Note: The Blue youtube text is a link to the artists music on youtube |
Dictionary.com - Etymology of Rock-n-Roll
Trixie Smith's 1922 blues ballad, “My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)” may be the first use of the phrase in song. Alan Freed, a disc jockey in Cleveland, Ohio used the phrase, “The Rock and Roll Session” to describe the amalgamation of rhythm and blues and country music he played during his show.
Albert James "Alan" Freed (December 15, 1921 – January 20, 1965) was an American disc jockey. He became internationally known for promoting the mix of blues, country, rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under the name of rock and roll. His career was destroyed by the payola scandal that hit the broadcasting industry in the early 1960s.
Freed was born to a Russian-Jewish immigrant father, Charles S. Freed, and Welsh-American mother, Maude Palmer, in Windber, Pennsylvania. In 1933, Freed's family moved to Salem, Ohio, where Freed attended Salem High School, graduating in 1940. While Freed was in high school, he formed a band called the Sultans of Swing in which he played the trombone. Freed's initial ambition was to be a bandleader; however, an ear infection put an end to this dream.
In the late 1940s, while working at WAKR (1590 AM) in Akron, Ohio, Freed met Cleveland record store owner Leo Mintz. Record Rendezvous, one of Cleveland's largest record stores, had begun selling rhythm and blues records. Mintz told Freed that he had noticed increased interest in the records at his store, and encouraged him to play them on the radio. Freed moved to Cleveland in 1951, still under a non-compete clause with WAKR. However, in April, through the help of William Shipley, RCA's Northern Ohio distributor, he was released from the non-compete clause. He was then hired by WJW radio for a midnight program sponsored by Main Line, the RCA Distributor, and Record Rendezvous. Freed peppered his speech with hipster language, and, with a rhythm and blues record called "Moondog" as his theme song, broadcast R&B hits into the night.
Mintz proposed buying airtime on Cleveland radio station WJW (850 AM), which would be devoted entirely to R&B recordings, with Freed as host. On July 11, 1951, Freed began playing rhythm and blues records on WJW. While R&B records were played for many years on lower powered, inner city radio stations aimed at African-Americans, this is arguably the first time that authentic R&B was featured regularly on a major, mass audience station. Freed called his show "The Moondog House" and billed himself as "The King of the Moondoggers".
His on-air manner was energetic, in contrast to many contemporary radio presenters of traditional pop music, who tended to sound more subdued and low-key in manner. He addressed his listeners as if they were all part of a make-believe kingdom of hipsters, united in their love for black music. He also began popularizing the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music he played.
Later that year, Freed promoted dances and concerts featuring the music he was playing on the radio. He was one of the organizers of a five-act show called "The Moondog Coronation Ball" on March 21, 1952, at the Cleveland Arena. This event is known as the first rock and roll concert. Crowds attended in numbers far beyond the arena's capacity, and the concert was shut down early due to overcrowding and a near-riot. Freed gained a priceless notoriety from the incident. WJW immediately increased the airtime allotted to Freed's program, and his popularity soared.
The scene at the 1952 Moondog Coronation Ball at the Cleveland Arena, just before things got out of hand.
In those days, Cleveland was considered by the music industry to be a "breakout" city, where national trends first appeared in a regional market. Freed's popularity made the pop music business take notice. Soon, tapes of Freed's program began to air in the New York City area over station WNJR 1430 (now WNSW), in Newark, New Jersey.
Although still at Cleveland radio station WJW in 1954, by August of that year, Freed took his R&B revue show to New York. Around this time he had also begun talking with radio station WINS in New York about joining their station. On August 1, 1954, Freed’s “Moondog Jubilee Of Stars Under the Stars” was held at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field Ebbets, then still home of baseball’s Brooklyn Dodgers. On the bill at that concert were the Dominoes, the Clovers, the Orioles, Fats Domino, Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Count Basie’s Orchestra, and Buddy Johnson’s Orchestra.
A large, racially mixed crowd came out for this concert, like others Freed had helped organize or emcee. Back on his radio show, Freed had been forced to stop using his DJ name, “Moondog” in 1954 after a lawsuit was filed by the blind New York city street musician who had recorded the song “Moondog Symphony.” Freed renamed his show “Alan Freed’s Rock and Roll Party.” Freed had also tried to copyright the term “rock `n roll,” which wasn’t widely used at the time. He took out a copyright on the term in partnership with music businessman Morris Levy, veteran promoter Lew Platt, and radio station WINS. But soon, the tidal wave of rock ’n roll music made the term common parlance, and Freed’s claim went for naught.
As Little Richard related in an interview, Albino Parents knew Rhythm and Blues was Black music: and they were very upset with the thought of their young daughters swooning at the gyrations of Black dudes on stage at Rhythm and Blues Concerts. So to make the whole package more palatable to Albino parents, Alan Freed coined the phase "ROCK-N-ROLL"!
Of course a nice Albino Boy like Elvis, SINGING and DANCING Black, made Black music acceptable to Albinos.
It should not need to be said: but the reason it was Albinos who put on these shows featuring Black artists, is simply because Blacks did not have the Money to bankroll these shows. And even if they did, Albinos would likely NOT rent them the venues. |
It’s a question that music historians have been fighting over for decades: What was the first rock ‘n’ roll song?
Though commercially successful singles like Bill Haley & The Comets’ “Rock Around The Clock” (1954), Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” (1955) and Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” (1956) were among the songs that popularized the genre and made it a household word, (among Albinos) they didn’t invent it.
To find the birth cry of rock ‘n’ roll, we have to go a little further back.
And if we define rock ‘n’ roll as the collision of blues, country and Tin Pan Alley pop, with a manic spirit and, as Chuck Berry put it, a backbeat you can’t lose, then the following are all leading contenders for the song that changed popular music forever.
