Godfrey Makonere Wesutsa

ROCK MUSIC Rock music is perhaps the most widely recognized music genre in modern history. Rock music is said to have emerged in the late 1940’s and has been re-invented severally, that it is hard to give a straightforward definition of this genre. To others, rock is associated with gothic styled four to six people bands, strumming away at electric guitars and banging on a drum set, with an overly immersed vocalist singing to high heaven. However, a closer look at rock reveals how other styles of music have influenced and shaped its evolution over the years. Rock’s formative years can be traced to the 1940’s in the United States of America. At the time, country music and blues were the prevalent styles. The use of electric guitars and drums gave rise to rock. The artists of the time such as Louis Jordan, The Ink Spots, Dinah Washington, Bull Moose Jackson among many others are notable for their influence in the creation of the genre. The 1950’s gave us several artists who perhaps gave us the first real rock and roll songs. In 1953, Bill Haley and His Comets were the first to hit the pop charts with “Crazy Man Crazy” and in 1955 had their first #1 hit “Rock Around The Clock”. Two years later, rock and roll artists started appearing regularly on the popular music charts and by 1959, the records accounted for 43% of all records sold. Aside from Bill, other influential artists of the time included; Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent, Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Burnette & The Rock n' Roll Trio, Wanda Jackson, Ritchie Valens and Johnny Cash. The 1960’s were characterized by a change in society and especially music. Social influences at the time such as the progression of the Civil Rights Movement, the War in Vietnam and the sexual revolution of the time; greatly contributed to the diversity of music that we experience today. The “British Invasion” of the rock and roll scene also happened within this time frame, with “The Beatles”, arguably one of the most widely known bands of all time. Popular rock music genres of the 1960’s included; British Invasion with bands such as The Beatles, The Kinks, The Animals; Surf Rock and Psychedelic Rock artists like The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jan and Dean, The Beach Boys and; Roots Rock and Hard Rock such as The Rolling Stones, The Who, Janis Joplin among others. Rock became the dominant form of music in the 1970’s with the emergence of hard rock/heavy metal. The 80’s saw a decline in mainstream rock but later in the decade the emergence of alternative rock gave way to new sound in rock. Alternative rock cemented its cultural standing when the music magazine Billboard created a new chart in 1988 for alternative rock, which the publication classified as modern rock. For most music fans, terms such as modern rock, alternative, and indie are synonymous ways of describing this popular subgenre. The 90’s and 2000’s saw a comeback in rock with popular bands such as the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Fall Out Boy and the Foo Fighters. Rap –rock, another sub-genre was popularized by groups such as Linkin Park and hard-rock traditions with a modern spin were the sound of bands such as 3 Doors Down, Three Days Grace, Puddle Of Mad and Matchbox Twenty. Alternative rock was widely popular in the recent decade with bands such as Panic! At the Disco, Cold Play, The Killers, Florence and the Machine, Muse, Imagine Dragons among others, churning out hits after hits. Undoubtedly, with the improvements in technology and the ever dynamic influence of artistic creativity, the rock genre of music will experience continuous evolution.