Final Project

1. Listen to other songs written during the early 1960s that featured Latin-American musical influences. Using independent research, write a one-page history of a song of your choice from the list below. Which Latin American rhythms, percussion, or other sounds does this song incorporate? What team of songwriters wrote the song, and what were some of their other compositions? How successful was the recording in terms of its chart position, award nominations, or covers by other artists?

·         The Diamonds - “Little Darlin” (1957)

·         Ben E. King - “Spanish Harlem” (1960)

·         The Drifters - “Sweets for My Sweet” (1961)

·         The Drifters - “Up on the Roof” (1962)

·         The Drifters - “Save the Last Dance for Me” (1962)

·         The Drifters - “Under The Boardwalk” (1964)

·         The Isley Brothers - “Twist & Shout” (1962)

·         The Crystals - “Uptown” (1962)

·         Jay and the Americans - “Come A Bit Little Closer” (1964)

·         The Crystals - “Then He Kissed Me” (1965)

2. Design a poster board to display a Latin-American dance style, such as the Mambo, the Rumba, the Cha Cha, or the Conga. Choosing one dance, independently research the physical dance steps and the musical accompaniment. Gathering primary sources, poster boards should include album covers, movie posters or still shots, advertisements, or any other sources that point to the popularity of their chosen dance style during the 1950s. Questions to consider include:

·         Which musicians were known to play this style of music?

·         What famous performers were associated with this style of dance?

·         Did the dance appear in any major film or television productions? Consider shows like I Love Lucy and West Side Story.

3. Assign students to read Handout 4: Review of a Machito Concert, as reviewed by music journalist Jerry Wexler. Explain that Wexler later became an esteemed music producer who helped guide the careers of such artists as Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and the Drifters. Also in the audience at the Palladium the night of Wexler’s review was trumpeter and bandleader Dizzy Gillespie, who became a major proponent of Afro-Cuban style Jazz in the 1940s and 50s.

Conduct independent research into the careers of Wexler and Gillespie. What evidence can you find that indicates these two individuals were influenced by Latin American music? How might they have been inspired by artists such as Machito, Tito Puente, and Tito Rodriguez? What work did they produce that reflected this inspiration? Write a one-page response, citing examples from the lesson and from independent research.

Research Cyril Davies, Alexis Korner, or Long John Baldry, focusing on what these musicians did to inspire groups associated with the British Invasion like the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and the Yardbirds.

Ask students to create a timeline of key events in Liverpool during and immediately after World War II, as well as in the early lives of the Beatles, using pictures to illustrate key events.

Closure: S. present group projects to class.

The Who: My Generation

Warm Up:
Show two versions of the Who performing “My Generation”: first, a live perfomance from 1965, and second, the final moments of their 1967 Monterey Pop Festival appearance.

List five words that come to mind as you watch the second video.


Guided Practice:
1) Compare the performances and discuss how the Monterey Pop example adds power to the song because the Who reinforce the song's message with a particular performance style. Touch on the following questions in your groups:

1. In the Monterey Pop Festival performance, what happens at the end of the song? What do the performers do?
2. Why do you think the performers are doing this? Are they making some kind of statement? If so, what is it?
3. How old do the performers appear to be? Does their age have anything to do with the way they are acting? (Note: Members of the Who were between the ages of 20 and 23 during this performance.)
4. How does the audience seem to react? How do you imagine parents of people in the audience would have reacted?
5. Do the performers' actions remind you of any other performers you have seen? (Note: Different from the Beatles, the Who based their band identity not just on songs and recordings; they wanted their live act to be something entirely new. In effect, to fully understand the band you had to understand what they did in performance.) 

Divide students into pairs. Distribute Handout 1: The Who, “My Generation.” Inform students that they will work together to analyze “My Generation,” the song the Who performs in these videos, and one of the songs most closely associated with the band.

Have students work together to complete the activities on the handout, as described below. If they have access to their own computers, they will view the biography of the Who from this site and view the interview clip with Pete Townsend, the writer of "My Generation."

Students will complete Part 1 of the handout, which asks them to define basic terms used in the lesson and discuss the following questions:

1. What is a “generation”?
2. Do you think of yourself as a member of a particular generation? If so, what title would you give that generation and how would you define it? If not, why do you think being part of a generation is not important to you?
3. Who do you consider to be in your generation? Who is not in your generation? How do you feel about people who are not part of your generation?

