Before Elvis : the prehistory of rock 'n' roll

The Resource Before Elvis : the prehistory of rock 'n' roll
Label
Before Elvis : the prehistory of rock 'n' roll
Title remainder
the prehistory of rock 'n' roll
Statement of responsibility
Larry Birnbaum
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
This work surveys the origins of rock 'n' roll from the minstrel era to the emergence of Bill Haley and Elvis Presley. Unlike other histories of rock, it offers a far broader and deeper analysis of the influences on rock music. Dispelling common misconceptions, it examines rock's origins in hokum songs and big-band boogies as well as Delta blues, detailing the embrace by white artists of African-American styles long before rock 'n' roll appeared. This study ranges far and wide, highlighting not only the contributions of obscure but key precursors like Hardrock Gunter and Sam Theard but also the influence of celebrity performers like Gene Autry and Ella Fitzgerald. Too often, rock historians treat the genesis of rock 'n' roll as a bolt from the blue, an overnight revolution provoked by the bland pop music that immediately preceded it and created through the white appropriation of music till then played only by and for black audiences. Here the author argues a more complicated history and rock's evolution from a heady mix of ragtime, boogie-woogie, swing, country music, mainstream pop, and rhythm-and-blues, a melange that influenced one another along the way, from the absorption of blues and boogies into jazz and pop to the integration of country and Caribbean music into rhythm-and-blues. This work presents a bold argument about rock's origins
Cataloging source
DLC
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
Structured data from the Bibframe namespace is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Portland Public Library. Additional terms may apply to data associated with third party namespaces.