Did The Beatles Destroy Rock?
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Elijah Wald is the author of How the -Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll, in which he tries to convince us that much about the way we interpret the history of pop is wrong. Wald argues that most of "the music's critics and historians have typically sought to distinguish the music they love from the mediocre pap that surrounded it. As a result, virtually all rock histories portray Pat Boone and Connie Francis in much the same way that jazz histories portray Guy Lombardo and Rudy Vallee." Wald sees two things wrong with this approach. First, lots of people listened to Paul Whiteman and Jelly Roll Morton, or Pat Boone and Little Richard. Second, it distorts the way the music developed, with disparate artists listening to—and filching from—each other. Louis Armstrong was a Guy Lombardo fan. Elvis sang almost only dreamy ballads before he entered Sun Studios and changed history.
The musical world that Wald describes lasted from the first decade of the 20th century until somewhere in the middle '60s. Then came the Beatles. In 1964, Billboard stopped publishing separate sales charts for pop and rhythm and blues, apparently because it was just too hard to make those distinctions musically, since white and black bands and audiences were on the same page. At first, that blending included the Beatles, whose music owed equal debts to Carl Perkins and Little Richard. Then the Beatles began to change, growing artier with every album, creating music that could be played only in a studio and that mostly neglected the rhythmic, danceable element that gave rock and roll its power. Because the Beatles were so successful, other bands followed their lead. The result was the greatest musical segregation of the last century. White musicians took one path, blacks another. It happened in a hurry (by 1965, Billboard had revived its R&B charts) and, according to Wald, it hasn't changed much since.
The musical world that Wald describes lasted from the first decade of the 20th century until somewhere in the middle '60s. Then came the Beatles. In 1964, Billboard stopped publishing separate sales charts for pop and rhythm and blues, apparently because it was just too hard to make those distinctions musically, since white and black bands and audiences were on the same page. At first, that blending included the Beatles, whose music owed equal debts to Carl Perkins and Little Richard. Then the Beatles began to change, growing artier with every album, creating music that could be played only in a studio and that mostly neglected the rhythmic, danceable element that gave rock and roll its power. Because the Beatles were so successful, other bands followed their lead. The result was the greatest musical segregation of the last century. White musicians took one path, blacks another. It happened in a hurry (by 1965, Billboard had revived its R&B charts) and, according to Wald, it hasn't changed much since.
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- groups:
- Entertainment, Music, The Beatles
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- tags:
- Entertainment, Music, Rock, Pop, 3 more
