Rock Music

By Kamyah Phillips

 Photo by T.V destroyer

    Rock is a very well-known genre of music. Rock started in the mid-1950s. Rock music aka rock and roll is a form of music with a strong beat. Some rock bands are the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Radiohead, and Queen. Rock is a genre of music that started in America. It evolved from blues.

    Rock came from jazz, rhythm and blues, gospel, and jump blues. Lots of people say that Chuck Berry invented rock. He made the song “Run Rudolph Run” that’s featured in the movie Home Alone. “Run Rudolph Run” and Chuck's other song “Johnny B. Goode’ sound very similar, that’s because they use 12-bar blues. 12-bar blues is made of three four-bar verses. It usually goes by an AAB pattern.

    Another rock artist is Jimi Hendrix. His real name was James Marshall Hendrix. He was a guitarist, singer, and songwriter. His career was cut short to just 4 years due to his devastating death. He died due to an overdose of barbiturates (which are a depressant drug). He inhaled his own vomit and died. A very popular song by him is “All Along the Watchtower”. It was written by Bob Dylan. The song is about struggling against oppressive forces and desiring justice.

    Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix are individual rock artists but there are many rock bands. The Beatles were an English rock band. The Beatles were made up of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison. Two members of the band have died, but two are still alive. The ones who died were George Harrison and John Lennon. John Lennon was unfortunately assassinated and George Harrison died of lung cancer. George Harrison died on Nov 29th, 2001. Mark David Chapman was the man who killed John Lennon on December 8th, 1980. He shot at John Lennon 5 times and didn’t miss once. He used a .38 special revolver. A really popular song by The Beatles is “Here Comes the Sun” which was featured in the Lindsay Lohan movie “The Parent Trap”.