The Grandfathers of Rock N Roll

Little Richard

When you the term Rock N Roll what do you think of? The Beach Boys or The Rolling Stones.
Rock N Roll is an art form of music created by African Americans this genre of music was stolen from African American musicians with white musicians and singers such Pat Boone, Elvis Presley, singing the music of Little Richard and Chuck Berry without their permission. Pat Boone stole Little Richard's music and Elvis Presley used to attend Black clubs in the South and steal the singing and dancing styles of Black people and took it to the mainstream. He would often steal the performing style of Jackie Wilson known as "Mr. Excitement." He even had the nerve to call Jackie Wilson "The Black Elvis."

"It started out as rhythm and blues. There wasn't nobody playing it at the time but Black people myself, Fats Domino, and Chuck Perry. White kids started playing more attention to this music, white girls were going over to this music, they needed somebody to come in there like Elvis."

Chuck Berry

African American recording artists that wanted to sing and perform Rock N Roll instead of Doo-Wop, Soul, Funk, Pop, and Disco music have faced a hard time gaining support from the recording industry, this industry is bittersweet the marketing style tends to pigeon hole black and white artists but especially Black artists. Most people do not know that The Rolling Stones got their name from an old Muddy Waters song and borrowed a lot of their swagger from Black artists; although I respect The Rolling Stones because they admitted it. Many African Americans that want to embrace and perform rock music are met with dislike and hostility.

"When I was shopping my tapes around in my late teens, record companies would automatically send me to the guy in the black division, they would listen and say, "We hear your talent, but you really can't make this music." Lenny Kravitz


Toni's Thoughts: I really like rock music my favorite Rock artists of my generation is Lenny Kravitz as well as Prince because Prince gets down on that guitar. More people need to know that African Americans created this genre of  music. Just trying to keep you informed.