Music in the 1950s: Rock & Roll

Image: 1957 publicity photo of Chuck Berry. (Universal Attractions (management), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Audio: Chuck Berry - Maybellene Play

Chuck Berry was an influential figure in 1950s American music who inspired countless others and attracted both Black and White Americans with his distinctive-sounding music and electric stage presence. His work, influenced by rhythm and blues as well as hillbilly music, pioneered the creation of a new genre that would transform American music and Western music as a whole.

In 1955, Berry worked with Chess Records to produce his first original song “Maybellene,” which Berry had adapted from the country song Ida Red. The song became a massive hit, reaching #5 on the pop charts due to Berry’s creative and amusing lyrics, upbeat playing and development of the guitar solo (which would become a hallmark of Rock and Roll), and the introduction of the theme of young love to popular music. Throughout his career, he was performing for mostly-white, teenage audiences.

However, he faced many challenges due to the color of his skin. He was barred from playing his own music several times as event organizers were unaware that the artist behind “Maybellene,” an incredibly popular song, was black. Berry also faced issues with payola - the practice of crediting others (thereby sharing the song’s earnings) as the songwriters to a song in order to increase the airtime the song got. Unfamiliar with the legal procedures, Berry struggled for years to recover the rights to his own songs.

Despite these hardships, Chuck Berry would continue to be a popular and influential artist, inspiring Artists such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. His masterpiece, “Johnny B. Goode,” was included on Voyager I’s Golden Record as an exemplar of human culture.

Image: Bill Haley and the Comets in a 1956 advertisement by Decca Records. (Decca Records / James Kriegmann, New York., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Audio: Bill Haley & His Comets - Rock Around The Clock Play

Bill Haley was a highly popular early rock and roll pioneer. Starting in the late 1940s, Bill Haley and his band, “Bill Haley and the Saddlemen” were known for their ability to play several distinct genres of music, including country, swing, and rhythm and blues. The band was renamed to Bill Haley and His Comets in 1952, the name under which they would create one of the original rock songs, “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock.”

Despite not finding initial success, the song would become the number one single in the United States and the UK after its inclusion in the 1955 release of the film Blackboard Jungle. The song became associated with teenage rebellion and the energy of youth. Like “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Rock Around the Clock” was based on the 12-bar blues pattern, but used it in a much more lively manner that drew inspiration from swing and country music, which is evident in the song’s syncopation.

Like Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and His Comets drew on themes of partying and the exuberance of youth. The band would continue to create several successful tracks, including “R.O.C.K” and “Rip it Up.” Bill Haley is often credited with having produced the first Rock and Roll song, being “Rock Around the Clock.”

Image: 1955 promotional photo of Johnny Cash. (Sun Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Audio: Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues (Live) Play

Johnny Cash was born in 1932, and in his early life faced the struggles of the Great Depression, with his sharecropping family often struggling to make ends meet. He lost his brother to a work related accident when he was just 10 years old. These formative experiences would influence his work, which often involved dark themes as in his signature song, “Folsom Prison Blues.”

Cash was influenced by both gospel music and blues in writing “Folsom Prison Blues.” The chord progression of the song follows a modified version of the 12-bar blues, the most recognizable composition of blues music that originated in Black communities in the South. He uses a variant of the 12-bar pattern to create a feeling of exhaustion for the prisoner until the final verse, where he uses the classic pattern to create a satisfying ending and hope for change.

His other works include the album Blood, Sweat, and Tears, to express the struggles of the working class, and the album Bitter Tears, which describes the struggles of Native Americans. These messages continued into his later life, in which he advocated for prison and other causes directly to President Nixon. These are expressed in his 1971 song “Man in Black,” where he says “I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, living in the hopeless, hungry side of town; I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, but is there because he’s a victim of the time.”