In 1940, Arthur Crudup was reportedly living in a packing crate near an L train station in Chicago, playing songs on the street for tips. Things got better for him as the decade went on, and he landed a recording contract that led to a career as a well-known blues singer and songwriter. In 1946, Crudup recorded his song “That’s All Right, Mama.” Though it wasn’t a hit at the time, it stands as a convincing front-runner for rock ‘n’ roll’s ground zero. With a tight combo of guitar, upright bass and drums bashing out accompaniment behind Crudup’s raw, powerful voice, it sounds a decade ahead of its time. There’s even a wild guitar solo, prefaced by Crudup shouting, “Yeah, man.” Very rock ‘n’ roll. And the last thirty seconds of the record pick up steam with the kind of unhinged energy that would become an essential element of all great rock records.
Eight years later, a 19-year old Elvis Presley did a cover record of it for his first single. Soon, Crudup was being called “the Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
Well, I heard the news, there’s good rockin’ tonight. . .” With an opening line that could double as a rallying call for rock ‘n’ roll, this song was written and recorded in 1947 by R & B artist Roy Brown. Brown had originally offered the tune to raspy-voiced singer Wynonie “Mr. Blues” Harris, but Harris turned it down. After Brown had a hit with it, Harris reconsidered, cutting a version that upped the ante. Bouncing boogie woogie piano, honking tenor sax, drums and handclaps accenting the backbeat, and Harris shouting “Hoy, hoy, hoy!” – it all adds up to a raucous glimpse into the future. Again, a young Elvis Presley was listening. In 1954, he released his version of the song. He was also watching. Harris’s stage moves included pelvic jabs, lip curls and evangelical wavings of his arms and hands. All would become part of Elvis’s stage persona.
This record has the prerequisite driving beat, boogie bass line and blues-based melody, but what really sets it apart is the party atmosphere. The whole tune is punctuated by screams, shouts and yelps that conjure up young couples dancing and spinning in a smoky nightclub “until the law come knockin’ at the door.” Preston was a sax-playing band leader who cut some minor hits in the ‘40s, then ditched music in the early ‘50s for the church. In the chorus of this song (“We’re gonna rock, we’re gonna rock”), you can clearly hear the inspiration for Bill Haley’s recording of “Rock Around The Clock” (written by Max Freedman and James Myers). In fact, it had been The Comets’ beefed-up arrangement of “Rock This Joint” in 1952 that convinced Haley to move away from his western swing sound towards rock ‘n’ roll.
I’ve written about Jordan for mental_floss before, as I believe he’s one of the most important – and overlooked - figures in modern popular music. Two of his favorite subjects for songs were eating and partying. This huge hit from 1949 (it was one of the first “race” records to cross over to the national charts) combined both, with a lively jump rhythm, call-and response chorus and double-string electric guitar riffs that Chuck Berry would later admit to copping. Milt Gabler, who produced many of Jordan’s best records, also went on to work with Bill Haley and The Comets. “All the tricks I used with Louis Jordan, I used with Bill Haley,” he said.
In 1951, while driving to Memphis for a recording session, Ike Turner and The Kings of Rhythm wrote this song about the fastest car on the road - the Hydra Matic Drive V-8 Oldsmobile 88, nicknamed the Rocket 88. In the studio, the band cut the song with sax player Jackie Brenston singing lead. The record’s main innovation? The guitarist’s amplifier had a torn speaker, and producer Sam Phillips (who a few years later, would discover Elvis) jerry-rigged it, stuffing some packing paper in the speaker cone. The unexpected result was a fuzzy sound that defined the song’s raw vibe, and became a blueprint for the guitar tone of everyone from Chuck Berry to the Rolling Stones. Though Ike Turner claimed he wrote the song, it was credited to Jackie Brenston. It went to #1 on the R & B charts and gave Brenston a brief moment of stardom. Oldsmobile presented him with a brand new Rocket 88 in appreciation.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, recognizes and archives the history of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers, and other notable figures who have had some major influence on the development of rock and roll.
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll or rock 'n' roll) is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s from musical styles such as gospel, jump blues, jazz, boogie woogie, and rhythm and blues, along with country music. While elements of what was to become rock and roll can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s,
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was established on April 20, 1983, by Atlantic Records founder and chairman Ahmet Ertegun (born to a wealthy Turkish family in Istanbul). In 1986, Cleveland was chosen as the Hall of Fame's permanent home.
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American major record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegün and Herb Abramson (born in 1916 to a Jewish family in Brooklyn). Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic Records earned a reputation as one of the most important American recording labels, specializing in jazz, R&B and soul recordings by African-American musicians including Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Ruth Brown and Otis Redding. Its position was greatly improved by its distribution deal with Stax Records. In 1967, Atlantic Records became a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, now the Warner Music Group, and expanded into rock and pop music with releases by bands such as Led Zeppelin and Yes. In 2004, Atlantic Records and its sister label Elektra Records merged into Atlantic Records Group (still owned by Warner Music Group). Craig Kallman is currently the chairman of Atlantic Records. Ahmet Ertegün served as founding chairman until his death on December 14, 2006, at age 83.
Founder Ahmet Ertegun assembled a team that included attorney Suzan Evans, Rolling Stone magazine editor and publisher Jann S. Wenner, attorney Allen Grubman, and record executives Seymour Stein, Bob Krasnow, and Noreen Woods. The Foundation began inducting artists in 1986, but the Hall of Fame still had no home. The search committee considered several cities, including Philadelphia (home of Bill Haley and American Bandstand), Memphis (home of Sun Studios and Stax Records), Detroit (home of Motown Records), Cincinnati (home of King Records), New York City, and Cleveland.
Cleveland lobbied for the museum, citing that WJW disc jockey Alan Freed both coined the term "rock and roll" and heavily promoted the new genre—and that Cleveland was the location of Freed's Moondog Coronation Ball, the first major rock and roll concert. In addition, Cleveland cited radio station WMMS, which played a key role in breaking several major acts in the U.S. during the 1970s and 80s, including artist David Bowie, who began his first U.S. tour in the city, Bruce Springsteen, Roxy Music, and Rush among many others. Cleveland was also one of the premier tour stops for most rock bands.
