Rock and Roll- It's 70 Years Old In 2024

By: Greg Rector

So last year Team NBS Media celebrated Hip Hop turning 50 years old here at Team NBS Media. This year is the 70th birthday of Rock and Roll if you have a white music perspective versus Rhythm and Blues, which is considered a black musical movement.

I’m not going into the arguments that have separated folks far too much for far too long. Needless to say, when Bill Haley and the Comets recorded “Rock Around The Clock” in 1954 Rock and Roll was born. Having been born into this world ten years later in 1964 Rock and Roll was the sound I grew up listening to.

The Southern portion of the United States is where Rock and Roll started and that’s unquestioned. Whether or not you believe like I do that Little Richard is the real King of Rock and Roll or Elvis Presley is that point doesn’t matter at all for this article.

The 1950s were a transcendent time in the United States. Brown versus the Board Of Education was decided in 1954 and for the rest of the decade, we know the stories very well from our parents or grandparents. Yes, we all realized that TV had also come into our lives but in the 1950s the radio still ruled the world.

I want to focus on what Rock and Roll l truly is about, the music itself.

From the time Rock and Roll started it has undergone many different iterations and no matter if you loved The Beatles more so than The Beach Boys or you prefer Lenny Karvitz’s cover version of The Guess Who’s “American Woman” (This Canadian remains true with the original) all that matters is the enjoyment the music called Rock and Roll has given us.

Growing up when I did my earliest musical memories was Elvis Presley because my mom was such a huge fan. My dad and I would tease my mom constantly with how if Buddy Holly had lived how much bigger he would have been than Elvis ever was. The day the music died happened three years after Rock and Roll started when Buddy Holly Ritchie Valens and JP “The Big Bopper” Richardson all died in a plane crash.

Of course, 1973 was a huge year for bringing back the originators of Rock and Roll when “American Graffiti” was released in theatres and yes at the drive-in. It gave us the first look back at a previous time that was joyful. It also gave us one of TV’s greatest sitcoms Happy Days. Both the movie and the TV Show starred Ron Howard.

Although for me it was Charles Martin Smith in American Graffiti that I remember the most. As well as the soundtrack of my parent’s young life. These 41 songs define the times when Rock and Roll started. The cars were huge and simply awesome as well.

I still know and love all 41 songs on the double album for the movie. Whether it was Chuck Berry and Johnny B Goode or The Stroll by The Diamonds (The first Canadians to be on the charts) it’s simply all great music and it’s why we listen to what we listen to today.

Go on YouTube and find these classic songs that started Rock and Roll. Spend just a little time and you’ll understand why this music gave us what we listen to these days.

So for all those hip-hop artists who we love today or the heavy metal artists, the soul singers, all of those men and women owe a debt of gratitude to the originators of Rock and Roll music. 70 years of Rock and Roll music and counting.

So as Steve Miller said in this hit song from 1976 “Keep On Rockin’ Me Baby!!!”