Pioneers of rock n roll. Yes, you can talk about The Beatles. (1 Viewer)

[Madmarsha]

Isn't that the guy who sold his soul, to play rock n roll?

Yep. Totally true story. Change my mind.

 

[sonicboom]

Yep. Totally true story. Change my mind.

Songs like this one, give testimony of it's truthfulness, but who really knows?




Lobotomies are rarely performed nowadays...

 

[LAhotsauce]

Not sure if Sister Rosetta Tharpe was mentioned yet. Definitely an early pioneer of rock n roll. This is her very late in her career in 1964. Basically a grandma still rocking the stage.

 

[Madmarsha]

Not sure if Sister Rosetta Tharpe was mentioned yet. Definitely an early pioneer of rock n roll. This is her very late in her career in 1964. Basically a grandma still rocking the stage.

Sadly, I never heard of her before (but I should have). This is amazing! Any idea where this was at?

 

[tenordas]

I'm not a huge fan of Elvis as a person or even really an artist, but it's pretty wild to see people in this thread discounting the absolutely singular impact he had on the rock genre all because they can't get over their "white people bad!" circlejerk.

Also: The idea of "stealing" musical genres is braindead. If Elvis "stole" it, so did every white person who came after him, including your beloved Beatles and everyone they influenced, so hold them to same standard.

If we're going to dictate that only one race/culture can lay claim to a style of music, it has to apply all the way forking down.

Race has nothing to do with my point that Elvis stole his melodies and many of the guitar licks in his songs. This isn't a question of copying the "style or genre," it's a question of stealing particular musical lines. Yes, the Beatles were "copying the style," including playing many of the American blues songs flat out, but they didn't write new lyrics to them and pretend those songs were their creations. Copying style is fine; that's just playing within a particular genre, but just copying melodies and riffs (riffs, not chord progressions) outright is intellectual theft.

Jimmy Page stole the opening of the intensely boring "Stairway to Heaven" from Randy California, a totally different style of "rock" than the blues licks Elvis stole. It doesn't matter what color skin Randy had nor does it matter what the color of skin was that the bluesmen had from whom Elvis stole licks, theft is theft.

 

[Optimus Prime]

 

[Optimus Prime]

Not sure if Sister Rosetta Tharpe was mentioned yet. Definitely an early pioneer of rock n roll. This is her very late in her career in 1964. Basically a grandma still rocking the stage.

Was hoping she’d get mentioned

 

[Optimus Prime]

Not what was intended but I believe DJ Alan Freed coined the term Rock and Roll, (or at least popularized it) and was instrumental introducing it (the term and the music) to the country and Dick Clark and American Bandstand play a crucial role as well

And even though it was decades later all things music related evolve very differently if music videos don’t become as popular as they did in the 80s, and music videos don’t become as popular as they did without Michael Jackson

 

[livefromDC]

Is it stealing? Is it homage? Is it derivative?

Definitely not a derivative when it was an uncredited copy.

The Beatles paid homage and created derivatives based on a sound they embraced. They became pioneers of a truly new sound that has shaped modern music more than anyone. Elvis just isn't in that category. His lasting "contributions" to music outside of popularism were not his, but I give him full credit for the ways he shaped the music industry (massive teenage audience frenzies, selling records, using TV/film to expand his audience).

This Grammy article of course paints him in a good light, but truly they even acknowledge that most of his Rock contributions are on the popularity/rock star nature and not musicality.

5 Ways Elvis Presley Forever Changed The Music Industry, From Vegas Residencies To Cultural Fusion | GRAMMY.com

The music industry would be unrecognizable without Elvis Presley. Along with Colonel Tom Parker, the 20th-century innovator activated divergent spaces, helped architect the modern-day Las Vegas residency and so much more.

www.grammy.com

I'm not a huge fan of Elvis as a person or even really an artist, but it's pretty wild to see people in this thread discounting the absolutely singular impact he had on the rock genre all because they can't get over their "white people bad!" circlejerk.

Also: The idea of "stealing" musical genres is braindead. If Elvis "stole" it, so did every white person who came after him, including your beloved Beatles and everyone they influenced, so hold them to same standard.

If we're going to dictate that only one race/culture can lay claim to a style of music, it has to apply all the way forking down.

Nah. There's a difference between what the Beatles did and what Elvis did. So no, there's no white people bad conspiracy.

The idea that it's impossible to differentiate between stealing and being influenced by is braindead.

 

[sonicboom]

James Brown was absolutely incredible. I really appreciate his music.

 

[SystemShock]

I think that's pretty presumptuous. More likely, someone else steals it before him. It's the originators that created the sound. Yes, he became immensely popular copying it, but the music itself was undeniable. It would have been someone else if not him. That's like saying rap music doesn't become a global phenomenon without Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer.

Don't forget Blondie and Falco

I feel it was Sugar Hill Gang's Rapper's Delight that really introduced rap to the world outside the U.S. It was a huge hit around the world, but I don't think people in other countries even knew it was called rap.

In the U.S. , the seminal moments that made rap mainstream where Run DMC covering Walk This Way and Madonna taking Beasty Boys on tour.

As for Chuck Berry, Little Richard, etc... not only their stuff was copied/stolen from them in the U.S., but back in those days, in non-English speaking countries, especially Spanish speaking countries, local artists would release badly translated versions of the songs and even take the credit for it, music and all, and the originals hardly got any airplay, if at all. It really wasn't until the 70's and the advent of disco that Spanish radio stations started to play songs in English.

Want to cringe? This is the first version I heard of Tutti Frutti (my mom had the record); it was a huge hit back in the 50's. When I finally heard Little Richard sing it, it blew my mind. And yes, it is as awful when you can understand the lyrics.

 

[sfidc3]

Jimmy Page stole the opening of the intensely boring "Stairway to Heaven" from Randy California, a totally different style of "rock" than the blues licks Elvis stole. It doesn't matter what color skin Randy had nor does it matter what the color of skin was that the bluesmen had from whom Elvis stole licks, theft is theft.

There are a lot of folks that don't realize that a huge portion of LZ songs are covers of old blues songs.....I will always love the band, but a lot of the songs including a good portion of their hits they didn't write....FWIW....