Civic leaders in Cleveland pledged $65 million in public money to fund the construction. A petition drive was signed by 600,000 fans favoring Cleveland over Memphis, and Cleveland ranked first in a 1986 USA Today poll asking where the Hall of Fame should be located. On May 5, 1986, the Hall of Fame Foundation chose Cleveland as the permanent home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Sam Phillips of Sun Studios fame and many others were stunned and disappointed that it ended up in Cleveland. "The hall of fame should've been in Memphis, certainly," wrote Peter Guralnick, author of an acclaimed two-volume Elvis Presley biography.
Since 1997, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has featured numerous temporary exhibits that range in size from major exhibits that fill the top two floors of the museum to smaller exhibits that are often installed in the main exhibition hall on the lower level. The museum's first major exhibit opened on May 10, 1997. It was called I Want to Take You Higher: The Psychedelic Era, 1965 – 1969. It included artifacts from numerous artists, including John Lennon, Eric Clapton, John Sebastian, the Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin, as well as artifacts related to the Monterey International Pop Festival and Woodstock.
That exhibit was followed by Elvis is in the Building, an exhibit about the "King of Rock and Roll", which ran from August 8, 1998, to September 5, 1999. This year-long tribute was the first ever special exhibit devoted to a single artist, Elvis Presley, the first inductee into the RRHOF in 1986. Graceland supplied a significant selection of representative artifacts for this special tribute spanning Elvis' life and legendary career. Next, the museum curated Roots, Rhymes and Rage: The Hip-Hop Story. That was the first major museum exhibit to focus on hip-hop. It ran from November 11, 1999, to August 6, 2000. It was followed by Rock Style, an exhibit that focused on rock and roll and fashion. It featured clothing from Buddy Holly to Alice Cooper, from Ray Charles to David Bowie and from Smokey Robinson to Sly Stone. After it closed in Cleveland, Rock Style traveled to other museums in the U.S.
Other temporary exhibits have included Lennon: His Life and Work, which ran from October 20, 2000, to January 1, 2003. It was followed by In the Name of Love: Two Decades of U2 and then Reflections: The Mary Wilson Supreme Legacy Collection. A major exhibition on display during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in 2016 was Louder than Words: Rock, Power, Politics.
Other large temporary exhibits have focused on the Clash (Revolution Rock: The Story of the Clash), the Doors (Break on Through: The Lasting Legacy of the Doors), the Who's Tommy (Tommy: The Amazing Journey), and Bruce Springsteen (From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen). Another thematic temporary exhibit focused on the role of women in rock and roll (Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power). Many of these exhibits travel to other museums after closing in Cleveland. The museum's current major temporary exhibit is about the history of the magazine Rolling Stone.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame also curates many smaller temporary exhibits. Over the years, these exhibits have focused on such topics as the Vans Warped Tour, the Concert for Bangladesh, Woodstock's 40th anniversary, Austin City Limits, the Monterey International Pop Festival, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Marty Stuart, Paul Simon, Graham Nash, and John Mellencamp.
The museum also devotes exhibits to photography and artwork related to rock and roll. Among the photographers whose work has been featured at the Hall of Fame are George Kalinsky, Alfred Wertheimer, Tommy Edwards, Kevin Mazur, Janet Macoska, Lynn Goldsmith, Mike McCartney, Robert Alford, and George Shuba. The museum also featured the artwork of Philip Burke in one of its temporary exhibits, and a later exhibit featured Herb Ritts.
There are 323 members of the Hall of Fame, Click here for the list: >> |
Hall of Fame museum curator James Henke, along with "the museum's curatorial staff and numerous rock critics and music experts", created an unordered list of "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll". The list is part of a permanent exhibit at the museum, and was envisioned as part of the museum from its opening in 1995. It contains songs recorded from the 1920s through the 1990s. The Beatles with seven songs was the most represented on the 500-song list. The oldest song on the list is "Wabash Cannonball", written circa 1882 and credited to J. A. Roff. Since then, however, an additional 160 songs have been added, and the list is now simply referred to as "The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll". The most recent songs on the list are Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" and My Chemical Romance's "Welcome to the Black Parade", both released in 2006. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones are the most represented on the 660-song list, with eight songs each.
8 The Beatles
8 The Rolling Stones
7 Elvis Presley
5 The Beach Boys
5 Chuck Berry
5 Bob Dylan
5 Led Zeppelin
5 Bruce Springsteen
4 Stevie Wonder
4 David Bowie
4 James Brown
4 Ray Charles
4 The Drifters
4 Aretha Franklin
4 Jimi Hendrix
4 Robert Johnson
4 The Kinks
4 Bob Marley
4 The Miracles
4 Prince
4 Muddy Waters
Click the line below to see for yourself
8 - songs by The Beatles |
8 - songs by The Rolling Stones | 7 - songs by Elvis Presley |
A Day in the Life HELP! Hey Jude I Want to Hold Your Hand In My Life Norwegian Wood Strawberry Fields Forever Yesterday |
Honky Tonk Women (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction Jumpin' Jack Flash Miss You Paint It Black Sympathy For The Devil Time Is On My Side The Rolling Stones |
Heartbreak Hotel Hound Dog Jailhouse Rock Love Me Tender Mystery Train Suspicious Minds That's All Right |
In the Albinos magical fantasy world Chuck Berry is the only Black allowed to have 5 songs on the list. | 5 - The Beach Boys | 5 - Led Zeppelin | 4 - The Kinks | 2 - Hank Williams | 2 - Johnny Cash |
Johnny B. Goode, Maybellene, Brown Eyed Handsome Man, Rock & Roll Music, Roll Over Beethoven |
California Girls Don't Worry Baby God Only Knows Good Vibrations Surfin' U.S.A. |
Dazed And Confused Kashmir Rock And Roll Stairway To Heaven Whole Lotta Love |
A Well Respected Man Lola Waterloo Sunset You Really Got Me |
Lovesick Blues Movin’ On Over |
Folsom Prison Blues I Walk the Line |
You will note that in order to claim some type of participation in the creation of R&B, the Albinos have included "Country" music as one of the influences of R&B. However, perhaps feeling that might be a bridge too-far even for Albino liars, they have limited country artists to only a few.
