Intro - [Play:"Rock around the Clock" by Chuck Berry and the Comets]. This track took rock "n" roll overground; it didn't just fit the zeitgeist - it was the zeitgeist for young people in the '50s. But more than that, it was THE song which kick-started the relationship between youth counter-culture and popular music in America, Britain, and eventually the whole musical universe!
The story of British rock and pop is not as isolated as the small island nation on which it was created. Rather it's a story which is inextricably linked with that of modern American popular music. It is an exchange which started out in the 1950s at the very birth of rock 'n' roll, right up until the current day. I suppose it has something to do with us sharing the same language, but also with a (somewhat begrudging) fascination with all things American for the British, and vice versa.
As we'll get to see over the next few decades, it all started out with black American R&B (or Rhythm & Blues). This underground music originated in the United States, and the racism and racial segregation of the States at this time meant that there were very few black stations or DJs gave it any coverage. So unfortunately, R&B music, although it was a musical powerhouse (which changed the landscape of popular music forever), had to undergo a few changes before the white masses were to buy into it.
This music was very popular with many white musicians in America, and eventually Britain. The British become very well known in the '60s and '70s for taking black R&B from America, recycling it, and selling it back to the Americans - as a white cultural product, of course. In later decades, black American musicians were to reclaim their own music, first with rap, and then a new strain of R&B, creating a hugely popular genre of urban music, which often sounds inauthentic if taken away from a black context. White rappers are still in the minority, and it takes a huge amount of talent as a white performer to pull this genre off.
However, as you will find out on our journey, planet rock and pop started out in Britain in a much more dreary and uninspired place, about 60 odd years ago. If you were a working class teenager at this time, your career prospects were pretty much,a job at the factory, joining the ranks of the military, or if you were female, the main option was marriage and kids.
Of course, something had to happen.
And it did.
If you can imagine a time when the teenager didn't exist, rock 'n' roll hadn't been invented, and postwar life was very dull and grey (with rationing still in existence for many essential foodstuffs) then this is exactly what life was like for the teenagers of 1940s postwar Britain. The 1950s were to usher in a new consumerist culture which set the standard for how we live now, but the '40s were very austere in Britain and people were exhausted by two world wars, and rationing was still in place for many items. This was in stark contrast to the economy in America, which very robust at this time; the States must have seemed like a shiny new world to the the British families huddled around their recently purchased TV sets!
But, there was still some fun to be had! Even though pop and rock hadn't evolved just yet, there was the dance hall - where young people would flock at weekends to spend their hard-earned dosh they'd spent all week working for. There were swing bands, big bands, and also crooners (who appealed to the young girls - named bobbysoxers; named after their habit of rolling their socks down to their ankles). The UK witnessed scenes of screaming teenage girls for the first time, and "crooners" such as Frank Sinatra and other "Rat Pack" members and their (not so good) UK imitators, had accumulated a large hysterical female teen following.
Skiffle was the other dominant type of music at the time, and it was a rock precursor - usually played by groups of males youths on home made instruments such as washboards, tea chests and home made guitars,. It was a mainly working class musical movement, and again, a bit of a craze over from America. A lot of American RnB music was brought over by sailors, merchants and chancers that populated the docks in places such as Liverpool and London. Their travels to and from America carried over into their clothes and taste in music. Skiffle was again a African American musical style, this time from the 1930s, and this style was eagerly adopted by young British males in the 1940s. It appealed to many young musicians (or aspiring musicians) as the instruments were home-made and inexpensive. Many guitars were home made, and wash boards (which their Mum's probably cleaned their dirty socks on) became fantastic percussion instruments. As for drums, anything that you could hit with stick or hands, and which sounded good, would do! The most famous skiffle artist was called Lonnie Donegan, and he was hugely popular at this time.
The story of British rock and pop is not as isolated as the small island nation on which it was created. Rather it's a story which is inextricably linked with that of modern American popular music. It is an exchange which started out in the 1950s at the very birth of rock 'n' roll, right up until the current day. I suppose it has something to do with us sharing the same language, but also with a (somewhat begrudging) fascination with all things American for the British, and vice versa.
As we'll get to see over the next few decades, it all started out with black American R&B (or Rhythm & Blues). This underground music originated in the United States, and the racism and racial segregation of the States at this time meant that there were very few black stations or DJs gave it any coverage. So unfortunately, R&B music, although it was a musical powerhouse (which changed the landscape of popular music forever), had to undergo a few changes before the white masses were to buy into it.
This music was very popular with many white musicians in America, and eventually Britain. The British become very well known in the '60s and '70s for taking black R&B from America, recycling it, and selling it back to the Americans - as a white cultural product, of course. In later decades, black American musicians were to reclaim their own music, first with rap, and then a new strain of R&B, creating a hugely popular genre of urban music, which often sounds inauthentic if taken away from a black context. White rappers are still in the minority, and it takes a huge amount of talent as a white performer to pull this genre off.
However, as you will find out on our journey, planet rock and pop started out in Britain in a much more dreary and uninspired place, about 60 odd years ago. If you were a working class teenager at this time, your career prospects were pretty much,a job at the factory, joining the ranks of the military, or if you were female, the main option was marriage and kids.
