Rock and roll
Popular music style of the 1950s combining rhythm and blues with country (Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry).
What it means
Rock and roll is a music style that emerged in the United States in the early 1950s, combining elements of African American rhythm and blues with country and western music. It is marked by a driving, steady beat, often built on the 12-bar blues pattern, and by electric guitar, double bass or electric bass, and drums.
Musical use
Performers such as Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard turned rock and roll into a worldwide youth phenomenon from the mid-1950s, complete with its own dances and a new youth culture. Musically, rock and roll is distinguished from straight rhythm and blues mainly by its stronger orientation towards a young, including white, audience, and it formed the direct basis for the more diverse rock music of the 1960s.
Performance practice
Play the characteristic rock-and-roll rhythm with a clear backbeat on beats two and four, and keep the guitar accompaniment figures tight and driving so the dance-like drive is preserved.