Students will read this site's biography of the Who and discuss the following questions:

http://teachrock.org/resources/people/who/

1. When and where were the Who formed?
2. What type of music was the band best known for?
3. According to the biography, was what you just saw in the video typical for the Who?

View the short clip of “My Generation” drawn from a 1965 U.S. television appearance.

http://teachrock.org/resources/video/embed/the-who-my-generation-1965/

Follow along with the lyrics, underlining key words and phrases and taking additional notes as you listen. Discuss the following questions in groups:

1. Whom is the singer speaking to? (Who is “you”?) What is his message to them?
2. Who is the singer speaking for? (Who is “we”?) What is his message on their behalf?
3. When the singer says, “I hope I die before I get old,” what do you think he means?
4. Do you think he means this literally? Or might there be a figurative meaning?
5. Does “old” represent a physical age, a state of mind, or perhaps something else?
6. Why do you think this particular lyric has become widely known?
7. Do you think it was in any way irresponsible of the Who to sing this song to young people?
8. How does the music reflect the lyrics? What instruments do you hear?
9. What is the overall mood and tone of the music?
10. How does the band use music to emphasize the message of the lyrics?
11. Why do you think the singer stutters on certain words? What message might he be trying to convey?
12. Who do you think was the intended audience for this song?
13. Remember that the video you saw at the beginning of the lesson came at the end of a performance of this song.
14. Do the actions in the video reflect the message of the song? If so, in what way?
15. Based on what you know about what was happening in the mid- to late-1960s, why do you think this song resonated with so many young people?
16. Read the background information on the song on Part IV of the handout and discuss the following in groups:
17. According to Townsend, did “old” mean physical age?
18. According to these interviews, was the song from his perspective about age or about acceptance?

Watch the interview clip with Townsend, considering what he says about young people, fashion, and teenagers "all becoming one."

http://teachrock.org/resources/video/embed/pete-townshend-post-war-england/

1. Does Townsend’s explanation of the song change your understanding of it? Why or why not?
2. Why do you think the concept of youth is so important to him?
3. How might one’s feelings about the song change as one gets older?
4. Can the song still have meaning for those who are not teenagers or in their early 20s?

Working in pairs, compose new, updated lyrics for “My Generation,” reflecting your views about your generation in today’s America.

Each pair will present its lyrics to the class, and discuss the following:

1. In what ways do your lyrics focus on key events, ideas, complaints, or concerns related to your generation? Be specific, and quote your work.
2. What is the intended audience for your version of the song?
3. What message are you sending to those audiences? Again, be specific and quote your work.

Assessment:

Write a short paragraph summarizing how the Who’s “My Generation” give voice to the attitudes and concerns of young people in the mid-1960s?



Closure: Share paragraphs from above.

Beatlemania

In 1964, the Beatles achieved an unprecedented level of success both in their home country of Britain and in the United States.  They amassed crowds of adoring fans that followed them wherever they went, a phenomenon often referred to as “Beatlemania.”

 By April 4, 1964, the group held the first five spots on the Billboard Hot 100 list of popular songs, with "Can't Buy Me Love," "Twist and Shout," "She Loves You," "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Please Please Me" crowding the top of the charts.  No other act in history has achieved such a feat.   

Watch this trailer for A Hard Day's Night.  This comedy film depicts a fictionalized day in the life of the Beatles.  Although the film was released in 1964, you will be watching the trailer from the 2000 re-release.  Discuss as a class:

• How do crowds and audiences react to the Beatles?

• How are the adults depicted in the film?  Are they portrayed differently than the Beatles?

• In what ways do you think the Beatles portrayed an image that a younger generation could identify with?

 Examine this picture of  the Beatles circa 1961 and the Beatles in 1964.  These are also available in Handout 1: Images of The Beatles.  Explain that prior to the filming of A Hard Day’s Night, the Beatles went through a long period of refining their image, working alongside their manager Brian Epstein to achieve their approachable aesthetic.  Students work in small groups to answer the following questions:

• How would you describe the clothes and mood in the first picture from 1961?