But that is not to say that R&B wasn't influenced by Country Music - it certainly was - Just not Albino Country Music.
It should be remembered that the Banjo is an African instrument, and Black people have been "Pickin" Guitars, Banjos, and the like, for thousands of years.
Leadbelly "Midnight Special" (first published in 1905) |
Bad Bascomb - Black Grass - 1973 |
Click here for the full list of songs that the Albinos have determined to be quintessential to a genre of music which they imitate, and in time, using their powers over media, will soon have invented: Click >>> |
Sly and the Family Stone was an American band from San Francisco. Active from 1966 to 1983, it was pivotal in the development of funk, soul, rock, and psychedelic music. Its core line-up was led by singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, and included Stone's brother and singer/guitarist Freddie Stone, sister and singer/keyboardist Rose Stone, trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, drummer Greg Errico, saxophonist Jerry Martini, and bassist Larry Graham. It was the first major American rock group to have a racially integrated, male and female lineup.
Formed in 1966, the group's music synthesized a variety of disparate musical genres to help pioneer the emerging "psychedelic soul" sound. They released a series of Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits such as "Dance to the Music" (1968), "Everyday People" (1968), and "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" (1969), as well as critically acclaimed albums such as Stand! (1969), which combined pop sensibility with social commentary. In the 1970s, it transitioned into a darker and less commercial funk sound on releases such as There's a Riot Goin' On (1971) and Fresh (1973), proving as influential as their early work. By 1975, drug problems and interpersonal clashes led to dissolution, though Sly continued to record and tour with a new rotating lineup under the name "Sly and the Family Stone" until drug problems forced his effective retirement in 1987.
The work of Sly and the Family Stone greatly influenced the sound of subsequent American funk, pop, soul, R&B, and hip hop music. Music critic Joel Selvin wrote, "there are two types of black music: black music before Sly Stone, and black music after Sly Stone". In 2010, they were ranked 43rd in Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, and three of their albums are included on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKSCUG2YqTM | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kafVkPxjLYg | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kceiks__PsE |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhSXAaW5tYU | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1TDZtoq5PU | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IePTH1PWzAs |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwjsVD23Z3E | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbK0C9AYMd8 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7gMkiOPSeA |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rinz9Avvq6A | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HA5IR_b11k | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwy8xcpagvg |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSOp507HJMA | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STs1QlyawpY | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFYqz1yv0WM |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2bvTVg0oE0 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHGOO73Gxg4 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=425GpjTSlS4 |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xbpCvV9dAs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3b5WS2xAYk | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYHxGBH6o4M |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDRbF80NKDU | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_OS04Sn1Oo | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7V4s3NusJA |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFSWW4O6QNM | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGd6CdtOqEE | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa3tfVjGCQ8 |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MV62ZcIguw | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA3Royf9_zM | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ-w_IKGRFM |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBShN8qT4lk | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFjOpqtKRq4 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ_kez7WVUU |
Beastie Boys
Year inducted: 2012
The Beastie Boys were an American rap group from New York City, formed in 1979. For the majority of their career, the group consisted of Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass) and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar). The Beastie Boys were formed as a four-piece hardcore punk band, the Young Aborigines, in 1981
Cheap Trick
Year inducted: 2016
Cheap Trick is an American rock band from Rockford, Illinois, formed in 1974. The band consists of vocalist Robin Zander, guitarist Rick Nielsen, bassist Tom Petersson, and touring drummer Daxx Nielsen. Original drummer Bun E. Carlos stopped touring with the band in 2010 but remains a partner in their business organization. Cheap Trick released their debut album in 1977 and first found success in Japan with the release of their second album, In Color, later that year. The band would not achieve mainstream popularity in the United States until 1979 with their breakthrough album Cheap Trick at Budokan.
Deep Purple
Year inducted: 2016
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. The band is considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical approach changed over the years. Originally formed as a progressive rock band, the band shifted to a heavier sound in 1970. Deep Purple, together with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, have been referred to as the "unholy trinity of British hard rock and heavy metal in the early to mid-seventies". They were listed in the 1975 Guinness Book of World Records as "the globe's loudest band" for a 1972 concert at London's Rainbow Theatre, and have sold over 100 million copies of their albums worldwide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGI2d31M7Ns | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soa3gO7tL-c | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auLBLk4ibAk |
Genesis
Year inducted: 2010
Genesis were an English rock band formed at Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey in 1967. The most commercially successful and longest-lasting line-up consisted of keyboardist Tony Banks, bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford and drummer/singer Phil Collins. Significant former members were guitarist Steve Hackett and original lead singer Peter Gabriel. The band underwent many changes in musical style over its career, from folk music to progressive rock in the 1970s, before moving towards pop at the end of the decade. They have sold 21.5 million RIAA-certified albums in the United States and their worldwide sales are estimated to be between 100 million and 150 million. (We have no problem with Phil Collins).
Green Day
Year inducted: 2015
Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1986 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong and bassist Mike Dirnt. For much of the band's career, they have been a trio with drummer Tré Cool, who replaced John Kiffmeyer in 1990 prior to the recording of the band's second studio album, Kerplunk (1991). Guitarist Jason White, who has been a touring member since 1999, was an official member from 2012 to 2016. Green Day was originally part of the punk scene at the DIY 924 Gilman Street club in Berkeley, California. The band's early releases were with the independent record label Lookout! Records. In 1994, their major label debut Dookie, released through Reprise Records, became a breakout success and eventually shipped over 10 million copies in the U.S. Green Day is credited alongside fellow California punk bands including Sublime, Bad Religion, The Offspring and Rancid with popularizing mainstream interest in punk rock in the United States.
