Question

Compare and contrast the musical output of the following musicians: Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, and Buddy Holly. How were their approaches to rock and roll similar and/or different? In your answer, consider their role in 1950s rock and roll, their musical and performance style and their influence on later musicians.

Answer 1

Answer:

The US was still much more segregated and entrenched with conservative attitudes around the 1950s, with the civil right movement yet to develop a decade later; the big labels were not really interested in rock and roll at the time until Elvis with his swagger and more charisma than the other artists in the list (mostly the way he was marketed) what made him king due selling more records than anyone else and in a way that no one did before.

White artists rarely did better than original Black artists on the pop charts when making cover versions of R&B;  Chuck Berry used to record on independent R&B labels with influences of CW as a previous attempt to appeal to pop audiences blending R&B + CW, what was called as the "Whitening" of R&B, which influenced artists such as Buddy Holly and Bill Haley who was a Diskjockey that further helped in better introducing that sound to white audiences due being "white" himself, but not in the same way Elvis could later on.

R&B and CW were both influenced by Jazz and Swing; albeit most of their sounds and tempos are different, their lyrics, chords, melodies, and themes were similar, both reflected the down economy of that time in history, which resonated with most people across the social spectrum, bringing them together somehow, making them realize they had more things in common than they thought; the "Elvis phenomenon" capitalized this better than other previous trends, due to his rags to riches story, genuinely aligned with the American dream.