Although gospel music, by which we mean traditional church music, can be traced back over 2,000 years, the Afro-American inspired gospel music that we recognise today can find its roots in the 17^th century.

Origins of Gospel

Gospel music was originally founded to promote group participation during times of worship. As it involved oral interaction, it was seen as ideal for including everyone within a community when many people were illiterate, thus avoiding social exclusion and marginalisation of individuals.

On a more sinister level, gospel was also used as a means of conducting slavery indoctrinations; slaves could not read or write, and there was no desire or need among slave masters to teach them.

Gospel Song

It was not until the late 19^th century that gospel music started to stand out as its own genre, being used for performance and enjoyment rather than exclusively for religious and ‘business’ purposes. In 1874, the American composer Philip Bliss released Gospel Songs: A Choice Collection of Hymns and Tunes.

The songs written by bliss were notable for being easier to sing than traditional church hymns, while popular singers would be used to perform the songs and inspire people to explore this alternative to the choral church music they would have been used to singing themselves.

Because this gospel revival movement was so popular, and spread through communities as well as churches in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, a number of publishing houses were quickly set up specifically to produce and spread gospel music.

Early 20^th Century Gospel

The popularisation of gospel music reached out to a new audience, particularly among those communities where church going was not seen as an essential and religion was not a major part of life. This was primarily led by church congregations beginning to bring their own instruments along to church to create a fuller music experience, where the gospel music would be sung against the backdrop of instrumental sound.

The invention and development of the wireless radio from 1919 onwards meant that gospel music was heard around the world. Recordings of gospel would start to become commercially successful, with groups like The Carter Family and The Fairfield Four enjoying fame and success. At the same time, the differences between black gospel and white gospel, and the conflict these differences often created, were never far from the surface.

Post War Gospel

It was not until the conclusion of the Second World War that live gospel performance would become popular worldwide. In 1959, the famous Madison Square Garden became the home for the Negro Gospel and Religious Music Festival.

Even today, black gospel and white gospel are considered two different genres, with separate audiences and artists. Despite this split, there are no racial motivations driving the continuation of the split today, although there are no signs of both genres coming together as one.

Image Author: Chris Larkee

Rock and roll is one of the most famous music genres of all. While many people dismiss rock and roll as ‘old school’ and irrelevant, the very fact that we are still talking about it today tells you all you need to know about how it has endured through the years.

Rock and roll was actually the perfect embodiment of ‘flash in the pan,’ although it gave rise to some of the most successful artists of all time, many of whom still sell millions of records today, including Elvis Presley, and also inspired several other heavyweight artists like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who.

Rock and Roll’s Origins

The definitive origin of rock and roll is hotly debated by music fans and commentators, although it is generally accepted that it merged from traditional rhythm and blues and country music styles that were popular in post-war America during the 1940s and 1950s. These genres grew into rock and roll when musicians started adding influences from jazz and gospel backgrounds. Again, there is fierce debate about which genres actually added more to what would become rock and roll.

The Evolution of Rock and Roll

With no definitive starting point of rock and roll, several songs and artists are pointed to as being the first examples of the genre. “Rock the Joint,” released by Jimmy Preston in 1949 and by Bill Haley & His Comets as a cover three years later, is one of the tracks seen as an early example of rock and roll music, although their legendary track “Rock Around the Clock” is regarded as the most important early milestone for rock and roll.

Rock and Roll Sub Genres

There are two main sub genres that emerged from rock and roll in the 1950s, rockabilly and doo wop.

Rockabilly is usually used to refer to music by white musicians. Presley is clearly the most famous, but Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash were among others who would enjoy huge success. While the likes of Fats Domino and Little Richard would release and be successful with a similar sound, their background as black rhythm and blues artists meant they are not generally considered in this sub-genre.

Doo wop was actually a popular rhythm and blues sub-genre from the 1950s, but was the inspiration for many groups to enjoy crossover success in the rhythm and blues charts during this decade, including The Crows and The Penguins. Doo wop is famous today for bringing many one hit wonders into the charts, with very few groups, like The Coasters, actually achieving long-term success.

Evolution into Rock

By the end of the 1950s, the rock and roll peak had already passed, and music moved towards a rockier style which would be pioneered by The Beatles and later made heavier by The Rolling Stones and acts such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

Rock and roll inspirations are still regularly seen in popular music today, and are regularly cited by the world’s top artists as having provided great direction to their work.

Image Author: Heinrich Klaffs

Rock music is perhaps the most iconic genre of all; ask anyone about legends of music and they will point to groups like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones from the early days of rock, to bands like Coldplay and Muse that are generally accepted as the global leaders today.

Talking about the history of rock music is difficult, as there are at least 30 sub-genres to look at that were born directly from the genre. Rather than cover each individual one here, we will trace the lineage of rock from its 1960s birth.

The Birth of Rock

The rock music we know and love today originated from American rock and roll in the 1950s. Rock moved towards centralising the electric guitar as the lead instrument in musical arrangements, with bass guitar and drums built around it to create what we would recognise as a traditional band setup today.

What characterised rock music ahead of other genres at this time was how it relied on live performance above anything else, which was seen as somewhat unusual at a time when recording capability had become widespread.

The Golden Age of Rock

The late 1960s gave us the golden age of rock, a time that over 40 years later has still not come close to being replicated. This quickly moved into what is known as the “classic rock” era, when power ballads and what is lazily termed “dad music” or “driving music” today was popular. Bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Whitesnake would come to characterise this time, although each band brought something different in terms of style and the sub-genres they would explore.

Evolution to Punk

These bands and their associated genres would remain big throughout the 1970s and beyond. The end of this decade brought rebellious punk music, which at the time was a refreshing change from several bands that all sounded the same, particularly for those who wanted to stay loyal to rock and had no time for disco music or others that would emerge at the end of the decade, including modern R&B and dance genres.

Nothing for the 1980s

The 1980s was notable for many things. In music, it was that there was no real standout rock influence throughout the decade. Punk turned to post-punk, while the successful bands of the 1970s generally continued on the same path. Most bands that emerged during this decade tended to lean more towards producing “pop rock,” although there were still big differences in styles; no one would ever say Bon Jovi, The Smiths, and The Cure were from the same genre, for example, as they were all distinct in their own way.

Although the 1980s didn’t give the music world anything new, some of the world’s biggest artists of all time made their name in this decade, including those mentioned above, as well as Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, and U2.

1990s Indie and Beyond

The 1990s was famous for indie music and for the legendary Britpop scene in the UK, while grunge, led by Nirvana, was huge in the US. Many alternative music sounds developed from these genres in the 1990s, although many bands, including Radiohead, were criticised for the perceived deliberate commercialisation of certain record releases, which was seen as hypocrisy by many fans as well as by rival groups. Noel Gallagher of Oasis was particularly outspoken on the issue.

The late 1990s saw the emergence of nu-metal, while heavier rock styles, including thrash and death metal, became closer to the mainstream than ever before.

21^st Century Rock

Rock music since 2000 has been unusual in that, unlike the first 30 – 40 years of the genre, there has been no overriding, leading theme or sub-genre. Bands like Muse, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, and Green Day all remain massively popular, with many people liking all four bands despite there being huge differences in what they produce. Others like Kasabian have made a name for themselves by experimenting with various styles of rock and incorporating different elements into their music.

The history of rock is a rich one indeed, and music fans are in for a treat if the next 40 years are anything like the first 40.

Image Author: Saad Faruque