Rush
Year inducted: 2013
Rush was a Canadian rock band comprising Geddy Lee (bass, vocals, keyboards), Alex Lifeson (guitars) and Neil Peart (drums, percussion, lyrics). Forming in 1968, the band went through several configurations until arriving at its longest and most popular line-up when Peart replaced original drummer John Rutsey in July 1974, two weeks before the group's first United States tour. Rush is known for its musicianship, complex compositions, and eclectic lyrical motifs drawing heavily on science fiction, fantasy, and philosophy. The band's musical style has changed several times over the years, from a blues-inspired hard rock beginning, later moving into progressive rock, and including a period marked by heavy use of synthesizers. In the early 1990s, Rush returned to a guitar-driven hard rock sound, which continued for the rest of their career.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQDjSGnmYBI | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukFt2IkLlMs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN3VLv3ZSF0 |
Jeff Beck
Year inducted: 2009
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He is one of the three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds (the other two being Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page). Beck also formed The Jeff Beck Group and with Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice, he formed Beck, Bogert & Appice. Much of Beck's recorded output has been instrumental, with a focus on innovative sound, and his releases have spanned genre ranging from blues rock, hard rock, and an additional blend of guitar-rock and electronica. Although he recorded two hit albums (in 1975 and 1976) as a solo act, Beck has not established or maintained the sustained commercial success of many of his contemporaries and bandmates.
Laura Nyro
Year inducted: 2012
Laura Nyro was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. She achieved critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (1968) and New York Tendaberry (1969), and had commercial success with artists such as Barbra Streisand and The 5th Dimension recording her songs. Her style was a hybrid of Brill Building-style New York pop, jazz, rhythm and blues, show tunes, rock, and soul.
The Blue Caps
Year inducted: 2012
Vincent Eugene Craddock (February 11, 1935 – October 12, 1971), known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rock and roll and rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-A-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. (We have no problem with the band, they were authentic, but they have no "body of work". By the same rules, EVERY single Black group, would be in the Hall of Fame)!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5-rdr0qhWk | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ9r8LMU9bQ | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ViwvgtvbA |
The Cars
Year inducted: 2018
The Cars were an American rock band that emerged from the new wave scene in the late 1970s. The band originated in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1976, with singer, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter Ric Ocasek; singer, songwriter and bassist Benjamin Orr; lead guitarist Elliot Easton; keyboardist Greg Hawkes; and drummer David Robinson. The Cars were at the forefront in merging 1970s guitar-oriented rock with the new synthesizer-oriented pop that was then becoming popular and which flourished in the early 1980s. Robert Palmer, music critic for The New York Times and Rolling Stone, described the Cars' musical style by saying: "they have taken some important but disparate contemporary trends—punk minimalism, the labyrinthine synthesizer and guitar textures of art rock, the '50s rockabilly revival and the melodious terseness of power pop—and mixed them into a personal and appealing blend."
The Clash
Year inducted: 2003
The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 as a key player in the original wave of British punk rock. They have also contributed to the post-punk and new wave movements that emerged in the wake of punk and employed elements of a variety of genres including reggae, dub, funk, ska and rockabilly. For most of their recording career, the Clash consisted of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Joe Strummer, lead guitarist and lead vocalist Mick Jones, bassist Paul Simonon, and drummer Nicky "Topper" Headon. Headon left the group in 1982, and internal friction led to Jones' departure the following year. The group continued with new members, but finally disbanded in early 1986.
The Small Faces/Faces
Year inducted: 2012
Small Faces were an English rock band from East London. The group was founded in 1965 by members Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones, and Jimmy Winston, although by 1966 Winston was replaced by Ian McLagan as the band's keyboardist. The band is remembered as one of the most acclaimed and influential mod groups of the 1960s with memorable hit songs such as "Itchycoo Park", "Lazy Sunday", "All or Nothing", and "Tin Soldier", as well as their concept album Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake. They later evolved into one of the UK's most successful psychedelic bands until 1969. The Small Faces never disbanded; when Marriott left to form Humble Pie, the remaining three members recruited Ronnie Wood as guitarist, and Rod Stewart as their lead vocalist, both from The Jeff Beck Group, and carried on as Faces, except in North America, where this group's first album (and only their first album) was credited to Small Faces. This practice has continued on all subsequent North American reissues of the album to this day. A revived version of the original Small Faces existed from 1975 to 1978.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwmU343eBu0 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tdu4uKSZ3M | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vppbdf-qtGU |
The Stooges
Year inducted: 2010
The Stooges, also known as Iggy and the Stooges, were an American rock band formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1967 by singer Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton, drummer Scott Asheton, and bassist Dave Alexander. Playing a raw, primitive style of rock and roll, the band sold few records in their original incarnation and gained a reputation for their confrontational performances, which often involved acts of self-mutilation by Iggy Pop. After releasing two albums—The Stooges (1969) and Fun House (1970)—the group disbanded briefly, and reformed with a different lineup to release Raw Power (1973) before breaking up again in 1974. The band reunited in 2003 until dissolving in 2016 following the deaths of Scott Asheton and saxophonist Steve Mackay. Ron Asheton participated in the reunion until his death in 2009.
Yes
Year inducted: 2017
Yes are an English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968 by singer Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Peter Banks, keyboardist Tony Kaye, and drummer Bill Bruford. The band has undergone numerous formations throughout its history; nineteen musicians have been full-time members. Since June 2015, it has consisted of guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White, keyboardist Geoff Downes, singer Jon Davison, and bassist Billy Sherwood, with no remaining founding members. Yes have explored several musical styles over the years, and are most notably regarded as progressive rock pioneers. Yes began in 1968, performing original songs and rearranged covers of rock, pop, blues and jazz songs, as evident on their first two albums. A change of direction in 1970 led to a series of successful progressive rock albums until their disbanding in 1981, their most successful being The Yes Album (1971), Fragile (1971) and Close to the Edge (1972). Yes toured as a major rock act that earned the band a reputation for their elaborate stage sets, light displays, and album covers designed by Roger Dean. The success of "Roundabout", the single from Fragile, cemented their popularity across the decade and beyond.
