{"product_id":"what-is-rock-and-roll-isbn-9780451533814","title":"What Is Rock and Roll?","description":"\u003cb\u003ePut on your dancing shoes and move to the music.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRock and roll sprang from a combination of African-American genres, Western swing, and country music that exploded in post World War II America. Jim O'Connor explains what constitutes rock music, follows its history and sub-genres through famous musicians and groups, and shows how rock became so much more than just a style of music influencing fashion, language, and lifestyle.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis entry in the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e best-selling series contains eighty illustrations and sixteen pages of black and white photographs.Jim O'Connor is the author of \u003ci\u003eWhat Was Pompeii?\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWhat Was the Battle of Gettysburg?\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eWho Is Bob Dylan?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhat Is Rock and Roll?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In August of 1953, an eighteen-year-old truck driver walked into a small building in Memphis, Tennessee. The neon signs in the windows read “Memphis Recording Service.” \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The young man was named Elvis Presley. He wanted to record two songs, “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin,” as a birthday present for his mother. The receptionist, Marion Keisker, was also the sound engineer that day. So she led Elvis into the studio and put him in front of the microphone.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Then she went into the tiny control room and recorded what he sang.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e There was something about the yearning quality in Elvis Presley’s voice that intrigued her. So she decided to make a copy for her boss, Sam Phillips, to hear. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e That was the beginning of Elvis Presley’s career.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e It was also a breakthrough for rock and roll.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChapter 1: The Roots of Rock\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Rock and roll is true made-in-the-USA music. But in the early 1950s, if you asked kids what rock music was, most of them wouldn’t have had a clue what you were talking about.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Rock music didn’t just spring up one day out of nowhere. Its sound owes a lot to the rhythm and blues (R\u0026amp;B) music of the 1940s and ’50s.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Rhythm and blues was the popular music of black Americans. The songs were exciting, with a strong, insistent beat. R\u0026amp;B music was completely different from what was played on radio stations for white audiences. Those stations played a mix of big band, jazz, and silly pop hits like “Doggie in the Window.” The music was safe and parent friendly.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Then white performers began covering popular black songs. (“Covering” means doing a new version of an older song.) Elvis Presley had a huge hit with “Hound Dog.” It had first been recorded by a black singer named Big Mama Thornton in 1952. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Elvis rocketed to stardom in the mid-1950s. In large part he owed his success to a man named Sam Phillips. Sam grew up very poor in Florence, Alabama. He was white. But as a young boy he picked cotton in the fields alongside black laborers who sang while they worked. Sam loved their music.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Sam later moved to Memphis, Tennessee. There he opened a recording studio and started his own record company—Sun Records. He signed up many African American performers. Sam wanted to bring their music to white audiences.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Sam also let amateurs, black and white, record in his tiny studio. That’s how Elvis Presley got started. Sam believed Elvis had a special talent. So Sam got two musicians he knew, guitar player Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, to back up the young singer.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Often producers recorded a song in one or two takes. (A “take” is a single complete recording of a song.) This kept costs low. But Sam believed that singers—most of all, new singers—needed time to get it right. He would record the same song, or parts of a song, over and over.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Sam did the same thing with Elvis.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e In 1954, Sam Phillips recorded Elvis, Scotty, and Bill playing the old blues song “That’s All Right” and a speeded-up cover of the country music classic “Blue Moon of Kentucky.” \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e On August 5, 1954, Elvis performed the songs at an outdoor concert in Memphis. The show sold out. Neither Elvis nor his bandmates had ever been in front of such a huge crowd. They were very nervous.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e In fact, Elvis was so nervous, his legs kept shaking and twitching while he sang. The crowd thought it was part of the act. Girls started screaming with excitement.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e After that, Elvis kept on shaking and swinging his hips at every performance. Teenagers loved it, but their parents hated it.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Elvis went on to become the biggest rock star in the world. He had twenty-eight number-one singles and ten number-one albums. John Lennon of the Beatles once said, “Before Elvis there was nothing.” After Elvis, rock and roll was here to stay.\u003cbr\u003e  ","brand":"Penguin Workshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304166936805,"sku":"NP9780451533814","price":7.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780451533814.jpg?v=1767743859","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/what-is-rock-and-roll-isbn-9780451533814","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}