What is the definition of Rock and Roll? What differentiates it stylistically from Pop? Excluding groups that have been recording for over a decade, what current artists meet the definition?
Not trying to be dense here, I just wonder where the line is drawn these days. Is it about limited chord structures and instrumentation and detectable Blues roots, or more about content and pissing off parents? Are white faux-rappers considered Rock and Roll? How about boy bands where the actual members don’t play instruments?
The differences between any two musical styles isn’t easy to define in words. It’s like the difference between eroticism and pornography: I usually know it when I see it, but the line is pretty fuzzy.
The slightly more helpful, only my opinion, here comes a can of worms answer:
Rock and Roll is music oriented around a heavy beat, and has at least some element of irreverence, rebellion or danger associated with it. Originally it was heavily based in the blues, but it doesn’t have to be. White “faux” rappers can be pretty Rock 'n Roll, I’d consider Macklemore Rock. Using a loose enough definition, he’s Rock 'n Roll (and so is James Brown). If you want an example even most purists would consider contemporary and Rock 'n Roll, I’d say the Alabama Shakes fit the bill perfectly.
Rock n’ Roll = a faster-paced blend of Blues, Jump Blues, R&B, Gospel/Soul, and Country that was marketed to the newly-emerging economic demo The Teenager with a hint of danger. Often featured guitar, but also piano and sax.
Rock = guitar-driven, more heavily Blues and Folk influenced, album-driven descendant of Rock n’ Roll. At the root of many sub-genres since the late '60’s.
Pop = what’s popular. Overlapped heavily with Rock n’ Roll and Rock in the 20th century; not so much since then. Currently dominated by EDM, Swedish Pop and modern hip-hop influenced R&B.
I’d like to agree with you, but… About 20 years ago, Rolling Stone put the Spice Girls on its cover and wrote an editorial explaining why. They’d been Blues Rock snobs since their inception, but came to the realization that “Rock and Roll is whatever 12-year-old girls say it is.” How many times can you put Eric Clapton’s ugly mug on a magazine cover and expect it to sell? And what useful definition of Rock includes Paul McCartney and not Justin Timberlake?
Well, I’d reply that just because Rolling Stone can’t find readership isn’t a very good excuse for them to re-define it, especially since they redefined it conveniently to be the same crowd they find it easy to sell magazines to. They’ve been putting all kinds of musicians on their cover over the years - not all of them were very Rock 'n Roll, IMHO. I don’t see why they felt they had to justify it that time.
Justin Timberlake became mild Disco Rock when he got older. He didn’t bring all of NSYNC with him (they might have very Rock 'n Roll careers of their own now, I don’t really follow them). Paul McCartney put out some rock songs, but he didn’t feel compelled to write in the style. Even his bandmates complained about his “granny music” - so that may be just my opinion, but I’m in OK company.
I heard ACDC’s “thunderstruck” blaring out from an Austrian ski-bar this very lunchtime. That is Rock and Roll. Perhaps ACDC should be the yardstick by which it is measured?
My definition is pretty similar to this. I consider “rock” to be a very broad term, with “rock ‘n’ roll” a subset of it that specifically refers to music that sounds like (to pick four well-known examples) Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and the early stuff by Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis.
“Rock” is like “science fiction,” a catch-all term for a attitude toward reality that has several zillion diverse to the point of antithetical subgenres inside it, the number of which is small or large depending on how much of a purist one is and whether one is a lumper or splitter.
“Pop” is like “fantasy,” an even broader term that includes rock and all that entails as one of its subgenres.
Some people define “rock” to include “pop” and some people define “pop” to include “rock.” Both are right at any given moment and wrong at every other moment.
To quote John Lennon, “If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry.'”
I think one way to define ‘rock and roll’ is by excluding things that aren’t it. Rock and Roll is played in 4/4 time (quite often with the aforementioned backbeat), played on guitar, bass, and drums, often with piano (and sometimes saxophone). If it’s got an organ, or a sitar, or an orchestra, it might be ‘rock’ but it isn’t ‘rock and roll music’.
Rock & Roll is what Wordman says in his first definition. Everything since is derivative, incorporating more or less of each element in the original definition.
I have to agree that “rock and roll” is a fairly specific subgenre of music that basically sounds like Chuck Berry. You still hear it quite a bit in new music, but as individual songs. There don’t seem to be any bands that just do rock and roll. “Rock” is a much broader genre that could include basically any modern popular act, though some will try to define it more exclusively. It draws its genealogy from the incorporation of blues, R&B, jazz, country, and classical elements into rock and roll. Contrary to many, I would consider hip-hop to be (at this point a very large) subset of rock music.
I feel the need to distinguish here between “pop” and “popular music”. To me, popular music is anything that isn’t classical or academic. From folk, bluegrass and jazz to disco, EDM and noise music, anything that is written for a general audience as opposed to a music theory professor or eccentric multimillionaire counts as “popular music”. “Pop” is just whatever gets played on the top 40 stations. At one time that was Stevie Wonder, at other times Lady Gaga. It’s not a particular genre.
In my view Rock ‘n’ Roll became Rock when it became more of an adult thing with a bit more emphasis on the “musicality” of things. Musicianship and more mature subject matter distinguish Rock from its predecessor genre. Rock itself has broadened its definition so much that it’s bigger than a genre and is more of a class of genres. I guess the superset is Music!
The lines are blurred so much now that Rock can include almost any style of music and thus it’s akin to Pop. Where those styles fuse with “Serious” music is more personal than precise.
I’d formalize this a bit more with mention that, unlike a great deal of earlier popular music, RnR placed a beat emphasis on the 2 and 4 instead of the 1 and 3. In addition, a certain slavish devotion to I IV V chord progression is worked in there as well.