ZZ Top
Year inducted: 2004
ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. The band has, since 1970, consisted of bassist and vocalist Dusty Hill, guitarist and lead vocalist Billy Gibbons (the band's leader, main lyricist and musical arranger), and drummer Frank Beard. "As genuine roots musicians, they have few peers", according to musician, critic and collector Michael "Cub" Koda. "Gibbons is one of America's finest blues guitarists working in the arena rock idiom [...] while Hill and Beard provide the ultimate rhythm section support." The band released its first album—called ZZ Top's First Album—in 1971. Beginning with blues-inspired rock, the band incorporated new wave, punk rock and dance-rock by using synthesizers. The band is also known for its humorous lyrics laced with double entendres and innuendo. The band's top-selling album is their 1983 release Eliminator, which sold more than 10 million copies in the United States. Total record sales of 25 million place ZZ Top among the top-100-selling artists in the United States, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. That includes 11 gold, seven platinum and three multi-platinum records as of 2016, according to the RIAA. By 2014, ZZ Top had sold more than 50 million albums worldwide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUM161EgKdI | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0f5ZG9LG6k |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud9KV-2ro_g | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svitEEpI07E |
This file photo shows former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon as he shakes hands with Elvis Presley in the White House on Dec. 21, 1970.
Absolutely, say Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler.
“If I could sit down with Elvis,” Tyler said, “I'd smack him in the face for not giving credit to all those black musicians.”
Definitely not, counters Boz Scaggs.
“Elvis was no more a thief than any other artist I know,” Scaggs said.
Maybe yes, maybe no, muses Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas.
“I think he was an innocent thief,” Thomas said. “He didn’t realize he wasn’t supposed to steal.”
The full remarks of Thomas, Tyler and Scaggs appear below in this article, along with comments about Elvis from other musicians evaluating his legacy.
Of course, asking if he was a thief is a provocative question. But, 40 years after his death, it’s still a relevant one in the case of this Mississippi-truck-driver-turned-global-superstar, whose career ignited in the mid-1950s.
Three of Elvis’ landmark early recordings — "All Shook Up," "Don't Be Cruel" and "Return to Sender" — were written by Otis Blackwell, who also wrote the Jerry Lee Lewis classics “Great Balls of Fire” and “Breathless.” Elvis’ versions were almost identical to how Blackwell sang them on his demonstration recordings. But Elvis could reach an enormous national audience, and did. African-American artists like Blackwell were relegated to so-called “race music” record labels and radio stations, at a time when much of the U.S. was still segregated.
While Elvis was a fan of country music, he was even more inspired by blues, gospel and rhythm-and-blues, including the Memphis radio shows hosted by such local disc jockeys as B.B. King and Rufus Thomas, both of whom also sang live during their broadcasts. Elvis heard this same music played live at the black nightclubs he frequented as a teenager and young adult.
Ike Turner, a largely unsung rock pioneer, recalled in a 1997 Union-Tribune interview how Presley would come to see him perform in Memphis. "I knew Elvis before he became Elvis," said Turner, a longtime San Diego County resident who died in 2007. In the early 1950s, he recorded for Sun Records, the same label that signed Elvis in 1954.
"Elvis used to drive a gravel truck, and park it by the back entrance of the West Memphis club where I was playing,” Turner recalled in his Union-Tribune interview. “He was a nice guy, a likable guy. He would come in, and I'd smile and pull my piano out so he could sit there and people in the club wouldn't see him. I used to hide him behind the piano, because it was a black club and it was segregated.
"He'd come once or twice a week; I didn't even know he was going to other (black Memphis) clubs. Matt Murphy and Little Junior Parker were playing at this same club as me. The way (Elvis) moved his legs when he was singing, he got from me, because I'd do that when I played piano. And a lot of the stuff he and Jerry Lee Lewis did was copied off Pinetop (Perkins) and what we were doing. “It was easier for them (to succeed), because they were white… But everybody, in some way, was influenced by somebody (else)."
Elvis’ first release for Sun Records, in 1954, was his deeply reverent version of “That’s Alright Mama” by bluesman Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, whose songs “So Glad You’re Mine” and “My Baby Left Me” Elvis recorded soon thereafter. Many of Elvis’ other classic early recordings were also cover versions of songs by great black artists. They included Little Junior Parker's "Mystery Train,” Arthur Gunter's "Baby Let's Play House," Kokomo Arnold's "Milkcow Blues Boogie," “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” Ivory Joe Hunter's "I Need You So," Jesse Stone’s “Money Honey” and Smiley Lewis' “One Night (of Sin)" (whose title was toned down to "One Night With You" in the Elvis version.) The new 3-CD Sony Legacy box set, “A Boy From Tupelo — The Complete 1953-1955 Recordings” features many of these songs and is a treasure trove for those seeking to hear Elvis in his early years.
"What's interesting to me is the very early Elvis," U2 singer Bono said in a 1997 Union-Tribune interview. "And if you want to be academic about it, he did what the civil-rights movement didn't and couldn't. He jammed together two cultures, and in that spastic dance of his, you could actually see that fusion and that energy.
"And that is, in the end, what's great about America, the sex of the place. To me, as the century ends, that (sexuality) is one of the defining moments of it. And that's why rock 'n' roll is valuable — it has the rhythm and the hips of African music, and the melody of European music." (Albinos are pure lie and delusion, which European melody would that be?).
Those hips — read pelvic thrusts and gyrations — were copied from the black artists Elvis studied so carefully in Memphis nightclubs. And the suggestiveness of those stage moves ensured that Elvis’ 1956 debut performance on the Ed Sullivan show was broadcast to TV viewers with camera angles that only showed Elvis from the waist up.
When he performed his first 1957 concert at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles, reviews described his performance as "a terrible popular twist on darkest Africa's fertility tom-tom displays," and "far too indecent to mention in any detail."
