The Evolution of Rock ‘n’ Roll Festivals

From the iconic Woodstock to the legendary Glastonbury, rock ‘n’ roll festivals have been a pivotal part of the genre’s history. These massive gatherings of music lovers create a unique atmosphere that celebrates not just the music but also the spirit of rebellion and freedom associated with rock ‘n’ roll. Woodstock, held in 1969, became a symbol of counterculture and social change, while Glastonbury, first organized in 1970, continues to captivate audiences with its eclectic lineup and bohemian vibes.

Woodstock, the brainchild of four young entrepreneurs, became more than just a music festival; it represented a movement. Half a million people gathered on a dairy farm in New York to share in the love and music that defined a generation. Despite facing challenges like severe weather and logistical nightmares, Woodstock went down in history as a defining moment in the rock ‘n’ roll era. The festival’s success and enduring legacy inspired the creation of countless music festivals worldwide, where fans could come together to experience the magic of live rock performances.

Glastonbury, held annually in the UK, is another iconic festival that has stood the test of time. Originally organized by farmer Michael Eavis, the festival showcased not only rock but also diverse music genres and arts. Glastonbury’s unique blend of creativity, spirituality, and social awareness has drawn millions over the years, making it a must-attend event on every music lover’s bucket list.

Iconic Tours that Rocked the World

Beyond festivals, historic rock ‘n’ roll tours have left an indelible mark on the genre’s legacy. One such unforgettable tour was The Rolling Stones’ 1972 North American tour, often referred to as the “Stones Touring Party.” This epic journey not only showcased the band’s musical prowess but also set new standards for live performances in the rock world. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and company took the audience on a wild ride filled with unforgettable moments, setting the stage for future rock tours.

The Beatles’ 1965 tour is another standout moment in rock history. As the “Fab Four” swept through continents, they not only revolutionized live concerts but also left a profound impact on pop culture. The hysteria and adoration they received from fans were unprecedented, making headlines worldwide and showcasing the immense cultural influence of rock ‘n’ roll.

Rocking the Iron Curtain: Rock ‘n’ Roll Tours Behind the Iron Curtain

As rock ‘n’ roll gained momentum worldwide, it also played a crucial role in breaking down cultural barriers during the Cold War. Western rock bands defied political constraints and embarked on historic tours behind the Iron Curtain, bringing the rebellious spirit of rock ‘n’ roll to Eastern Europe. The Scorpions’ 1988 tour in the Soviet Union was a historic milestone, symbolizing a united front of music lovers transcending geopolitical tensions.

The Scorpions, a German rock band, broke new ground with their “Moscow Music Peace Festival” tour, where they played to massive crowds in Russia. This tour, featuring other western acts like Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, and Skid Row, marked a significant moment in cultural exchange and promoted peace during a tense time in world history.

The Cultural Impact and Legacy

The impact of these festivals and tours extends far beyond the music itself. Rock ‘n’ roll festivals have become a melting pot of cultures, fostering a sense of community and camaraderie among fans from diverse backgrounds. Moreover, these events have propelled emerging artists into the limelight, contributing to the evolution of the genre.

The legacy of historic tours is seen in the way modern artists approach live performances. The energy, showmanship, and passion displayed by the rock legends of the past continue to inspire new generations of musicians to create unforgettable concert experiences.

Keeping the Spirit Alive: Contemporary Rock Festivals and Tours

As we celebrate the rich heritage of rock ‘n’ roll, it’s essential to acknowledge the contemporary festivals and tours that carry on the tradition. Coachella, with its fusion of genres and star-studded lineups, attracts music enthusiasts from around the globe. Additionally, Foo Fighters’ “Concrete and Gold” tour in 2017 wowed audiences with its raw intensity and unwavering commitment to the spirit of rock.

Foo Fighters, led by the charismatic Dave Grohl, have become synonymous with high-energy performances and a dedication to their fans. Their “Concrete and Gold” tour showcased their latest album and reminded the world of the enduring power of rock ‘n’ roll to captivate audiences.

