I've written a lot of articles recently on the topic of rockabilly. Throughout the past couple of months I've forced myself to think about the music, to learn about the music, to feel the music, to hear the music, and to write about the music. Why? What would prompt me to spend so much of my time putting all these thoughts together about a genre of music that had its fleeting moment of glory for a few short years almost 60 years ago and was all but forgotten as quickly as it burst upon the music scene? Good question.
The past several weeks have been a journey into the pages of rockabilly music history. I'd expected that. But it's been much more than that. It's been a journey into the very heart of rock and roll music itself. Rockabilly was a seemingly simple form of music. I've written about how it found its roots in the blues, country music, rhythm and blues music, and gospel music of the first half of the past century. But those roots carried more than music into the people of the 1950s. It carried the seeds of a new revolution in music unlike any that had ever taken place before.
Rockabilly music wasn't really all that inventive. It was simply cumulative. It was the mixing of all those ingredients into something that used bits of each of them to create something different from all of them. It used simple, standard blues musical progressions. Its guitarists played familiar country-styled instruments and parts. Its vocalists tapped into the gospel songs they'd learned as children. Its drum-and-bass rhythm sections were transported directly from the black rhythm and blues bands of the late 1940s and early 1950s.
It was really no different in its parts and pieces than so much of the music that came before it. But there was something about the whole when each of these pieces was combined into one. The whole was different. Very, very different.
Rockabilly was somehow able to transcend the boundaries of pop, country, and R&B music charts for the first time topping all three of them with one song by one artist. In doing so, it proved to be capable of transcending the color barrier that kept whites and their music almost completely separate from blacks and theirs. Rockabilly threw in dashes of each and stirred the pot until they were so thoroughly mixed that they could never again be separated. From that point on, black and white musicians would play for and be loved by black and white fans alike. Rockabilly music played a huge role in opening those doors and breaking down the barriers.
The themes of most rockabilly songs were not deep. "But if you mess with my ducktails you'd better stop" and "uh-uh honey, lay offa them shoes" were not exactly introspective lyrics. But nonetheless they touched the hearts and souls of a generation of music fans who were starving for something more meaningful than the question, "how much is that doggie in the window?" Rockabilly lyrics didn't have to be deep. The music did all the grabbing that was needed. It moved people. It made people happy.
And rockabilly set the stage for countless bands and an incredibly wide variety of music that came after it. It's where The Beatles and hundreds of other bands learned how to play music. It's where modern rock and roll performers learned how to act on stage. It's where we come from musically. That's why we need to remember it. That's why it needs to be kept alive. That's why it still matters. And that's why I love rockabilly music.
The past several weeks have been a journey into the pages of rockabilly music history. I'd expected that. But it's been much more than that. It's been a journey into the very heart of rock and roll music itself. Rockabilly was a seemingly simple form of music. I've written about how it found its roots in the blues, country music, rhythm and blues music, and gospel music of the first half of the past century. But those roots carried more than music into the people of the 1950s. It carried the seeds of a new revolution in music unlike any that had ever taken place before.
Rockabilly music wasn't really all that inventive. It was simply cumulative. It was the mixing of all those ingredients into something that used bits of each of them to create something different from all of them. It used simple, standard blues musical progressions. Its guitarists played familiar country-styled instruments and parts. Its vocalists tapped into the gospel songs they'd learned as children. Its drum-and-bass rhythm sections were transported directly from the black rhythm and blues bands of the late 1940s and early 1950s.
It was really no different in its parts and pieces than so much of the music that came before it. But there was something about the whole when each of these pieces was combined into one. The whole was different. Very, very different.
Rockabilly was somehow able to transcend the boundaries of pop, country, and R&B music charts for the first time topping all three of them with one song by one artist. In doing so, it proved to be capable of transcending the color barrier that kept whites and their music almost completely separate from blacks and theirs. Rockabilly threw in dashes of each and stirred the pot until they were so thoroughly mixed that they could never again be separated. From that point on, black and white musicians would play for and be loved by black and white fans alike. Rockabilly music played a huge role in opening those doors and breaking down the barriers.
The themes of most rockabilly songs were not deep. "But if you mess with my ducktails you'd better stop" and "uh-uh honey, lay offa them shoes" were not exactly introspective lyrics. But nonetheless they touched the hearts and souls of a generation of music fans who were starving for something more meaningful than the question, "how much is that doggie in the window?" Rockabilly lyrics didn't have to be deep. The music did all the grabbing that was needed. It moved people. It made people happy.
And rockabilly set the stage for countless bands and an incredibly wide variety of music that came after it. It's where The Beatles and hundreds of other bands learned how to play music. It's where modern rock and roll performers learned how to act on stage. It's where we come from musically. That's why we need to remember it. That's why it needs to be kept alive. That's why it still matters. And that's why I love rockabilly music.
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