Lovers of rock will usually associate the roots or origins of the genre to the musician Elvis Presley, aka “The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. When on the contrary, the roots of rock came from the influence of black culture and music. Rock has been around since the 1940s and continued to thrive in the 50s where many white musicians started to tune their sound from influences of black artists. There’s not just one person who created the genre. Black pioneers such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Little Richard, Ike Turner, Bo Diddley, and Chuck Barry did.
It was in fact influenced by the blues, a black music genre that came from the South, particularly the Mississippi. In addition, the genre came from country music of early black artists in the rural South where slavery existed.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was the one who created the distinct and classic sound of rock and was of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. She was born in Cotton Plant, Arkansas to parents who worked in the cotton fields. She started performing at an early age where she sang and played the guitar alongside her mother. She was then exposed to styles like blues and jazz in the South and later the Northeast. Although she played blues and jazz on her own time, she performed gospel music to audiences across America. Her style is rooted from many secular influences. She grew popularity between the 1930’s and 1940’s where people liked the way she sang the notes like the blue and jazz artists. Notably, her lyrics was influenced of spiritual and rock. Listeners of Tharpe’s music called her “the Godmother of Rock ‘n’ Roll”.
Because of her unique style in music, her influence impacted many musicians such as Elvis Presley. His music originated from a myriad styles of blues and R&B from other black musicians, but, without a doubt, the genre rock all began from Tharpe’s music.
Ironically, he made a huge impact during the 1950’s when America was undergoing racism and segregation. He attracted many audiences and grew more diverse as he became popular. Yet, white people from the north and south who were for segregation heavily disapproved of the integration of both races. Despite that, his audience still grew, slowly forming into a more multi-race audience.
So, lovers of Elvis Presley: don’t say he was the one who invented rock when early black artists were the ones who did.
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