It wasn’t until the early fifties that rock really began to splinter off as its own genre. The earlier records were produced by such influential artists as Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, and Little Richard. In his twenties during the beginning of the rock music movement, Little Richard was a singer, songwriter, and pianist and combined gospel, boogie-woogie, and blues with an accentuated back beat and a funk rhythm. His singing style included some of the breathless volume that would come to characterize rock music in decades to come.
And then there was Elvis. Elvis Aron Presley, born in 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, took the world by storm with his flashy and rebellious hip swinging new style of music. Regarded by many as one of the greatest performers of the twentieth century, “The King” lives on today in memory and legend with hordes of fans modern artists can only hope to eventually reach.
Elvis got started in the rhythm and blues (R&B) and country genres, but quickly began to introduce the bluesy vocals and strong back beat that are such a clear mark of the rock genre. With a wide range of vocal capability, Elvis was able to tackle an equally wide range of musical accomplishments, making him one of the best rock artists in American history. When he died on August 16, 1977, at the age of forty-two, he had risen from mere pop star to legend and his death was disbelieved – indeed, is still disbelieved – by thousands of his adoring fans.
Elvis’ rebellious new style of performance and music had an enormous effect on the forming genre. Rock music, especially in the seventies and eighties, emphasized rebelliousness from authority, parental and otherwise. Elvis’ relatively mild hip swinging and ‘raunchy’ lyrics – “You’re the cutest jailbird I ever did see” – helped craft the match that would be lit by the Vietnam war in another decade and a half.
Towards the end of the fifties, other rock music idols were beginning to arise as well, often taking enormous rock tours across the country to play live concerts for their adoring fans everywhere. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper were famous rock music artists who were killed suddenly in a plane crash, leading to a wealth of American cult mythology about the deaths of famous rock musicians – the wild, rebellious style of rock music led many to speculate about the devil coming to collect the souls of those who played his “devil music.”
One thing Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley brought to rock music was the absolute domination of the guitar as the lead instrument. Almost without exception throughout classic rock all the way through modern performers, the guitar has remained the mainstay of the rock and roll band, especially with the development of the electronic amplifier and distortion effect.