Greatest Album in Rock History...

[Ajani]

Wow Rich, this really opens up a discussion I don't know if SB wanted to get into. I'll try to be brief. I am not a musician so can't accurately talk to tempo, etc.

To me Rock is a very broad general term used to cover every form of rock music from the 50's to the present which would, include rock n' roll, hard rock, country rock, pop rock, blues-rock, psychedelic rock, heavy metal rock, punk rock, grunge rock, indie rock, and others.

The original form I would attempt to combine into the term rock n' roll which was a blending of country, blues, r & b, gospel, folk, boogie-woogie and honky tonk. White performers tended to have a little more country and hence I think the rockabilly term was used. Black performers were more on the r & b side. Rock n' Roll progressed into rock, hard rock, blues-rock, psychedelic rock and country rock in the late 60's and the 70's and on to other forms of rock.

When I started to read this thread I had no problem with the general term rock until I heard the name Jerry Lee Lewis. Now, I said to myself, that is rock n' roll!

With my lack of writing skills it is sometimes easier to say what songs are and who played rock n' roll rather than to define it.

Rock n' roll performers to me included, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent, the early Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys, the early Rolling Stones, the Del-Vikings, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Creedence Clearwater Revival, just to mention some of the most well known. A later example of a rock n' roll song from a performer in 1980 would be Bob Seger's Betty Lou's Getting Out Tonight, now that is rock n' roll.

Some examples of performers I would classify as not rock n' roll singers (this will raise lots of eyebrows) are, Aretha Franklin, Roy Orbison, Bo Diddley and James Brown.

I was in grade school, high school and university from about 50 thru 67. I grew up with the birth of rock n' roll and its development thru the 60's. I know I have missed many here and have not touched on the earlier performers who helped influence and shape the beginnings. Hope this all makes some sense as I try to differenciate the term Rock n' Roll.

RR6

So does that mean you don't think Michael Jackson is a Rock n Roll Artist?

But yeah, that seems a sensible explanation to me.... There are clearly multiple types of 'Rock' and classifying who falls into what category can get tricky (especially since Artists don't always stick to just one type of Rock (or music in general) for an entire album, much less a career)....

[RoadRunner6]

So does that mean you don't think Michael Jackson is a Rock n Roll Artist?

But yeah, that seems a sensible explanation to me.... There are clearly multiple types of 'Rock' and classifying who falls into what category can get tricky (especially since Artists don't always stick to just one type of Rock (or music in general) for an entire album, much less a career)....

IMO Michael Jackson is not a rock n' roll performer (I hate the term artist for singer/songwriters). I would classify him as a kiddie rock n' roll performer.

This discussion could go on forever and with many levels of rock classifications. Agree with you Ajani, many performers or groups as I mentioned might have been into rock n' roll at some time in their career, usually early on like the Beatles and Stones. Some even switched from rock n' roll to R & B to blues in the same album.

RR6