As others have said, what about the 1950’s, 40’s, and 30’s? I would also include the 20’s, but there wasn’t much recording being done then. The seeds of Rock ’n’ Roll (what most of us are talking about. To bring up J.S. Bach is not only silly, but disingenuous.) were planted before the 50’s, the Hillbilly element in the rural south---Virginia, Tennessee, and other southern states, the "Folk" music brought over from England and Ireland by our ancestors ("our" referring to we of Anglo-Saxon descent, of course).
The Rhythm & Blues element was being played by Negro musicians from Los Angeles (a hotbed of R & B activity in Post-War L.A.), down to Memphis Tennessee and Muscle Shoals Alabama, up to Chicago and Detroit (blacks fleeing the south moved there to get work in the car factories---booming after WWII, performing music in clubs at night.).
Sam Phillips was recording Blues and R & B singers (including Howlin’ Wolf) for the "Race" (Negro) market, proclaiming that if he could find a white singer with the black feel he would sell a million records. Enter Elvis Presley, who loved Hillbilly (he heard Bill Monroe and other Bluegrass artists on The Grand Old Opry radio show.), R & B (he was visiting Juke Joints on the other side of the tracks to hear black singers and bands, and listening to radio stations that played their music.), and the Gospel music sung in Baptist churches, both back and white (remember, even churches were segregated back then.). Sam didn’t sell a million Elvis records, but RCA sure did. John Lennon referred to Elvis as the Big Bang of Pop music, but actually thought more highly of Chuck Berry.
It was when I finally heard Jump Blues music that I realized where Rock ’n’ Roll came from. It was the Jump Blues feel that Elvis appropriated for his uptempo Sun Records recordings (and later for his pre-Army RCA recordings.), plain as day. Performing Bill Monroe’s "Blue Moon Of Kentucky" as a Jump Blues? Genius!
By the way: I’m sure you’ve heard that 1950’s Rock’n’ Roll shows started getting banned in some cities, the city fathers claiming the shows were prone to outbreaks of fighting, in some instances claiming Rock ’n’ Roll was a degenerate form of entertainment (I’m sure schubert concurs ;-) . Do you know the REAL reason? Fear of racial integration. Those Rock ’n’ Roll shows drew both white and black audiences (the blacks most often relegated to the balcony seats.), and there were those who didn’t want the "races" (aren’t all humans members of the human race?) mixing.
