by Elmer Dean

Created on: March 31, 2009

Rock music is by far the genre of music that has had the largest effect on music, ether it be the industry itself or other genres of music in general. Rock music owes its roots to the decade where the music industry first started picking up momentum, the 1950s. (Coincidence?) The music was targeted for being offensive for its lyrical content and African American roots, usually the latter was the cause of the former. We can trace Rock 'n' Roll back to the 1920s, this ancestor of rock music is Jazz. Jazz started in the same light as Rock. Jazz was seen as obscene for the liberal behavior that it encouraged and the African American roots it had, is this just some odd coincidence?

It seems that the common denominator in the music of both these genre's scorn is the African Americans who first started playing it. This is only the beginning of the undeserved hatred that Rock music has so infamously acquired. While racism was a factor in the inital resentment to Rock 'n' Roll, another was the lyrical content that eventually became one of the mottos of Rock 'n' Roll and its sub-genres, Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll. Rock sang about sex, and drugs. The motto is a central point in the image of rock stars today, but where did it come from? Rock 'n' Roll is Blues slang for sex, and it is easy to find quite a large number of Blues songs with a sexual agenda in them. The fascinations of Rock music evolved from Blues. It does not surprise me that here in America where our self-hatred of our bodies makes us insecure about our sexual drive, which we repress to avoid being socially unacceptable, that such a thing was taken ill. While there may be a separation of church and state in our country, it doesn't stop people from pretending there is or asserting their moral values as truth. Why is Rock music bad because it doesn't suit your lifestyle?

On to drugs, the word in the motto does not have to do as much with singing about drugs as it does the hard party life style of a rock star, the motto as a whole addresses. Rock music was about having a good time, it was exactly the kind of mellowing out the country needed in the so called innocence and apple pie age of the 1950s. Apart from what some people may tell you, Rock music has had some definite positive affects. A large majority of our pop culture is based of off Rock Music and the industry it pushed along. The guitar has become a symbol of not only Rock 'n' Roll, but of american teenagers in general, it is the most popular instrument.

Rock music is the most popular genre, it is easy to find even among today's New Country singers a hint of Rock 'n' Roll's vast influences. We are a nation who loves to rock, we are a world who loves to rock. Sometimes we just need some loud guitar to tell us to have a good time.

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