Of course, something had to happen.
And it did.
Rebels without a cause
If you can imagine a time when the teenager didn't exist, rock 'n' roll hadn't been invented, and postwar life was very dull and grey (with rationing still in existence for many essential foodstuffs) then this is exactly what life was like for the teenagers of 1940s postwar Britain. The 1950s were to usher in a new consumerist culture which set the standard for how we live now, but the '40s were very austere in Britain and people were exhausted by two world wars, and rationing was still in place for many items. This was in stark contrast to the economy in America, which very robust at this time; the States must have seemed like a shiny new world to the the British families huddled around their recently purchased TV sets!
But, there was still some fun to be had! Even though pop and rock hadn't evolved just yet, there was the dance hall - where young people would flock at weekends to spend their hard-earned dosh they'd spent all week working for. There were swing bands, big bands, and also crooners (who appealed to the young girls - named bobbysoxers; named after their habit of rolling their socks down to their ankles). The UK witnessed scenes of screaming teenage girls for the first time, and "crooners" such as Frank Sinatra and other "Rat Pack" members and their (not so good) UK imitators, had accumulated a large hysterical female teen following.
Skiffle was the other dominant type of music at the time, and it was a rock precursor - usually played by groups of males youths on home made instruments such as washboards, tea chests and home made guitars,. It was a mainly working class musical movement, and again, a bit of a craze over from America. A lot of American RnB music was brought over by sailors, merchants and chancers that populated the docks in places such as Liverpool and London. Their travels to and from America carried over into their clothes and taste in music. Skiffle was again a African American musical style, this time from the 1930s, and this style was eagerly adopted by young British males in the 1940s. It appealed to many young musicians (or aspiring musicians) as the instruments were home-made and inexpensive. Many guitars were home made, and wash boards (which their Mum's probably cleaned their dirty socks on) became fantastic percussion instruments. As for drums, anything that you could hit with stick or hands, and which sounded good, would do! The most famous skiffle artist was called Lonnie Donegan, and he was hugely popular at this time.
[Play: "Does your chewing gum lose it's flavour on the bedpost overnight?" by Lonnie Donegan]
If you think about it like this; skiffle music, very much like punk music decades later, had a DIY ethos; both movements started crazes after they caught the imaginations of working class teenagers at the time, and they both catapulted many main players onto the worldwide stage. Probably the most famous skiffle band in the entire history of skiffledom was a certain quartet that went by the name of The Quarrymen. Now I know you're probably thinking "never heard of em!". Well they eventually became the Beatles, and I bet you've heard of them!
If you were to find a copy of the original vinyl single from the The Quarrymen, 'That'll Be The Day' - recorded by a teenage Lennon and McCartney in the late 50's, I can tell you it would reach somewhere in the region of £100,000. It is the most sought after vinyl single in the history of popular music! Many well known British rock and pop bands of the 60s started off in Skiffle bands, moving over to beat music, blues inspired rock and pop when they became more fashionable (and Lo! Skiffle music died a home made death)
It was also a time when, "The Teenager" - that creature which was simultaneously afeared by parents and teachers alike - first evolved; swaggering, mumbling and sometimes scrapping, all along the modern culturescape of this sceptred isle. Or somewhat more basically put; things were about to be shaken up a bit! Today, we are all well versed in youth counter-culture and know a fair amount about teen cultural groupings such as hippies, mods, rockers and punks. But it was the combined forces of music and film which originally moulded the temperamental teenage spirit of the '50s. Before the late 1950s this culture didn't really exist. Children dressed as children, and then when they hit their teens, they wore the same kinds of clothes that their parents wore, and listened to the same music - which was often sang around the piano at home.
The new teenagers, however, didn't want to be the same as their parents. They wanted to dress differently and listen to their own kind of music, whilst aspiring to be like their cinema idols such as James Dean, Marlon Brando and Marilyn Munroe. In working class families, the Teddy boy was the first real teenage rebel. "Edwardians" (shortened by the press at the time to "Teds") dressed like tough Edwardian dandies. This look involved wearing drapes, neck ties and crepe-soled shoes [Play: "Blue Suede Shoes" by Elvis]. Greased hair with a quiff were not optional, they were demanded! Teds were rough and tough and acted rebellious in front of their mates - to keep up appearances! Sometimes they did get into real trouble too, although this was blown up by the press somewhat, and so they were often seen as a public menace (probably a bit like "hoodies" are today). Teds originally listened to skiffle, but quickly converted to rock 'n' roll when it arrived on the scene, as did "Greasers" (who were an "evolution").
