SLIDE 1

The exact time period that the history or rock music started is not known. There were rock
and roll elements showing up in blues songs and old country western songs as far back as the
20's and 30's. By the 1950's the history or rock music had begun.
SLIDE 2
It was Alan Freed a disc jockey from Ohio that first came up with the phrase rock and roll in
1955. With that, the history of rock music was well under way.
SLIDE 3
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s,
particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and
1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music. Rock
music also drew strongly on a number of other genres such as blues and folk, and
incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other musical sources.
SLIDE 4
Musically, rock has centred around the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock
group with bass guitar and drums. Typically, rock is song-based music with a 4/4 beat
utilizing a verse-chorus form, but the genre has become extremely diverse and common
musical characteristics are difficult to define. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love
but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in
emphasis. The dominance of rock by white, male musicians has been seen as one of the key
factors shaping the themes explored in rock music. Rock places a higher degree of emphasis
on musicianship, live performance, and an ideology of authenticity than pop music.
SLIDE 5
By the late 1960s, a number of distinct rock music sub-genres had emerged, including hybrids
like blues rock, folk rock, country rock, and jazz-rock fusion, many of which contributed to
the development of psychedelic rock influenced by the counter-cultural psychedelic scene.
SLIDE 6
New genres that emerged from this scene included progressive rock, which extended the
artistic elements; glam rock, which highlighted showmanship and visual style; and the diverse
and enduring major sub-genre of heavy metal, which emphasized volume, power and speed.
SLIDE 7
In the second half of the 1970s, punk rock both intensified and reacted against some of these
trends to produce a raw, energetic form of music characterized by overt political and social
critiques.
SLIDE 8
Punk was an influence into the 1980s on the subsequent development of other sub-genres,
including New Wave, post-punk and eventually the alternative rock movement.
SLIDE 9
From the 1990s alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break through into the
mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop, and indie rock. Further fusion sub-genres have
since emerged, including pop punk, rap rock, and rap metal, as well as conscious attempts to
revisit rock's history, including the garage rock/post-punk and synthpop revivals at the
beginning of the new millennium.