Such narrow-minded reviews notwithstanding, Elvis owed much of his success to the fact that he was a white man performing black music for a mass white audience largely unwilling to accept — let alone support — rock and R&B performed by its black originators.
In a series of new and previous Union-Tribune interviews, we asked an array of artists from across the musical spectrum to evaluate Elvis, his originality (or lack thereof) and his legacy. Here’s what they told us…
Boz Scaggs: “Elvis was no more a thief than any other artist I know. No more, no less. We all come from someplace.”
Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler: "If I could sit down with Elvis, I'd smack him in the face for not giving credit to all those black musicians. For years I've been struggling with that. You know, he was a great man, but he maliciously — or maybe unconsciously — took all the credit."
Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas: “Yeah, but I think he was an innocent thief — he didn’t realize he wasn’t supposed to steal. In his mind, I think he thought he was taking what he loved and paying homage. In some ways, he was a product of a fog of ignorance that existed in the 1950s. Had he been part of a more aware decade, he would have been one of the more aware people.”
Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro: "I respect what Elvis did, but I'm pretty much indifferent to the whole thing. There aren't that many artists that have affected me on a deep level and he's not one of them. Even though I'm aware that he's influenced people who influenced people who influenced me, when it comes to feeling connected, I'm just not."
Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood: "The reality is that black R&B and blues was the instigator that sparked this whole fire. You can't listen to any music now without tracing the umbilical cord back to blues and R&B. It's just a fact."
Neo-soul singer Maxwell: “It’s a very touchy subject. Because it’s like it was appropriation, but there was a certain window that was opened that never would have been opened without people like Elvis and The Beatles. They were into the grooves and soul of black music and introduced it to the world at large. And then the world caught on to the original artists Elvis and The Beatles were inspired by. So it was kind of like a civil rights breakthrough, as I see it.”
Jon Bon Jovi: "I loved him, but I don't want to be him. He was the first prisoner of rock 'n' roll and it was self-inflected wounds that he died of at 42... I don't want it to end and I don't want to be the fat guy in the white suit. Elvis died from the inside out."
Former Sex Pistols’ singer John Lydon (a/k/a Johnny Rotten): "Elvis is absolutely irrelevant. He was something my parents liked, so I naturally dismissed him. I've never been overly fond of rock `n' roll anyway, (although) I don't wish death on anyone. I've had far more awful examples (than Elvis) right up close and personal to really bother about someone like him."
Jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis: “All great music is thievery. Beethoven stole from Haydn, and everybody stole from Bach. Charlie Parker stole from Lester Young, who stole from Frankie Trumbauer. People who like Elvis don’t want to hear the facts.”
Jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis: "To me, Elvis represented somebody who — because our country was not ready then to embrace the black artist and make them No. 1 — became No. 1 because of his rendition of what some black people sounded like. What made it distasteful is that we had people who could do it better than him, but who couldn't be accepted at that time because of the color of their skin."
San Diego guitar great Mike Keneally: "It took me forever to even understand his appeal; he was never a topic of study for me. He was so ubiquitous, I figured there were so many other more obscure things I should devote myself to. So I never heard the original Sun recordings until a few years ago and that stuff just kicked my ass completely. Regardless of whether he was an innovator or not, the fact that he was the catalyst for that stuff is enough to put him in the pantheon of giants."
Tony Bennett: "Elvis was the first Coca-Cola bottle, the first human Coca-Cola bottle. He was just marketed that way. I met him once at Paramount Studios. He was a gorgeous Adonis of a man and a great guy, very, very elegant looking. He looked like a Greek statue. More than that, he was very warm and nice. But when you hear him, it's not like Nat King Cole singing a song. When you listen to Elvis, it’s almost like country music, there's a simplistic unreality to it all."
Jethro Tull mastermind Ian Anderson: "Well, I went to see Elvis at one of his comeback dates in Las Vegas in 1969. Seeing him in Vegas, in his white jumpsuit, was very interesting, in terms of seeing how music that starts off with a fire in somebody's belly ends up being an inferno in somebody's wallet. It was pure show-biz. And although he worked hard and well that night, he gave the impression of a man not in total control of his chemical future. He seemed to only give lip service to the essence of his songs."
Alice Cooper: "I think everybody puts a little of Elvis into their show. I was invited to come up and meet him in 1971 in Vegas. I got in this private elevator and it was Chubby Checker, Linda Lovelace, Liza Minnelli and me, going up to see Elvis. He walked in and was really looking good, he wasn't overweight or drugged out. He said, `You're the guy with the snake, aren't you? That's really cool.' Then he takes me in the kitchen, puts a loaded .38 gun in my hand, and says: `I'll show you how to disarm somebody.' He didn't hurt me, but he knocked me to the floor with one of his karate chops."
Quincy Jones: "Before Elvis, white pop music was `The Ballad of Davy Crockett' and `How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?' Then Elvis came on (the Tommy- and Jimmy Dorsey-hosted CBS-TV show) `Stage Time' in 1956, and they wouldn't shoot him below the waist because they still couldn't handle anybody shaking their (rear) — black or white. And the show got 8,000 letters about his performance. I could see it then, I thought: `Things are going to change because they've discovered how to emotionally feel music.' This had been happening with black music forever, but this was the first time young white kids did. It was amazing to watch."
John Oates of Hall & Oates: “I think the story of American music — jazz, blues and how all those styles evolved — is a story of appropriation across the board, from the very beginning. How far do you want to go? Do you want to take it back to Africa, and say American-born slaves appropriated music that they got from their ancestors and re-imagined and re-crafted it as part of their lives and American experience? And, then, the next step was that white Americans heard and re-created and re-imagined the same music. It goes on and on, and I think it’s the history of American popular music. It’s really built upon the shoulders of everything that came before.”
Clearly the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame isn't really about "Rock-n-Roll" aka Rhythm & Blues, it's just another vehicle for Albinos to create another false history for themselves. Some of the Albinos in their Hall of Fame are laughable, and would be Booed off the Stage at the Apollo (an Albino owned venue btw).
