ROCK MUSIC

The following is an analysis of rock music. There are probably as many opinions about what is rock as there are tastes in music and you are perfectly at liberty to disagree with any of the following as it is simply a summary of what makes rock rock and you may be a devotee of rock or abhor it. But we are not dealing with taste here or preference, we are simply dealing with a very generalized analysis of a type of music.

The origins of rock are differently assigned by different experts on the subject. They do seem to agree that it originated as a genre in the mid-50s.

Rock seems to be a joining of at least two streams of music: One stream comes from the West Virginia Hills in the form of ballads. West Virginia music however traces directly back to the “buskers” – the street singers of England who covered themselves with buttons and were prominent in central London 200 or 300 years ago. The bulk of the songs you find in West Virginia originate as busker songs with the difference that the buskers sang the melodies much prettier in that they introduced minors. By the time the Scots and English with that music settled in the hills of West Virginia, their treatment of the same melodies which had been in minor chords took on the form of major chords.

The other stream would seem to be from New Orleans where jazz had gained a beachhead in America. Jazz actually comes from Africa on the route of the slave trade through Martinique and then to New Orleans. This music flowed up the Mississippi, often taking on the tinge of spirituals.

These two streams, possibly colored by others, arrived at centers of music, one of which was Nashville.

Rock is not a pure genre in the sense that it mushes together several real genres. But I can assure you that rock has been on the track almost as long as there has been music.

The following survey was recently conducted on the music-buying public. While the percentages which were the top percentage of the answers would not seem to be a majority of percentages, the other percents of answers were miniscule and one would have to assume that this is a dominant opinion as follows.

1. Q. What musical direction would you like to see rock and roll take next?
    A. Back to basics, old rock and roll, early 50/60s. (16.7%)

2. Q. How do you feel rock and roll today could be improved?
    A. Less hard rock, away from punk. (30.0%)

3. Q. What makes rock different from other types of music?
    A. Beat, rhythm. (31.7%)

4. Q. Why is the beat such an important part of rock and roll?
    A. Makes you dance, move. (35.0%)

5. Q. Why do you think so many rock songs are about love?
    A. Everybody can relate to it. (48.3%)

6. Q. What does rock and roll do for you?
    A. Makes me feel good, puts me in a good mood. (30.0%)

The above would seem to indicate that the music-buying public at least has some agreement on what rock is and actually, it is not too bad a description.

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