I started listening to the radio in the early ’70s. At that time, there were a lot of comedy TV shows created to showcase a band’s music. There was, for example, the “Sonny and Cher comedy hour” with its great music and outlandish costumes. interspersed with good-natured disputes. Several of these comedies, like “The Partridge Family” with David Cassidy, “Getting Together” (with Bobby Sherman) and “the Monkees” served to turn their leads into teen heartthrob.

There were also variety shows like “Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour”. Glen commented that “it’s amazing when you think about the power of TV and movies. If I hadn’t had hits, I wouldn’t have gotten TV and movies, but Goodtime Hour made my career explode around the world.” I loved these shows, especially their music. TV shows have always had a huge influence on our enjoyment of rock music, even now.

I soon developed an interest in the history of rock and roll. The words “Rock and roll” were apparently first used in 1951 by a Cleveland disc jockey named Alan Freed, and were taken from the song “My Baby Rocks Me with a Steady Roll.” It was traditional in blues music, which evolved in the 1950s from rhythm and blues, to use the terms “rock, roll, rock and roll, etc.) to refer to sexual intercourse. Freed used the term to refer to music with a raw, heavy tone, back beat to include whites in their audience.

He started a radio show called “Moondog Rock and Roll Party” that played black music for a white audience; his enthusiasm for black music became contagious. In 1952, Freed organized the first rock and roll concert. The recording industry, aware that blacks were creating new and popular music, tried to exploit it.

In 1952, “Bill Haley and the Comets” became the first (black) rock and roll band, although the US was still largely racially divided at the time. When Sam Phillips founded Sun Records, he announced, “If I could find a white man who sings with black feeling, he’d make a million dollars.”

In 1952, the television program “Bandstand” aired. In 1953, Bill Haley’s “Crazy Man Crazy” became the first rock song to enter the Billboard charts. The Orioles’ “Crying in the Chapel” became the first black hit to top the white pop charts. In 1954, doo-wop, a new kind of black vocal harmony, emerged with the Penguins’ Earth Angel (1954) and Platters’ Only You (1955).

Jukeboxes were spreading in the early 1950s, and the first solid-body electric guitars were brought to market. In 1954, the record companies switched to “45” and the transistor radio was introduced. Record players got cheaper. Now teenagers could listen to their music anywhere they wanted.

“American Graffiti” was a great movie to highlight early rock and roll. Bill Haley’s “Rock around the Clock” was the first rock song used in a film and became the national rock and roll anthem; making rock and roll a national hit in 1954.

In 1955, Chuck Berry became rock and roll’s first great songwriter (rather than just a performer). He was the first to have the guitar as the main instrument and to have descending double pentatonic registers (the essence of rock guitar). Unfortunately, being black, he didn’t get the same airplay as a white musician, so he remained a cult figure. I remember him more for “Johnny Be Goode”

Elvis Presley made his first record in 1954, and since his early hits (like Good Rocking Tonight) were all black, he allowed white kids to play black music. With their huge success, white “rockers” were not only tolerated but even promoted by major record producers. However, black music (such as “Shake, Rattle, and Roll”) was even more powerful and original.

Slowly and steadily, “white rockers” played more guitar than piano, and singers began to sing their own songs (rather than those of professional songwriters). The “black rockers” had always written their own songs and composed on the guitar. This is how rock and roll was based on the guitar, used a small combo instead of an orchestra, and thus emphasized rhythm instead of harmony. Rock musicians were expected to have a guitar in front of them, even though most white people did not know how to play the guitar.

The recording industry flourished and independent labels flourished. In 1959, rock and roll’s market share was 42.7%. This, despite a proposed bill in Congress in 1955 to ban rock and roll in the US Thank goodness that didn’t happen!

The 1960s saw a “British Invasion” of rock bands. The Beatles were the most notable of them; made rock the most popular music in the United States. Bob Dylan used rock and roll to protest war, poverty, and racism. Rock and roll continued to develop and change.

Although rock and roll still exists, it does not mean the same thing as in these first two decades. After the advent of disco music in the 1970s, many people thought that rock was losing its originality. It bounced back with hard rock and heavy metal in the 1980s. Rap, a black movement, became very popular. too depressing. Then the very young group Hanson appeared with “MMM Bop” and they conquered the world. Other “boy bands” followed, along with shows on how to find them and make them stars. Even now we have shows like “American Idol” that are very popular.

Rock music seems to have its ebbs and flows, mostly evolving and changing with American culture. It has been the soundtrack of our lives.