Conclusion

In conclusion, rock ‘n’ roll festivals and historic tours have played an integral role in shaping the genre’s identity and cultural legacy. From Woodstock’s iconic flower-power era to the global impact of legendary tours, rock ‘n’ roll has transcended borders, connected people, and left an enduring mark on history. So, next time you attend a rocking festival or an epic tour, remember that you’re part of a longstanding tradition that celebrates the unbridled passion and rebellious spirit of rock ‘n’ roll. 

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At the same time, the United States Congress began a hearing in the Southern states on the detrimental effects of rock and roll on America’s youth.

The reason for the anxiety of those in power in America was that young people who had previously been humble and respectful of parental traditions had fallen in love with rock and roll and had completely lost their taste and interest in careers, money, hoarding and consumer culture, that is, in the traditional American values that were considered immutable. This was true of schoolchildren, college students, and even the offspring of very famous and wealthy families. At some point, parents were horrified to discover that their children were unwilling to carry on their work and live their lives.

FBI Director Edgar Hoover famously said about rock and roll that the music “has a corrupting effect on our young people. This statement was understood by his subordinates as an order, and for a time all the big rock and roll stars were removed from the musical horizon.

In October 1957, during an Australian tour, the plane carrying singer Little Richard, author of the acclaimed hits Tutti Frutti and Good Golly Miss Molly, crashed over the ocean and began to fall. In those moments Little Richard made a promise to God that he would never sing rock and roll again. The plane came out of the corkscrew and landed on some island. But Little Richard kept his promise and for several years performed only gospel, that is, sacred songs dedicated to Jesus Christ.

Talented young man Elvis Presley in 1954 figured out how to combine the rhythms of black musicians with the songs of white Americans, and as a result he created a style of music called rockabilly. This new music gathered a huge number of young people around it.

On March 24, 1958, Elvis Presley was drafted into the army and sent to West Germany to a base in the 3rd Tank Division, away from his admirers.

On February 3, 1959, rock and roll stars Richie Valens, Buddy Holly, and Big Bopper, the author of the famous song “La Bamba,” died in a plane crash that occurred just minutes after their plane took off. They were supposed to be flying to a concert in Minnesota.

Chuck Berry is the guy who, early in his musical life, wrote the song Scools Days, which became a real anthem for young Americans in the 1950s.

At the very end of 1959, Chuck Berry was arrested on a trumped-up charge of seduction of a minor. He had actually flirted with a girl on tour who was a checkroom attendant at the St. Louis club. She was 15 years old, though she pretended to be 18. Then it turned out that the FBI agents interviewed her, after which they caught Chuck Berry with this girl and accused him of molesting a minor, although this minor had been engaged in prostitution for three years. As a result of the trial, Berry was fined five thousand dollars and sentenced to five years in prison.

A few months later, on April 16, 1960, rock ‘n’ roll desperado Eddie Cochran was killed in a car crash while on tour in Great Britain.

Of course, the FBI began scouring the radio waves for “corrupting” music. DJ Alan Freed, who was the first to use the word “rock and roll” in reference to new music, had a very hard time. The FBI started digging into the disc jockey, and gradually the case developed into a Senate hearing. As a result, the authorities began to squeeze Fried out of the airwaves, while trying to remove rock and roll from the airwaves as well. They succeeded in squeezing Fried out, but not rock and roll. After Fried was accused of not paying taxes, his career as a disc jockey began to fade. Radio stations were afraid to put him on the air, record companies didn’t want to do business with him. Eventually Alan began to have problems with alcohol, and on January 20, 1965, he died as a result of a heart attack.

But then someone at the top realized that rock music could be used as propaganda for the Western way of life.

Yes, rock music was everywhere in the U.S. and Britain, but because it was planted in the gilded cage of the charts and various music awards. As a result, the modern generation of Western rock musicians has completely lost the ideals that guided the American youth who started playing uncompromising music back in the 1950s. Modern music is just a money-making conveyor belt and nothing more. Alas!

