MUSIC HISTORY

Rock ’n’ Roll Didn’t Begin in the 1950s

Delving into the rock that came before rock

Where would we be without rock ’n’ roll? Photo by author

When I think about rock ’n’ roll, I think about the 1950s. The music released in that decade changed the world forever.

But rock ’n’ roll didn’t begin in the 50s.

Most of the songs regarded as the first rock songs were covers or developed from songs dating all the way back to the 1920s. Song titles and lyrics mentioned rocking and rolling before Elvis Presley was even born.

From the 1920s through to the 1940s, you can hear rock ’n’ roll when you listen to the blues, or boogie-woogie, or honkie tonk, or country, or swing, or gospel, or hokum blues, or jump blues or rhythm and blues. Rock didn’t just appear out of nowhere.

Here are some great pre-50s rock ’n’ roll songs. Or rock ’n’ roll precursors, if you will.

Kansas City Blues by Jim Jackson (1927)