If you were to find a copy of the original vinyl single from the The Quarrymen, 'That'll Be The Day' - recorded by a teenage Lennon and McCartney in the late 50's, I can tell you it would reach somewhere in the region of £100,000. It is the most sought after vinyl single in the history of popular music! Many well known British rock and pop bands of the 60s started off in Skiffle bands, moving over to beat music, blues inspired rock and pop when they became more fashionable (and Lo! Skiffle music died a home made death)
It was also a time when, "The Teenager" - that creature which was simultaneously afeared by parents and teachers alike - first evolved; swaggering, mumbling and sometimes scrapping, all along the modern culturescape of this sceptred isle. Or somewhat more basically put; things were about to be shaken up a bit! Today, we are all well versed in youth counter-culture and know a fair amount about teen cultural groupings such as hippies, mods, rockers and punks. But it was the combined forces of music and film which originally moulded the temperamental teenage spirit of the '50s. Before the late 1950s this culture didn't really exist. Children dressed as children, and then when they hit their teens, they wore the same kinds of clothes that their parents wore, and listened to the same music - which was often sang around the piano at home.
The new teenagers, however, didn't want to be the same as their parents. They wanted to dress differently and listen to their own kind of music, whilst aspiring to be like their cinema idols such as James Dean, Marlon Brando and Marilyn Munroe. In working class families, the Teddy boy was the first real teenage rebel. "Edwardians" (shortened by the press at the time to "Teds") dressed like tough Edwardian dandies. This look involved wearing drapes, neck ties and crepe-soled shoes [Play: "Blue Suede Shoes" by Elvis]. Greased hair with a quiff were not optional, they were demanded! Teds were rough and tough and acted rebellious in front of their mates - to keep up appearances! Sometimes they did get into real trouble too, although this was blown up by the press somewhat, and so they were often seen as a public menace (probably a bit like "hoodies" are today). Teds originally listened to skiffle, but quickly converted to rock 'n' roll when it arrived on the scene, as did "Greasers" (who were an "evolution").
It was a time when gangs of youths were springing up for the first time; usually this just involved hanging out rather than causing trouble, but when the film "Concrete Jungle" was first released, it did cause a lot of rioting in the cinemas in London, and was subsequently banned from many other cinemas. The film is an unusual one, about the threat of gangs and uncontrollable teenage youth at the time. There are even issues about race in the film, but it is quite hard to tell if the film condones or condemns the young rebels (who it has to be said are portrayed in a very typical way to how you would expect them to be). "Rock around the Clock" was the opening song to the film, and it was the first rock 'n' roll song to gain a worldwide mass audience, and as a result, everywhere went mad for this new music craze, including the UK. The '80s classic musical "Grease" depicts this era of teen gangs and rock 'n' roll very well.
[Play: "Grease Lightning" from the film "Grease"]
The majority of parents of rock 'n' rollers probably hated this kind of music, along with the "strange" clothes and attitude that went with it. But it was such a great type of music to dance to; both girls and boys would go to drive-ins (or in Britain London's Soho coffee bars) and danced all night to a fine musical selection which they would choose on the jukebox. The popularity of rock 'n' roll was indebted to the fact that the 33 and 45 inch vinyl record and jukebox had been recently invented. This meant that the new music could be heard everywhere - including your own home, if you were lucky enough to own a record player!
Chuck Berry, the famous black guitar playing genius was one of the first people to take rock 'n' roll overground, along with Little Richard. Their music has an amazing energy to it and still is hugely popular today - Quentin Tarantino famously used the Chuck Berry song "You Never can Tell" in the film Pulp Fiction - it's the scene where Uma Thurman and John Travolta enter the dance competition at the drive by! The early rock 'n' roll music by Chuck Berry and his Comets and also, around the same time, Elvis, was a sub-genre of music called "Rockabilly" as it was rock and roll music by white artists, and deemed as a fusion of R&B and country (nicknamed Hillbilly), hence the name.
[Play: "Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis]
Elvis arrived on the scene quite early on in the '50s, and when he released the song Heartbreak Hotel, he changed the face of popular music forever. In fact, it's pretty safe to say that all popular music was either Before Elvis (BE) or After Elvis (AE). He was a catalyst for the huge popularity of rock 'n' roll and was also the originator of consumerist driven pop music as we know it today with merchandising and promotional films etc. Elvis was big news, and he ushered in a new age of comumerism within the realm of popular music which has remained with us ever since. A bit more about Elvis....
Many of the most popular acts from this time were male performers that were managed by an eccentric Svengali (or a very persuasive/ controlling music manager) called Larry Parnes. They had American sounding names such as Marty Wilde, Billy Fury, Tommy Steele etc to sound more appealing and exciting to a British audience. It was a very diluted British form of rock 'n' roll which quite didn't capture the imaginations of young teenagers in the way that Elvis and co did. The songs of these performers might have been good in a toe-tapping kind of way, but they lacked the raw power and the sexually charged vibe of American rock 'n' roll.
Many of the most popular acts from this time were male performers that were managed by an eccentric Svengali (or a very persuasive/ controlling music manager) called Larry Parnes. They had American sounding names such as Marty Wilde, Billy Fury, Tommy Steele etc to sound more appealing and exciting to a British audience. It was a very diluted British form of rock 'n' roll which quite didn't capture the imaginations of young teenagers in the way that Elvis and co did. The songs of these performers might have been good in a toe-tapping kind of way, but they lacked the raw power and the sexually charged vibe of American rock 'n' roll.
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