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There is a paradox that says that rock ‘n’ roll originated in the United States, but rock music originated in Great Britain. How is this to be understood? In the middle of the 20th century, the UK and the States entered into a kind of cultural symbiosis: in the US, a new genre would emerge, which often came from the African-American culture and was somewhat adapted, while in England that same genre would become a work of underground art, which could then be imported back to America already as a commercially successful product.

This was the case with disco, which became new wave in England, with house and techno; this was also the case with rock and roll. African-American culture has for decades been a source of borrowings for most music – borrowings that are strange, dangerous, but very appealing and fashionable. And British society, which is extremely favorable to the development of underground subcultures of all kinds, hones its mastery of creating masterpieces on American genres.

Ku Klux Klan vs. dance

Originally, rock ‘n’ roll was almost exactly what is known as rhythm and blues, one of the styles of African-American music that everyone started playing in the 1950s. Before rock ‘n’ roll came to Britain, it was a mass genre without much arthouse ambition. Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, Little Richard and their colleagues wanted to play music that white teenagers would enjoy dancing to.

In turn, teenagers who contrasted their fathers’ military past with strict military discipline wanted to dance like their black ghetto peers – with plasticity, groove (a particular vibe traditionally associated with African and African American dance) and some sexual energy.

At the same time, listening to overtly “black” music and partying to it was unseemly and dangerous: it was not approved by the parents of these teenagers or many of them themselves. In the United States at that time the Ku Klux Klan was still rampant. But when almost the same music started to be played by white musicians, diluting country music a bit, it became more acceptable. So out of latent social and repressed carnal desires, rock and roll emerged.
Skiffle and the Two Cities with an “L.”

Over time, rock ‘n’ roll records began to make their way to Britain: mostly brought by sailors to port cities on the west coast. Chief among these cities was Liverpool; it was no coincidence that the Beatles appeared there.

At the time, one of the previous imports from “black” America was on the rise in England: skiffle, of which no one in the United States remembered for a long time. Skiffle was 1920s jazz, simplified to the extreme, played with acoustic guitars and improvised instruments like a washboard or an empty suitcase. By the end of the 50s, there were more than 30,000 skiffle bands in Britain, and guitar sales never stopped growing.

John Lennon’s first band, The Quarrymen, was like that. Van Morrison, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page and David Gilmore also played skiffle. And the main popularizer of skiffle in England was a musician named Lonnie Donegan, and he, unlike the others, remained faithful to skiffle until his death in 2002. At the junction of skiffle and rhythm and blues/rock and roll emerged the great British rock generation of the 1960s.

The two most important centers of musical life in England at that time were London and Liverpool. The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds and The Animals emerged from the underground blues culture in the capital. The Rolling Stones quickly became the “main” London band. The Yardbirds were the most experimental of them all, with the greatest guitarists in the history of rock music – Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page (Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page were the founders of Cream and Led Zeppelin respectively) honing their skills.

Liverpool’s underground scene, better known as the center of commercial music, was not as prominent as London’s. But Liverpool is a port city, and musical influences from across the ocean could easily reach there. In the early 1960s, these influences were reworked in an English way and formed into beat music, or the so-called Merseybeat (the Mersey is the river that connects Manchester and Liverpool), a fusion of rock and roll, skiffle and several other genres with a “black” past.

Merseybeat is characterized by simple guitar parts, easy-to-remember melodies, harmonious polyphony, clear percussion rhythm and major chords. In general, it is easy guitar music, which was enjoyed by teenagers. The Beatles in terms of music in the beginning were just a typical beat ensemble. But knowledgeable people gradually realized that their potential was much greater. First of all, all the band members were very good musicians, although at first it was not so obvious behind the genre restrictions of mercsibit. Secondly (and the role of this factor should not be underestimated), they were good-looking guys. Girls in the early 1960s were quick to appreciate.

Producer George Martin was in charge of commercial music in Liverpool. He met The Beatles, and everything spun. The band was nicknamed “The Fab Four”, and the Beatlemania era began. In 1963 the single “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was released in the US, and it suddenly topped the US charts.

“The Beatles toured the US as the first British band in a long time. They were followed by The Who, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones and dozens of other bands who toured the States. This began the era of the “British Invasion”: British bands dominated both the national and international charts, and every other American played rock with friends in his garage.

Other than the Beatles

If the Beatles are Britain’s number one rock band, then of course they are followed by The Rolling Stones. They deliberately built their image on contrasts: the Beatles were the “good boys,” dancing on stage in suits and ties, while the Rolling Stones played harder music, wore long hair and absurd clothing, behaved “like animals” on stage. If melody was most important to the Beatles’ music, the Rolling Stones were all about drive, style of behavior, even lifestyle. Interestingly, the Beatles broke up relatively quickly, while the Rolling Stones are still giving concerts to this day.

Many of the bands that are commonly considered part of the “British Invasion” briefly lingered in the history of rock music (for example, Gerry and The Pacemakers, The Dave Clark Five, Manfred Mann and The Searchers remained single hit songwriters). The ones who got into the future were those who composed more complex songs on more serious themes, not just commercial hits.

For example, The Who started in 1965 with the rebellious anthem “My Generation” (and anticipated punk by being the first to destroy the guitar on stage), and soon moved on to composing more unpredictable and diverse music. The Kinks also started out as a beat band and managed to stay in history, too.

The beat quickly exhausted itself, and in the mid-1960s, psychedelic rock emerged – a kind of rock symbolism, complex music with lyrics on the verge of nonsense, trying to influence the listener with unexpected images and intricate harmonies. But perhaps the most important impetus for the emergence of psychedelic rock was George Harrison’s fascination with Indian philosophy.

New bands emerge – Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, The Moody Blues – which are characterized by unusual harmonies and unusual instruments, such as brass and strings. The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), often referred to as the first “concept album,” the kind of album that the listener sees not as a collection of individual songs, but as a complete work of art. For a rock concert, the element of improvisation, of theater, becomes important.

As a result of psychedelic experiments gradually formed several new styles with the prefix “rock”, which will determine the development of rock music in the 1970s. One of them is hard rock. The main representatives and actual founders of the genre were Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath (before that, for example, Eric Clapton’s band Cream flirted with heavier rock music).

One of the main melodic techniques of hard rock is the technique of riffs, i.e. short repetitive guitar parts.

Other new movements are art-rock and close to it progressive rock (prog-rock). In addition to the techniques of beat and psychedelic rock, these genres use elements of classical music, jazz, and folk. We can say that all prog-rock bands are united by the desire to complicate the musical form in comparison with classic rock (note: in rock music for only 10 years has already managed to appear its own classic), as well as with hard rock, rockabilly and other new trends.

Prog-rock is characterized by long compositions with complex melodies and harmonies, cyclic forms taken from academic music, and conceptual albums. Within prog-rock there are many of their own trends, such as Canterbury, Symphoprog in the UK; mat-rock, progressive-metal in the US, and, for example, the so-called zeuhl in France. King Crimson, Genesis, and Yes are often referred to as the main representatives of classic progressive rock, all English bands. Other subgenres of rock music are also emerging, such as glam rock. Glam rock includes T. Rex, David Bowie, Roxy Music. Glam rock is, roughly speaking, rock plus wild costumes and makeup. Jazz-rock, blues-rock, and folk-rock are also emerging.

In the second half of the 1970s, rock music comes to a turning point: the basic techniques of hard rock and progressive rock are exhausted, many famous bands break up, others are finally commercialized. Incidentally, the decade itself began precisely with the breakup of the Beatles in 1970. By the end of the 1970s, disco was taking over the world, and almost simultaneously in England and in the States punk appeared – music of deliberate simplification of rock standards, rejection of the complexity of prog-rock, an attempt to find energy that is not yet corrupted by the power of money. Of the English punk rock bands, the Sex Pistols and The Clash are worth mentioning.

By the 1980s, punk, disco and shards of rock music were giving birth to new wave, postpunk and alternative rock.

To simplify, new wave is punk turned pop music. In the UK, new wave was played, for example, by The Police, The Pretenders, and Elvis Costello. Around new wave there is “new romance” (Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Culture Club), but it is not quite rock music: the synthesizer in their tunes often replaces all other instruments. MTV appears, and with it comes the “second British invasion” – British bands are again very much in demand in the US.

Postpunk, on the contrary, is a kind of avant-garde punk with very cold melodies and man-hating lyrics. Postpunk bands include Joy Division, Bauhaus, The Cure, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, The Fall. There is also alternative rock, which does not fit into the existing categories. These bands, for the most part, recorded on independent labels and were closely associated with the underground scene. They didn’t embrace the dominant synth sound, but rather wanted to return to the classic rock band structure organized around one or two guitars. In the UK, alternative rock was played by New Order, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and The Smiths.

The Cure’s “Fire in Cairo” has one of the most amazing choruses in the history of rock music: only three words – “fire in Cairo” – spelled out into the most powerful glossolalic nonsense.

Although early alternative rock bands were generally not commercially successful (except, perhaps, The Cure and The Smiths), gradually alternative rock, after a series of transformations, reached it by the 1990s. In the second half of the 80s, it branches out into subgenres: there are so-called jungle-pop, Dream-pop, and shoegaze.

Britpop and others

Alternative rock becomes mainstream and gets the name “Britpop” in Great Britain. The most famous artists of this genre are Oasis, Blur, Suede and Pulp, they are sometimes even called “the big four”. Britpop is the national answer to American grunge, Britpop musicians try to remember the guitar music of the old times (i.e. the 60s) and fill their songs with pure English themes and experiences. Britpop is associated with another surge in the popularity of British culture across the ocean – it became part of the Cool Britannia movement.

At this point, the history of rock music is formally over (although there have been many great bands and albums after Britpop): the name Britpop no longer even has the prefix “-rock” as it used to have until now. From now on, there will only be various “-post” and “-postpost”. In addition, the advent and widespread spread of the computer and the technical possibilities it gives each of us, in a sense, contradict the very essence of rock music in the classical sense. It’s no coincidence that one of the first great albums of the 21st century is called “OK Computer.

Rock was born with one guitar: English teenagers could buy a cheap acoustic guitar (and find a washboard in a landfill), and that was enough to show their parents that they are not like that, that they want to build the future, to express some ideas. But to build a future, they needed a past, and that past was African-American music: New Orleans jazz, American folk, blues, and so on. British culture was in crisis after the war, and the birth of rock was the impetus to get out of it.

By the end of the century, rock itself was in crisis, and not for the first time in its history. And the way out again was found in the past: the so-called indie-rock of the early 2000s once again tried to leave one or two guitars and simple drums in rock bands and go back to the roots of the early 1960s. But that’s another story altogether.

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It was here that such musical styles as:

• Kraut rock,
• power metal,
• industrial.

It is in Germany that Europe’s largest open-air rock festivals are held: Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, Deichbrand and Wacken Open Air. Finally, in the XXI century, the German language, on the wave of success of modern bands: Rammstein, Eisbrecher, Megaherz, Lacrimosa, Oomph! – has become the second most popular among rockers and metal musicians in many countries around the world.

Rock music under the brand Made in Germany emerged in the mid-1960s under the principal influence of Anglo-Saxon music – rock and roll, rhythm and blues, beat, surf, rockabilly.

As early as the beginning of the next decade, distinctive bands emerged, “diluting” the restraint of British performers and the “bluesiness” of Americans with the “proud Teutonic spirit.

In certain styles, such as progressive rock, a special prog-rock scene was formed in Germany, which later played an important role in the evolution of this music and the formation of related styles, such as alternative rock, postrock and prog-metal.

The birth of German rock

New music entered Germany in the early 1960s and quickly captured the minds of much of the local youth. The point of entry was the port city of Hamburg: the local scene at the time was divided between several famous clubs, with The Beatles themselves performing in some of them.

The first foreign tours of the Liverpool Four and other British bands gave a certain impetus to the Hamburg public’s interest in rock’n’roll and beats. In addition, it was in this city that records by Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and other rock ‘n’ roll pioneers, brought back by sailors on transatlantic voyages, were distributed most rapidly.

