Rock

Rock is a widely popular and vast genre that gathers together a wide range of different styles. Its origins can be traced to US recordings in the late 1940s that combined major elements from Jump Blues and Swing, with increased prominence given to the role of the electric guitar drawn from Chicago Blues. Even though the term "rock" was originally used by some Blues performers in the late 1930s to describe the bawdier version of their music with faster tempo songs, it went largely unrecorded until the late 1940s. Rock in its original form was a song-based type of music that typically used a verse-chorus structure with a backbeat rhythm and the electric guitar at the forefront of the music being heavier and/or faster than its predecessor genres. The structure and sound of rock is based around a prominent electric guitar sound with a bass guitar and drums providing its rhythm (although electric guitars can also sometimes contribute, usually referred to as rhythm guitars in this context). However, rock musicians have experimented with this base structure from the beginning so any two different rock bands may not sound anything alike or even have similar structures. Rock music from its inception has symbolized the counter-culture and served as a vehicle for rebellion and protest, although the proliferation of the genre has diluted this characteristic's importance as a core aspect. Rock originated in the southern United States and became popular in the 1950s through its two original forms Rock & Roll and Rockabilly. Rock & roll was used to describe black musicians such as Little Richard and Chuck Berry who played Rhythm & Blues at a faster tempo and incorporated new technical innovations such as the electric guitar, amplifier and microphone. Rockabilly was used to describe young Western Swing performers who incorporated fast-paced rhythm and blues with Country influences. This term tended to be applied to white musicians like Carl Perkins and was popularized by the early recordings of Elvis Presley. This type of music started to decline in popularity in the late 1950s and early 1960s as Pop gained wider prominence, although the development of subgenres such as Surf Rock and Garage Rock retained the public's interest and general relevance of the genre.