Rocking The World
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Rocking The World
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