American rock is rock music from the United States. Rock and roll originated in the United States from the synthesis of blues, country and other styles of music from both white and black Americans. American rock music has had great success over the second half of the 20th century, with its success during the 1950s being mostly from artists like Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley.

During the 1960s, Psychedelic rock dominated the later half of the decade with bands such as The Doors, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience obtaining success. Other artists to achieve success included folk rocker Bob Dylan, surf rock band The Beach Boys, and southern rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival. Several of the most influential American rock bands and artists thrived during the 1970s such as Aerosmith, Van Halen, Boston, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and The Eagles.

American punk artists such as The Ramones also had their peak in the 1970s. In the 1980s, acts such as Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Journey, and Tom Petty achieved success with comebacks from both Aerosmith and Van Halen occurring. Metal also achieved mainstream success with Metallica and Slayer fan bases increasing.

In the early 1990s, grunge bands such as Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Soundgarden dominated. In the later 1990s, bands such as Rage Against the Machine, Green Day, and Red Hot Chilli Peppers gained popularity. In the current decade, American rock has been fueled by the Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, as well as some popular bands such as My Chemical Romance and Panic at the Disco.

Through the late 1940s and early 1950s, rhythm and blues music had been gaining a stronger beat and a wilder style, with artists such as Fats Domino, Johnny Otis, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley speeding up the tempos and increasing the backbeat to great popularity on the juke-joint circuit. Despite the pioneering efforts of Freed and others, black music, or "race music", was still taboo on many white-owned radio outlets However, savvy artists and producers recognized the popularity and potential of rock and roll and raced to cash in with white versions of this black music. Black performers saw their songs recorded by white performers, an important step in the dissemination of the music, but often at the cost of feeling and authenticity.

Most famously, Pat Boone recorded sanitized versions of Little Richard songs (Little Richard retaliated by getting wilder, creating in "Long Tall Sally", a song so intense that Boone couldn't find a way to cover it). Similarly, Ricky Nelson recorded Fats Domino. Later, as those songs became popular, the original artists' recordings received radio play as well (though this seldom resulted in any remuneration to the original artists).

The cover versions were not necessarily straightforward imitations. For example, Bill Haley's incompletely bowdlerized cover of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" transformed Joe Turner's humorous and racy song into an energetic teen dance number, while Georgia Gibbs replaced Etta James's sarcastic vocal in "Roll With Me, Henry" (covered as "Dance With Me, Henry") with a perkier vocal more appropriate for an audience unfamiliar with the song which James's song was an answer to (Hank Ballard's "Work With Me, Annie"). At the same time that R&B was turning into rock and roll, country & western music was undergoing a similar transformation to faster tempos and more aggressive playing.

In cities like Memphis, Tennessee, country and blues record producers such as Sam Phillips combined this "hillbilly" music with the driving rhythm of rock and roll and rockabilly was born. In 1954, an unknown performer named Elvis Presley would come into Phillips' studio with a request to record a disc for his mother. Recognizing talent in the shy young man, Phillips arranged to have Elvis record some ballads with professional musicians, but that date quickly turned into a jam session as Elvis sang the R&B songs he loved.

Elvis' first release for Phillips' Sun Records, "That's All Right Mama" became the first rockabilly hit and established Elvis as the first true rock and roll star.

Similar to 0 things you like: