re: #174 engineer cat

Quite a bit of early “rock and roll” has its roots in very fast tempo swing music, something that lived on in “rockabilly” music.

It’s sort of a seamless transition from the more earthy (read “urban” or non-white) swing groups to the rock era. That’s why Rock is a very American innovation, since part of its parentage is the very American music form of Jazz.

But… the Billboard pop charts were still dominated by the white middle class tastes, e.g.:

MP3 Audio

American pop music certainly reflects the times. I think the 60’s really stands out with the transition of pop music with more of an international influence (e.g. the “British Invasion”.)

My tastes in American pop starts to wane when electronic instruments started to dominate in the 1970’s. Pretty much I can listen to anything from the earliest recordings through Sonny & Cher. Somewhere in the mid 70’s I just lose interest and the music becomes boring to me.