• How would you describe the clothes and mood in the second picture from 1964?

• What kind of image do you think the band is trying to present in each of the pictures?

• How does the photograph from 1964 portray a higher sense of friendliness?

Discuss answers.

Examine the image of the Daily Mirror - February 8, 1964.  The image is also available in Handout 1: Images of The Beatles.  Explain to the students that this is the cover story from the Daily Mirror, a British-based publication, the day after the Beatles’ arrival in America.  As a class, discuss the following:​

• What key information can you discern from the text and images in this source?

• Do you think the arrival of the Beatles in America was worthy of headline news? Why or why not?

• How might this type of media coverage help build a larger fan base for the Beatles?

3. Distribute Handout 2: Beatlemania Timeline.  Ask the students to complete an engaged reading of the timeline on their own.  They should underline any historical events that take place in America and they should place a star (*) next to any event that is related to the Beatles’ career. Walk around the room and check for understanding.  Ask the students as a class:

• Are there any events on the timeline that you recognize?  If so, what?

• The Beatles arrived in America in February 1964.  What was the most recent event that had transpired in the U.S.? 

• What do you think was the general feeling in America at the time when the Beatles arrived?

4. Play video of the Beatles performing “She Loves You” on February 11, 1964.  This is from the Beatles’ first U.S. concert at the Washington Coliseum.  Two days prior, they had appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and 73 million people (or 45% of American households with televisions) tuned in to watch.  After viewing, discuss the following in groups:

• What do you notice about the Beatles' performance?  How do they interact with each other on stage?

• How does this live footage compare with the trailer for A Hard Day’s Night?

• Describe some of the reactions in the audience. 

Discuss.

5. Distribute Handout 3: Brian Epstein and the Beatles.  The students will watch a video interview conducted with Brian Epstein as Beatlemania reached its peak.  Explain to the students that a rising tide of youth culture and the obsession with the Beatles was not welcomed by all.  Students should indicate on their handouts the perspectives of both the interviewer and Epstein.  Discuss in your groups the following:       

• Is Beatlemania evidence of mass hysteria?  What does Brian Epstein think about the word “hysteria”?  What does the interviewer think?

• How does the interviewer see Epstein’s role as the band’s manager? To what does the interviewer attribute the band’s popularity?

• How would you define the “commercial machine”?

1. Pass out Handout 4: Four Corners of Beatlemania.

2. In their seats, have the students complete the handout.  They must choose one factor which they believe is the most important reason for the rise of Beatlemania in America.  While they are completing the handout, the teacher will label four corners of the classroom, or four areas, with the following words: Talent, Personality, Media Coverage, and Historical Context.

3. After they have completed the handout, ask the students to get up and move to their chosen corner of the room.  Have the students in their groups discuss their reasoning for their choice.  They must come up with one reason, as a group, to share with the class.

Lets read Handout 5: Building the Beatle Image, published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1964.  Discuss the following in small groups then as a class:

    1) What are the five elements Packard describes as necessary for creating Beatlemania?    2) What elements might you add to Packard’s list?  What elements do you disagree with, if any?

Individual writing assignment:

Write one-two paragraphs explaining the following:

Have you ever been “obsessed” with an artist, an athlete, or an actor?  Why do you think people create strong attachments to celebrities?

Biography of a Beatle: Growing Up After WWII

Group work:

Imagine you have been hired to help one of the Beatles write his autobiography.

You have been assigned to work specifically on the chapter discussing the way growing up in Liverpool influenced their Beatle as a young man.

Work in small groups and use your newfound knowledge of history and geography to help your Beatle enrich his book.

8. Divide students into groups of no more than four students each. 

9. You will need Handout 2: The Autobiography of a Beatle

and the handouts for Group 1

Group 2

Group 3 (Required video: Gerry Marsden on "American Music Brought to Liverpool," the Beatles performing "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," George Formby performing "Leaning on a Lamp Post")

Group 4, Group 5 (Required video: "Cunard Yanks," Gerry Marsden on "American Music Brought to Liverpool")

or Group 6 (Required video: "Wabash Cannonball," Gerry Marsden on Skiffle, Graham Nash on Skiffle). 

