The History of Rock N’ Roll, according to your average VH1 viewer:
Once upon a time there was R&B, which involved black people. Then came Rock N’ Roll, which consisted entirely of Elvis. Then nothing happened until The Beatles took a plane to America. After that, the music was all peace and love and social consciousness. Rock N’ Roll became a true original American artform in 1969, the Summer of Love, because it was then unmistakably the music of white people. Later, a number of art rock' acts formed, and were very deep. Then came Disco, and Jesus wept. In recent decades, Rock has almost entirely disappeared, but some mindless obscene music played too loud has taken its place. Alright, maybe I'm over stating the issue a bit. But I've been growing concerned for years over how oldies stations seem to be abandoning the fifties in favor of the sixties and seventies. When the story of Rock N' Roll is told anymore, the fifties become more and more of a footnote. Not to mention the fourties. My guess is that those who became what they call Rockologists’ grew up listening to later rock, and so that is what they later glamorized.
I hate to see the rock of the seventies become somehow definitive, when the rock of the fifties seems to be no more than an excuse to talk about how racially enlightened rock fans are.
I’d say the reason is that the people who were listening to rock and roll in the 50’s were born in the 20’s and 30’s…so they’re all retiring…and radio stations are all about the advertising, baby. If the people you’re reaching during drive time listen to Buddy Holly, you’re gonna play a lot of Buddy Holly. If they listen to Iron Butterfly…well, you get the idea, I’m sure.
Brief aside, in keeping with the OP: On the way back from Norfolk, we (me, RTFirefly, and my wife) were listening to an oldies station which, like many/most, seemed to be programmed primarily with music from about 1960-1966 or so. After we had been listening for a while, they played Jackson Browne’s “Doctor My Eyes,” which in our estimation fell solidly into the “classic rock” or “lite rock” categories rather than oldies. We were a little taken aback.
Now this scared the hell out of me…someone called songs like, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and the Divinyls I Touch Myself (I was in 7th grade when this fucking song came out! Eeeks!)
In Pittsburgh, every Sunday night they play the original oldies from the fifties and the early sixties…great time to hear Rock Around the Clock, Earth Angel, Sleepwalk, I Only Have Eyes For You…etc etc…
It’s funny how they-VH1-forget Carl Perkins (who was the original Blue Suede Shoes sing-maybe composer?), Jerry Lee Lewis etc etc…
I’d suspect that the Baby Boom has something to do with it. Demographically, “their” oldies of the 1960s would been seen as the ones most likely to get listeners, IMHO.
Actually, I was thinking it was in 1968, but I’m looking at something here that says it was in 1967. In any case, I blame `rockumentaries’ for blurring these dates in my mind by conflating the entire decade with Woodstock.
On another BBS recently I had posted Pat Metheny’s rant about Kenny G. Several jazz fans there objected to Metheny’s characterization of Louis Armstrong as the central figure in jazz music. Now, obviously, claims of this sort are always contentious. But in discussing the issue, it quickly became clear that a lot of the jazz fans who rebuked the claim had very short memories. They had no idea of the history of jazz prior to Be-Bop.
This struck me as bizzare, because I expect rock fans to have short memories. But I think of jazz fans as people with encyclopedic memories. They remember who played what instrument on what album in what key at what studio at what time of the year. And they sure as hell ought to know that Thelonius Monk didn’t arise in a vacuum. He arose from a background dominated by Louis Armstrong.
Nah, you’re just thinking of me. All us jazz fans aren’t like that.
When did 1967 get tagged the “Summer of Love,” anyway? Were people walking around that summer wishing each other a happy summer of love, or did TIME magazine hang it on it ten years afterward?
Lessee…1967 had the big Be-In in San Francisco…Monterey Pop…the first album released by the Grateful Dead…Surrealistic Pillow and Sgt. Pepper.
The History of Rock n’ Roll is highly problematic, of course, because the audience for it is not interested in standards of scholarly integrity. It tends to be oversimplified, hagiographical, sensationalist, sentimentalist, and often attempts to project later beliefs about the period on characters who lived in a different era. You know, Washington Irving type stuff.
Holy Mother of Crap! I just found this website dedicated to Alan Freed. Rather than having just a brief bio, and a few pictures, this site actually has .pdf files of primary source documents from the Payola Scandal, including investigator reports, tax forms and check stubs.