In the early fifties the jukebox, which played only records that were 45 RPM came out and introduced itself to the rock and roll scene. Mr. Alan Freed who was also called Moon dog, and worked as a disc jockey from Cleveland, helped bring to life rock and rolls first ever concert called The Moon Dog Coronation Ball and the first release of a record by Little Richard occurs, who is known as a rocker in his own right.
Toward the end of the fifties Elvis Presley signed a man named Colonel Tom Parker as his manager. The very first groups of all females, called the Chantel’s and the Chordette’s came out into the rock and roll scene too. Who knew girls could be a rocker too in those days. Another large mile stone was Dick Clark starts a show on the TV dedicated much to rock and roll and teenagers. It was called The Dick Clark TV Show.
In the sixties, being a rocker had changed some since the fifties. Some of these milestones include; The Ed Sullivan Show had Elvis on as a guest, after his Army release. The hit which reached number one “Georgia on My Mind”, by the rocker who was also blind, Ray Charles made his debut onto the scene. Also, with a hit reaching number one, “Running Scared” by the rocker Roy Orbison took flight into the rock world too. Music for the surfer generation began to invade the airwaves across America.
For the guitar enthusiastic rocker, a man named Les Paul is very well-known. Les performed professionally-semi when he was just thirteen years of age, as a guitarist in the Country music industry. Mr. Paul came up with and made what was to be known as his very first electric guitar which had a body that was solid. He kept making improvements upon this guitar through the rest of this decade. He also designed a recorder for tapes called the Eight Track and also marketed and started selling one of the most coveted rocker electric guitars, known as the Les Paul. Rockers like Eric Clapton, Duane Allman and Jeff Beck used a Les Paul many times over.
Another well-known name to the guitar enthusiastic rocker is that of a man named Leo Fender. Mr. Fender loved to work on and repair radios, which eventually started him on the road to dabbling and the designing of guitars, when some of his current customers, which mostly played guitar, brought him their external pick ups to get repaired for them. Then in the year of 1948, Leo Fender introduced the guitar called a Broadcaster, which name was changed about two years afterwards to a Telecaster. Rockers use Fender guitars today and many people have whole collections of them.
In the late 1960’s and throughout the 1970’s, another form of rocker emerged, that of the punk rockers. Two popular bands who were labeled punk rockers were The Sex Pistols and The Ramones. Punk rock music was unlike other rock music it was shorter, a lot faster and had lyrics which included some of a political nature. Punk rock music had many different instrumentation basics included within them also.
This is just a small look into rocker history, there is so much more out there. Rock and Roll is as popular today as it was in the earlier years, maybe even more so. Music will never go out of style because everyone loves to listen to some form of it. Happy rocking!