Why did the rock 'n' roll era begin in 1955?

Essay from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1.3, LMU Munich (Amerika Institut), course: Proseminar: Popular Music and American Society, 1955 - Present: an Introduction, 3 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In this essay I want to discuss why rocknroll emerged at all and also why it did so at a certain time. When did the rocknroll era really begin? Was it when the first rocknroll record was released or was it when a certain song was named 'a rocknroll song' for the first time? If you prefer the second option, the date is pretty easily marked. The story is, that in 1952 Billy Ward was giving an interview to the disc jockey Allan Freed at a radio station. When Wards Song 'Sixty Minute Man' was running, Freed tried to find a name for this totally new kind of music and did so when he heard the lyrics of the song saying 'I rock 'em roll 'em all night long' (see Ennis 18). But you could just as well take the release of 'Rocket 88' in 1951 as the beginning of the rocknroll era, because that was the first rocknroll song. So far we have the years 1951 and 1952 to choose from. Maybe a certain date will turn up while we examine why rocknroll emerged at all. Starting with an essay by Richard Peterson this leads us to the question: In how far is the situation of the music industry of the 1950s responsible for the emergence of rocknroll? [...]

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