The Rise of Rock 'n' Roll
As the 1950s began, American radio was dominated by a surfeit of pleasant,easy listening music performed by wholesome talents: Doris Day, Perry Como,Rosemary Clooney and Tony Bennett. Ten years later, all that had changed, and Day and company had become as "contemporary" as great-grandparents. Newer, harsher, wilder sounds now stalked the city streets and country backroads, generating a frenzy that had been previously unknown in popular music. There was also a new audience for this music, a heretofore unknown species called the "teenager," a being no longer a child, not yet an adult, who was nearly as wild and uncontrollable as the music itself. 
This music was, of course, rock 'n' roll. And at the time of its birth, it was seen as little more than a passing fad. No one, including its performers, would have guessed that four decades hence rock 'n' roll would sit comfortably inside the very corporations it professed to rebel against. Rock's future was destined to be as unexpected as its emergence. 
At its most basic level, rock 'n' roll can be defined as a mix of white country & western and black rhythm & blues. It's a fine starting point—but it also overlooks other genres that can be spotted in the music, everything from folk and gospel to jazz and bluegrass. And the manner in which this heady musical alchemy occurred is equally important, offering a clear reflection of the changes in twentieth century American culture. 
The primary changes occurred in communications technology. The advent of records, radio, and movies enabled people around the country to listen to music that would previously have gone unheard outside the region of its origin. As a result, musicians could learn techniques and musical styles on a scale that was unprecedented. World War II also lended a helping hand, mobilizing the population on a mass scale, further encouraging the mixing of musical styles. African-Americans in particular migrated from the south in huge numbers, spurring radio stations and record companies to cater to this new market. 
Independent record companies were well-placed to develop a growing market. Major labels focused on mainstream pop that was guaranteed to sell; a shortage of shellac during the war meant they'd dropped artists in "fringe"genres like country & western and rhythm & blues. Thus, independents became the first to release records by future stars like Hank Williams and Ike Turner; and, increasingly, independent records began landing on the pop charts before the artists were scooped up by a major label. 
By the early '50s, labels like Atlantic, Chess, and Sun were just some of the independents gaining widespread success by specialising in so-called "fringe" genres. They were also attracting the attention of a white audience, through the help of adventurous DJs like Alan Freed, initially based in Cleveland, later New York, who programmed a steady stream of such artists on his radio program "The Moondog Show." A name change for the music was also in the air, with Freed taking credit for coining the term "rock 'n' roll." In fact, the phrase had been regularly used in R&B, and appeared in Billboard in a 1946 review of Joe Liggins' Sugar Lump, describing the song as "right rhythmic rock 'n' roll." But now it signified something different: the shift of the listening audience from black (R&B) to white (rock 'n' roll). 
The time was ripe for a crossover hit that would popularize the new genre on a mass scale. And in 1955, it happened. In 1954, Bill Haley & His Comets released their landmark single Rock Around the Clock to indifferent success; a year later, when the song was used in the film The Blackboard Jungle, it shot to the top of pop charts, staying there for eight weeks. In the wake of Haley's success, the floodgates opened, and such classics as Little Richard's Tutti Frutti, Fats Domino's Ain't That a Shame, and Chuck Berry's Maybelline crossed over from the R&B charts to the pop charts in a flurry. 
But rock 'n' roll needed a further nudge to push it over the top. The success (and exposure) artists like Little Richard and Chuck Berry could receive was limited because they were black, and Bill Haley, though white, was 30 years old, with a portly figure that kept him from becoming a teen idol. The excitement of rock 'n' roll would be finally matched with an equally exciting presence in the form of Elvis Presley. Presley had been recording records for Sam Phillips' Sun label since 1954, and his increasing popularity had led to RCA picking up his contract in late 1955. 
Presley perfectly embodied the country & western/rhythm & blues mix of rock 'n' roll, as seen on his first Sun single, the R&B-flavored That's All Right (Mama), backed with a traditional country & western number, Blue Moon of Kentucky; in the oft-quoted phrase, he was "a white man who sounded black." Presley's first song for RCA, released in 1956, was the spellbinding Heartbreak Hotel, the first of four number one hits he would have that year. 
Elvis Presley's hits helped boost even more regional artists to the national stage, including Carl Perkins (Blue Suede Shoes), Gene Vincent (Be-Bop-a-Lula), Jerry Lee Lewis (Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On), the Everly Brothers (Bye Bye Love) and Buddy Holly (That'll Be The Day). But by 1958, the first era of rock 'n' roll was coming to a close. Little Richard left rock in favor of the church, though his label had further hits with songs he'd recorded before his "retirement"; similarly, when Elvis Presley was inducted into the army in 1958, RCA had him record a number of songs in advance, assuring him of regular appearances on the charts for the next two years. 
On February 3, 1959, a plane crash claimed the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens (La Bamba), and J.P. Richardson (aka "The Big Bopper" of Chantilly Lace fame), who were in the midst of a Midwest tour. Symbolically, the replacement acts on the next leg of the tour included Frankie Avalon and Robert Velline—the future Bobby Vee—pretty faces that lacked inner fire. Another sign of the changing times was seen in the fate that befell Jerry Lee Lewis (whose career faltered when it was learned he'd married his 13-year-old cousin) and Chuck Berry (convicted of transporting a minor across state lines for "immoral purposes"). Church, civic, and political leaders had long denounced rock 'n' roll for its sexual innuendo, its flouting of authority, and its roots in the black community. Some of these elements had been sanitized by having whitebread artists like Pat Boone cover rock 'n' roll hits. But the guardians of public morals continued to search for controversies that could be used against this powerful new music. 
The answer was found in payola scandal of 1960. A House Legislative Oversight subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Oren Harris, was established to investigate charges that record companies paid radio stations to get their records on the air. "Pay for play," or payola, was not unknown in the music industry, nor was it limited to rock 'n' roll. Nor was it illegal, until an anti-payola amendment to the Federal Communications Act was passed in September, 1960. But the focus of the Oversight subcommittee was on rock 'n' roll, and the investigations provided nervous radio programmers with incentive to avoid any record deemed controversial. Alan Freed, who had been as instrumental to the rise of rock 'n' roll as the musicians, was a casualty of the investigations; convicted of commercial bribery, he died, broke, in1965 at the age 43. 
But though down, rock 'n' roll would never be completely vanquished. Its grip on the imaginations of the young was too strong, and, indeed, the next generation of musicians was already at work, aspiring for rock's crown. A new age of musical innovation had begun, and the rock 'n' roll era had only provided an enticing foretaste of things to come. 
- Gillian G. Gaar