Forgotten Artists
For the music that you have been studying for your project, which social and contextual factors impacted the musical style and musical traits the most? How did these factors specifically impact musical traits?
Chuck Berry is an artist that was left out of my chapter chunk in the story of the promise of rock and roll. He was involved in a lot of the social and historical context of music, however he was not mentioned in my specific chapter describing different contexts of music. Rock and roll music went through many things in order to become more noticed, like the Band-Aid groups. Many artists like Chuck Berry attempted to use this genre to help the audience relate. Rock and roll artists used melody and text in order to help people cope through things like post war and hunger issues.
One song sang by Chuck Berry that really shows his sound and specific rock style in music, it also goes into the chapter chunk “The Promise of Rock and Roll.” He used the text, tempo, and rhythm of his songs and that helped connect his sound to the different contexts of music.
The text of Chuck Berry’s songs were important when it came to social and contextual factors. Rock and roll music was a musical genre that was taken up by a post war teenage audience. Chuck Berry tried to make his songs emphasize experience for the audience to grasp while listening to his music. He showed how brilliant he was in his songwriting skills while somehow relating to himself, teenagers, and so many others throughout the generations (Jack Hamilton, 2017). Chuck Berry once said that everything he wrote wasn’t about him, but about the people listening (Associated Press, 2017). He was one of the first artists to come from “puppy love,” and “summertime blues,” song tracks. The text and sound of his songs were meant to be a performance of his character and the meaning behind his music and lyrics. A lot of his song lyrics refer to many historical moments in his life and in the world. Berry’s recordings helped establish his genre of rock and roll and what it was really all about. He kept a lot of his lyrics at single syllables so he did not sound very erratic in concerts and recordings, while still coming off as and sounding original. A significant part of Chuck Berry is that he tried to get all the different experiences in his life into all the different songs he recorded. He tried to get some of his country aspect into his songs while matching the rock and roll genre. But he also tried to challenge the racial structure that was a big thing in that era of rock and roll.
Tempo was another musical factor that was very important in showing the social and contextual factors that helped to impact Chuck Berry and rock and roll music during that era. After the Brown vs Board of education rock and roll music was becoming more of a cultural force and alliance with the civil rights movement (Bruce Pegg, 2003). A few different artists came out with songs that had a more upbeat and fast tempo to them after all of that happened. Chuck Berry was one of those artists, he was one of the people that made the transition from r and b music to rock and roll a thing and a big deal. Another one of his songs had a slow tempo and many aspects of that showed the sad era that they were in and it was right around the time of starvation in Ethiopia. But, when he came out with the very upbeat and fast tempo song “Roll Over Beethoven,” it was a big influence of the early music of rock and roll. The “wild” part to the tempo of the song helped make him a more popular and memorable artist especially in that time. He moved from blues music to rock and roll and this song and the tempo in it was a big part of it. This article talked all about the origin of rock and roll and what it transitioned from and who helped make that move in music. The tempo in this song really represented the change in rock and roll in that time period.
The rhythm is another musical trait that was very important in helping this genre of music progress. When Berry came out with this song it helped the audience see and understand his influences, creative process, and the appeal he has on everybody. The rhythm in not only this song, but many of his other songs like “Maybellene,” and “Johnny B. Goode,” attracted many people throughout his audience. The rhythm played a big part in all instrumental parts of this song, especially in the bass and the guitar. The release of this song spread across the nation and the rhythm and the lyrics helped celebrate the teenage life. The rhythmic aspect to the song was made to help set a scene to be mostly of interest to the teenage audience to keep them interested and into the song (Bruce Pegg, 2003). His use of rhythm was deliberately used to add a commercial appeal to his audience and to make sure it was a guaranteed appeal. His rhythm was known as cleverly crafted and “unstoppable,” by his audience and by other songwriters. “Roll Over Beethoven,” was an anthem to the making of rock music because of its beat (Associated Press, 2017). While the song was constricted to a short amount of time, Berry fit in many different musical elements that helped his song progress and succeed. All of the elements came together and attracted a nice teenage audience and put together the song and kept it popular and known to this day. The rhythm in this song helped show a road map for not only the success of Chuck Berry but also for the rock revolution that was soon to come (Bruce Pegg, 2003).
A lot of different aspects went into the making of rock and roll and Chuck Berry’s impact on it all. Berry’s impact on people and the history of rock music is incalculable (Associated Press, 2017). His songs spoke to many generations through his text, rhythm, tempo, and many other musical traits of his songs.
Works Cited
Associated Press. “Chuck Berry’s Influence on Rock ‘n Roll Was Incalculable.” Daily News, Daily News, 28 Aug. 2017, https://www.dailynews.com/2017/03/19/chuck-berrys-influence-on-rock-n-roll-was-incalculable/.
Hamilton, Jack. “Chuck Berry Didn’t Just Invent Rock and Roll. He Perfected It.” Slate Magazine, Slate, 19 Mar. 2017, https://slate.com/culture/2017/03/chuck-berry-didnt-just-invent-rock-and-roll-he-perfected-it.html.
NewsHour, PBS. “How Chuck Berry Defined a Generation of Rock ’n’ Roll.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 19 Mar. 2017, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/chuck-berry-defined-generation-rock-n-roll.
Pegg, Bruce. “Roll Over Beethoven.” 2003, http://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/RollOverBeethoven.pdf.
Vaidhyanathan, Siva. “Chuck Berry Taught Me How To Be An American.” NPR, NPR, 21 Mar. 2017, https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/03/21/520948428/chuck-berry-taught-me-how-to-be-an-american.
