The death of rock and roll - Essay Example

The death of rock and rollRock and Roll emerged in the late 1940s and fully developed in 1950s. This was because it was a rather emotionally communicating song genre. As such those who felt oppressed especially the black societies who faced racial discrimination would use this genre to communicate their feelings. There is need to recognize the fact that in the early 1950s, the rock and roll genre was more racial than it would become in the 1960s. It majorly a black dominated genre with majorly blacks purchasing the records (Driver, 2014).

However the genre was to face a decline while very young and vibrant. This was due to the loss of the initial rock gurus who died, got prosecuted or left the industry. This included the death of Big Bopper, Buddy Holly and Richie Valence. Additionally, the prosecution of the legendary Chuck Berry and the departure of Elvis to join the military brought about some back waters (Driver, 2014). These were the top guys in the industry and there exit was a very big blow to the genre of rock and roll.

However, the appeal of each of the new styles of music was also great: Rhythm and Blues was rising following a combination of Blues and Jazz which was becoming popular. Then there emerged a merger of secular and gospel themes coupled with a greater emphasis on vocalists. This was emergence of Soul music. Soul music became a major commercial force and soon more attention was directed to it. Music is business beyond just passion. One needed to be where business is, this made more musicians levitate towards Soul.

As more business was realized in the Soul genre more attention was given to it with little on rock and this commercial drive was critical in the decline of rock and roll.In my own experience, a similar commercial appropriation of a youth movement has happened in the recent past. This was in the genre of hip hop music where there was an emergence of a subgenre, Crunk music also referred to as Krunk or crunksters. This genre originated from Memphis in the early 1990s andwas to gain popularity in early 2000.

It is an up tempo and more club oriented subgenre of hiphop that is characterized by shouting vocals and heavy baseline (Flash, 2011). This subgenre immensely gained a commercial appropriation which would then attract more artists in the sector. More TV commercials, Radio adverts, and Film promos preferred the use of crunk in the early 2000. This promoted this subgenre of Hip-hop attracting even more artists in the industry due to the heavy commerce it attracted. Clubs played crunck, public service vehicles and radio stations were all about crunk suggesting more business in this genre.

For this period the genre of hip-hop faced a decline. Crunk was very popular in between 2001 and 2004. However the genre also faced a decline.ReferenceDriver, R. D. (2014). Images of England through Popular Music: Class, Youth and Rock ‘n’Roll, 1955–1976. Rock Music Studies, (ahead-of-print), 1-3. Flash, G. (2011). Hip hop. Origins, 2, 1970s.