Travis Lionel
Jul 29, 2017 · 1 min read

Yeah. Rock and Roll is a big example. It was created by African Americans and stylistically rooted in Blues and Gospel. But, due to segregation, the original creators weren’t allowed to play in many bars and clubs. It wasn’t until Alan Freed started a radio station in Cleveland where he would play Rhythm and Blues that kids started to pick up on it. He called it Rock and Roll. White people started covering these songs, but they would lose their soul. So, record producers started looking for a white person who could emulate the sound, which they found in Elvis Presley.

Elvis Presley, despite stealing his sound from African Americans, went down in history as the King of Rock and Roll. It wasn’t until he became popular that other African Americans like Chuck Barry and Fats Domino started to gain traction.

This was also during the age of segregation. So, they wanted our music, but not us, black people, performing it.

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    Travis Lionel

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    A writer and journalist with a passion for nerd/geek culture and photography. Politically driven, he seeks to walk the line between politics and pop culture.