This is how Blacks partied and enjoyed their Music in the early years: the venues were often "Juke" joints and the concert circuit was called the "Chitlin Circuit".
So when Albinos like Alan Freed and Elvis Presley came along and wanted "in" on our music, meaning large venues and much more Money, Blacks we more than happy to welcome them in. And even took part in "Praising" their talentless performers.
But Albinos being Albinos, soon they found an outlet for their natural Hate: Blacks created a new Genre that their "Spastic" movements just weren't adequate for dancing to, so they had no hope of dancing to it, thus their hatred of "DISCO".
Like with Donald Trump, once Albinos have a vehicle that normalizes their hatreds, they ALL jump on board. Soon after this riot, Disco was dead!
But guess who made the most money off of Disco - An Albino who couldn't sing or dance!
The path has always been hard for Blacks once they allowed the Albinos to defeat them in every part of the World:
Joe Tex in his song "The love you save" speaks to it:
joe tex - the love you save lyrics
I've been pushed around
I've been lost and found
I've been given til sundown
To get out of town
I've been taken outside
And I've been brutalized
And I've had to always be the one to smile and apologize
But Blacks can't just routinely accept the old Status Quo.
In 2002, poor Chubby Checker was so hurt that he wasn't in the Hall of Fame
that he protested outside of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during an induction ceremony.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHcdE2Ppr3s |
What is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.
IP is protected in law by, for example, patents, copyright and trademarks, which enable people to earn recognition or financial benefit from what they invent or create. By striking the right balance between the interests of innovators and the wider public interest, the IP system aims to foster an environment in which creativity and innovation can flourish.
Tribe - defination
A tribe is a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader.
There can be no question that Black Americans, whether they originally be Native Indians, or Black Europeans, or less likely, African Slave (only 308,005 of them were imported), coalested into one Social, Economic, and Cultural Group or Tribe.
And under that basis can claim Rythm & Blues, or Rock-n-Roll as Tribal "Intelectual Properity" and thus Tribual "Community Properity".
Tribal Property Law and Legal Definition
According to 25 USCS § 564a, tribal property means any real or personal property, including water rights, or any interest in real or personal property, that belongs to the tribe and either is held by the United States in trust for the tribe or is subject to a restriction against alienation imposed by the United States.
Michael Jackson had to give up a little bit of space on his throne this week, when Post Malone broke a record that The King of Pop held for 34 years. The 23-year-old rapper whose name has crept slowly and then very rapidly into the mainstream in recent years just saw his album Stoney spend its 77th week in the top 10 of Billboard‘s Top R&B and Hip-Hop Albums chart — beating out the 76 triumphant weeks that Michael Jackson’s Thriller spent up there in the Eighties.
It’s not a one-off. Malone’s second album Beerbongs & Bentleys is the top-performing full-length album of 2018 so far, according to the mid-year report Nielsen released last month. That album also broke a Billboard Hot 100 record previously held by the Beatles; before Drake dropped his oversized album Scorpion, Malone’s Beerbongs reigned supreme with the biggest streaming records on Spotify and other digital platforms. As this week’s record indicates, tracks from the 2016 Stoney are also still being consumed today, which marks an unusually long tail in the fast-paced streaming era.
But while Thriller and Jackson were wildly popular in their time – not just with one demographic but across a variety of them – Malone’s milestones have come tagged with widespread disapproval from audiences, critics and media. The common complaint: Malone doesn’t take his music seriously, or his genre, or himself, at a detriment to others around him striving more genuinely for success. Born Austin Richard Post, his name came from an online rap-name generator; he once caused uproar when he told GQ that being a white rapper is a unique “struggle,” and then again when he said to an interviewer in Poland that “if you’re looking to think about life, don’t listen to hip-hop.”
Much of Malone’s appeal comes from that tongue-in-cheek attitude itself, which attracts people looking for something new while simultaneously alienating others who find it jarring. “Post is an artist who doesn’t do genre lines — he makes music he likes and expresses ideas he’s feeling,” Cheryl Paglierani, Malone’s agent, tells Rolling Stone, adding that fans have been hooked by Malone’s immediately-apparent lack of pretense. “It boils down to who the artist is as a person. The imaging and branding they’ve built for themselves. I don’t know if there’s a way to make sure it’s real. I think it just is or it isn’t.”
Numbers outside of the charts back that up. Colin Lewis, Live Nation’s vice president of touring, says the rapper’s most recent tour sold more than 350,000 tickets, including two back-to-back sold-out nights at the 17,000-capacity Hollywood Bowl. “This kind of explosive debut from a young artist is unprecedented,” Lewis tells Rolling Stone. Paglierani says she was “very confident, but it was still a surprise how quickly it went out of the gate,” and that the team is currently building out an even bigger world arena tour.
Yet Malone’s authenticity-in-inauthenticity appeal (the rapper acknowledges his critics with remarkable self-awareness, doing things like writing on Twitter that people “just think I’m ugly and smell lol”) is also supplemented by the fact that popularity in the streaming age doesn’t always mean actual approval. When albums don’t individually “cost” anything because users pay a set monthly rate for all-access listening, racking up a lot of numbers and chart positions isn’t necessarily an indicator of people loving music; it’s much more a signal that it’s caught people’s attention. That attention might later funnel some people into a loyal fanbase, but the first category is inevitably larger than the second — which is why Malone is king of all sorts of streaming records but hasn’t gotten to stadium-playing size just yet.
The ever-roiling controversy around the rapper is exactly what’s helped him shoot to the top of the charts and upend big names like Jackson and the Beatles, who got there with much more uniform support. Lindsay Zoldaz of The Ringer recently suggested he has been successfully “packaging something that’s a little bit more controversial and confrontational in a friendlier pop package.” Or perhaps he promotes the appealing-in-a-novel-way “ability to be anything to anyone, at the price of completely losing grip on who you actually are,” Larry Fitzmaurice mused in a Vulture piece this summer titled “What If Post Malone Is Here Forever?”
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