Curiously enough, this story was repeated in other European countries. The beginnings of rock music in the form of records by American artists reached the Old World through large port cities (Liverpool in England, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Gothenburg in Sweden).

It all started with Beatlemania, contests to identify local The Beatles with the bands The Rattles and The Lords. Then, like mushrooms after the fall rain, numerous amateur bands began to emerge.

At the end of the decade, new styles attracted the interest of professional musicians, leading to the appearance of the first serious bands. Finally, in 1968, the first significant German rock festival took place in Essen.

The names of the artists who took part in it are unlikely to seem familiar to today’s music lovers. Much more valuable for the world rock music as a whole was a movement that emerged in Germany in the late sixties.

The unusual mixture of the standard sound of the bands of that time with the elements and structure of electronic music was called Krautrock. This original direction combined previously unmixed things: the ambient sound of the first synthesizers, pulsating rhythm, instrumental improvisations and a variety of experiments.

In essence, Krautrock resurrected German music culture after the crushing failure of the 12 years of Nazi rule and a certain vacuum that emerged after the end of World War II.

Key figures in crowth-rock were:

• Tangerine Dream;
• Kraftwerk;
• Can;
• Faust;
• Neu! Amon Düül;
• Guru Guru;
• Popol Vuh;
• Yatha Sidhra;
• producers Connie Plank, Dieter Dirks.

This style influenced many artists of electronic and alternative music. Among those who have subsequently noted some continuity of ideas are: Radiohead, Sonic Youth, Laika, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Portishead, Einstürzende Neubauten and others.

In the German charts, starting from 1972 (the album Lonesome Crow), a completely different group reigned. These were the famous Scorpions, known by a number of their songs (Wind of Change, Still Loving You, Send Me an Angel).

From the first record Scorpions deliberately recorded only in English. Photo: wikipedia.org Scorpions band consciously from their very first album recorded only in English.

Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker and Uli Roth, set themselves ambitious targets – to bring the war-ravaged Germany back into the modern music world and dominate the British and American rock scene.

They succeeded brilliantly after releasing a number of successful albums between 1975 and 1984 – In Trance, Virgin Killer, Taken by Force, Lovedrive, Blackout, and Love at First Sting.

The band, surprisingly, achieved a complete triumph in both America and Japan.

The Eighties: new wave and metal times

The success of Scorpions and the popularity of heavy metal, which replaced traditional hard rock, brought a whole galaxy of new bands from Germany to the world stage. These bands played in different styles, from commercial heavy and power metal – Accept, Helloween, Running Wild, Warlock, to gothic metal, black metal and doom – Pyogenesis, Empyrium, Crematory.

In Germany we also have our own Teutonic Four of thrash metal – Kreator, Tankard, Destruction, Sodom. As opposed to American quartet – Antrax, Megadeth, Metallica and Slayer.

Other popular metal bands from Germany:

• Blind Guardian;
• Gamma Ray;
• Primal Fear;
• Sinner; U.D.O.;
• Mekong Delta;
• Grave Digger.

Another notable musical phenomenon was Neue Deutsche Welle, the new wave. This original mixture of punk, avant-garde, disco and pop music gained a certain popularity in the country in the 1980s.

The first ones – In Extremo, Subway to Sally, Saltatio Mortis, Adorned Brood, Tanzwut – are interesting with modern reworkings of medieval songs and ballads in ancient German and some dead languages.

In the next decade, the German music scene was enriched by various bands and projects in the folk-metal and industrial genres. Photo: Thibault Trillet / pexels.com In the next decade, the German music scene was enriched by various bands and projects in the genres of folk-metal and industrial.

They were particularly successful with live concerts at fairs and historical reconstruction events using pyrotechnics and original period instruments.

German industrial bands such as Eisbrecher, Megaherz, Genocide Organ, Oomph! have achieved international success with their specific composition, characteristic rhythm and provocative lyrics. The top modern German band Rammstein with its charismatic leader Till Lindemann stands out in this list.

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