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Influence of Rock Music on Society

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Influence of Rock Music on Society
Rock music is a group of related music styles that have dominated popular music in the West since about 1955. Rock music began in the United States, but it has influenced on a broad field of cultures and musical traditions, including gospel music, the blues, country music, classical music, folk music, electronic music, etc. Thus, rock music is now felt worldwide. Actually, Rock Music is not only a kind of entertainment or music style. There are many meaningful values which lie hidden beneath its music surface and behind its styles and ways of playing. It also functions as a medium which the artists can convey their social experiences and their attitude toward society and life to their audience. On each point of its development, rock music has become the carriers of very specific meanings which reach deep into the lives of its fans.

Rock music commonly refers to music styles after 1959 and it has its roots in 1950s’ rock and roll and rockabilly. The term “rock and roll” itself was black slang for dancing or sex, first appeared on record in 1922 on Trixie Smith’s “My Baby Rocks Me With One Steady Roll”. According to an online website MSN Encarta , the word “rock” means to swing or sway backward and forward or from side to side, or cause something or somebody to swing or sway in this way, especially with a slow gentle rhythm. The verb “Roll” was a medieval metaphor which meant “having sex”. This kind of musical style began to emerge in United States during the late 1940s as a combination of the rhythms of the blues, R&B, African American culture, and from America’s country and western music. According to an online website Wikipedia, “Rock and roll (also known as rock ‘n’ roll), is a genre of music that evolved in the United States in the late 1940s and became popular in the early 1950s, quickly spreading to the rest of the world. It later spawned the various sub-genres of what is now called simply “rock”, usually accompanied by lyrics.” After World

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