blacks started rock?

[Floydness]

i always hear people saying blacks started rock but i dont know of many black rock bands or anything. anyone care to explain? thanks

[hector]

I sure as hell don't care to.  but I gaurantee this thread turns into a argument of whether black or whites started it, and then it will probably turn racist.

[.:TimeLock:.]

yeah blacks did start rock but they got no air play so they would let white artist use there songs so they could hear their songs on the radio...

there was alot of shit like that happening in the 50's

peace

[Don Jacob]

Rock as you know it now,........was cultivated by white people

Guns N roses
AC DC
Metallica
ect.

but Rock N Roll AKA  Bouncier R & B was started by black people

Little Richard
Fats Domino
Chuck Berry
ect.

[Suffice]

I agree with don jacob

[Foesum]

Dave Bartholomew
Ruth Brown
Ray Charles
Fats Domino
Smiley Lewis

those were the first black rock artist. But that type of rock was more with r&b. But the crazy hardcore rock was like Big Star, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix.

[JTSimon]

Isn't Elvis a Chuck Berry ripoff ?

[Diabolical]

The best guitarists arnt white e.g. Kirk Hammett & Hendrix

[Suffice]

what is kirk hammett? i always thought he was white (although he looks sort of hispanic)

[Trauma-san]

Music 101

First there were Gregorian Chants by Gregorian Monks and such

Then, along came hymns

Then, along came your classical music, composers flourished in the renaissance and were all white, mainly

Of course, at the same time blacks were making their own tribal music and such in various parts of the world, music was invented by everyone everywhere, Egyptians were black and played instruments, etc.

In the early parts of the 20th century you had musical explosions everywhere, some of the most significant music was blues music, grew from blacks who of course had lots of songs and things associated with their lives of slavery before, whites of course had music also, but the blues grew out of black spiritual songs and slave songs.  Simplistic but very expressive.

From that came Jazz, while the whites progressed into Big Band type arrangments, similar to jazz, for a while in the 20's 30's 40's music was really multi cultural, you had big bands with white conductors playing jazz and also black artists leading their own bands with jazz music, the blues still persisted along with it.  You also of course still had black and white church music, and the classical music from before still being performed.

Of course, during all this, there's music everywhere in the world, lol, not just those types of music, there's music in the middle east, music in Europe, etc. everywhere! Music is universal, it's a gift from God even though today not many treat it as such, even though their minds and their souls swear to them it's the truth.

Anyways, in the late 40's, you had a lot of soulfull blues and jazz blending together, along came people like Ella Fitgerald, and Billie Holiday, the early 50's saw great great great Black legends like The Platters, Nat King Cole, etc. etc. emerge.  

Here's where it started: The U.S. was still very much segregated at the time, and black artists couldn't perform in many white clubs.  So, you had sort of a seperation of cultures, you had blacks performing in Juke Joints and such, and you had Whites still performing big band jazz numbers.  People like Frank Sinatra were accompanying orchestras, and such, and were singing the same types of music blacks were, but were getting more mainstream attention.

In the LATE 50's, you had a change come about.  The youth of America kind of got a whiff of some of the black acts, which tended to be more wild and exotic then some of the white acts they had been hearing, and shit just blew slap the fuck up.  

For instance, out of the doo wop era of the early 50's, you had groups like the Platters, the Dells, The Four Freshmen, the Drifters, etc. etc. singing, white and black, slower more laid back tame music.  Along came a few revolutionaries like Little Richard and Chuck Berry, and music was never the same.  

I'd Credit Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, and Elvis Presley with creating Rock and Roll.  Little Richard started the transition from Doo Wop to Rock. Doo Wop was acceptable in American white homes, because the songs were so tame, and the black acts that sang them were respectable and well-dressed, etc.  

Little Richard came along, with one of the greatest voices of all time, doing totally, TOTALLY wild and creative shit.  

"I SAW UNCLE TOM, WITH LONG TALL SALLY...
SALLY SAW ME COMIN' SO SHE DUCKED BACK IN THE ALLEY
OH BABY!!! YEAHHHHHH OH BABBYYY!!!!  BABY!!! HAVIN ME SOME FUN TONIGHT!!!!"

Here's a black man sneaking into the homes of white children via the airwaves, with an amazingly loud voice, shrieking these crazy ass lyrics about women and sex, and you've got parents hating it all over the place.  They thought little Richard was the devil himself.  This of course made them boycott Long Tall Sally and other songs, but that just made people want to play them more.  

On the White Front, people like Jerry Lewis were doing similar things.  To say ONLY Blacks started Rock is crazy, Jerry Lewis was like the white version of Little Richard.  

"I Said Come Along Baby, Baby Grab The Bull By The Horns..
We Ain't Fakin;... Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin  On!!!"

That was some crazy shit in the 50's.  He's basically talking about girls asses

"Just Shake It, Baby, Shake It... All You Gotta Do Honey, Is Stand in One Spot, and Wiggle Around... Just a lil' Bit... oooh hey, Baby, Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On"

Bill Haley had a huge hit early with "Rock Around the Clock" which summed up the whole feeling of Rock and Roll.

"We're gonna rock, around the clock tonight, we're gonna rock, rock, rock, till the broad daylight, we're gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight"

Elvis was EARLY.  Most people think he came along late, but he was right there near the beginning.  Here's a white man dancing like a black man; so he was acceptable in white homes that Little Richard and others weren't.  

So, there were wild aspects of Rock, but also more subdued aspects, like Buddy Holly, a genius who wrote songs that have lasted through time and strike a common chord in any teenager or anyone who's been a teenager.  

Little Richard and Chuck Berry got their Mojo from the blues.  The Blues was totally black; the other part of the music came from doo-wop, which was both white, and black.  

If you think Elvis or Jerry Lewis don't deserve the credit they were given, and that they stole it from blacks because they had no talent, you're crazy.  Elvis or Lewis would have been HUGE even if Little Richard or Chuck Berry weren't around, but the wilder more sexual side of Rock definately came from Little Richard, 100% deserves credit for that.  

I'd say it was MAINLY black influenced, but there were white people along from the beginning, and I don't agree that they all stole black music, Elvis was soulful from birth, he didn't steal shit, he lived it just like Eminem lives rap from birth.  

There WERE however obvious exceptions like Pat Boone, who would take a black song, tame it down, and release an album selling millions of copies because all the parents liked him.  

[Don Jacob]

Isn't Elvis a Chuck Berry ripoff ?

not really

Elvis was more country driven  and twangy and chuck berry was more faster delta blues/robert johnson  thing. Elvis' sound for the most part came from country music and big band and chuck berry's came from adapting that saloon piano into a blues guitar.

[Don Jacob]

what is kirk hammett? i always thought he was white (although he looks sort of hispanic)

as far as i know Kirk Hammett is White, i had to write a paper in music class about my favorite band and get really detailed , and this one dutch fan site said he was Irish/German.


He just likes to tan that's why he's darker than the others, the only ethnic memberof metallica is Rob, who's mexican (viva!).....also kirk's got something were he ages slowly....his voice still sounds like 16 year old and up until he was like 30 something he looked it.

1982-

he's 19 there and looks like a 12 year old white kid

2004

damn near 40 and looks like a 20 something year old mexican