These contain source materials for each group's section of the autobiography, including photographs, quotations, and videos. 

After you answer on your paper, you will type your answers on GoFormative.com

EWUP239

Enter this code athttp://goformative.com/join

Growing Up a Beatle

Think about a particularly sad or difficult time in your life.

Briefly answer these questions:

    1) Was there a particular song that helped you through this difficult time? How did                   it help?

    2) Does music have the power to turn a bad situation around?

    3) Why do people often turn to music in difficult times?

​    

Guided Practice:

           

1. Handout 1: Growing Up in Liverpool.

Complete the questions on the handout during our discussion.

2. Study a map of the world. Locate Great Britain and the United States on the map.

3. Now lets look at these maps of (one and two)  Liverpool.

4. Answer the following questions in groups on the handout:

    a) How would you describe Liverpool’s geography, particularly in terms of river and sea access?

    b) Why do you think Liverpool was a major trade city?

    c) How does trade impact a city? 

Share answers with class.

In groups again, answer:

    a) Where did WWII mostly take place (continent)?

    b) What kinds of items do you think might have been shipped into and out of Liverpool     during World War II?

    c) How might Liverpool’s status as a port city have affected what happened to it during     World War II?

    d) How might the experience of American cities during World War II have been different/Was the war fought on US soil?

Discuss answers with class:

Answer as a whole group: 

     5. How do you think living in a port city might affect the things residents were able to buy in an era before air travel and shipping were commonplace? Hint: Would they have been exposed to new things before others living inland?

6. Define the term “cultural diffusion.” 

7. Ask students to imagine they have been hired to help one of the Beatles write his autobiography. They have been assigned to work specifically on the chapter discussing the way growing up in Liverpool influenced their Beatle as a young man. They will work in small groups and use their newfound knowledge of history and geography to help their Beatle enrich his book.

8. Divide  groups of no more than four students each. 

9. Distribute Handout 2: The Autobiography of a Beatle.

Distribute the handouts for Group 1, Group 2, Group 3 

(Required video: Gerry Marsden on "American Music Brought to Liverpool," the Beatles performing "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," 

George Formby performing "Leaning on a Lamp Post"), 

Group 4, Group 5 

(Required video: "Cunard Yanks," Gerry Marsden on "American Music Brought to Liverpool")

Group 6 

(Required video: "Wabash Cannonball," Gerry Marsden on Skiffle, Graham Nash on Skiffle). 

These contain source materials for each group's section of the autobiography, including photographs, quotations, and videos. Be sure to assemble all the materials, including a video station, prior to the start of the lesson.

Formative Assessment: Your autobiography will be graded individually.

Closure: S. share group work from above.

American Blues in England

ESSENTIAL QUESTION
OVERVIEW

In what ways did American Blues affect English musicians in the early 1960s?

"[Before the Beatles] The pop music in this country was very watery and weak, not worth talking about. Things like Cliff Richard."

-- Pete Townsend of the Who on British popular music in the early 1960s

This lesson looks at the Blues scene in England that prefigured the British Invasion. Though young people there were able to hear Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, Little Richard, and other artists associated with early American Rock and Roll, the music they could call their own, British popular music, sometimes left them dissatisfied. As Pete Townsend describes in the epigraph above, he was among those who found the home offerings "watery and weak."

But if one thing marked the U.K. at that time, it was a respect for American music. Yes, for Rock and Roll -- but also for the Blues tradition. Artists who had never left the States came over to England, France, and Germany and found themselves welcomed and celebrated. American Bluesmen like Big Bill Broonzy found they could have careers in Europe when in the States they had little going on. Starting in 1962, the European interest in American Blues was fed by the American Folk Blues Festival, an annual touring festival that brought Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, and many more to European audiences intermittently over the next few decades. In the audience for those first shows were future members of the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and other major acts of the 1960s and 1970s.

Central to this lesson is a comparison of Cliff Richard and the Shadows, as an example of early 1960s British popular music, with the Blues that a young person in the U.K. might have seen at an American Folk Blues Festival. Students will get a chance to consider what the Blues might have meant to musicians like Cyril Davies, Alexis Korner, and Long John Baldry, all key figures in the British Blues explosion.

Today we will be watching two clips and taking notes about what you see, withholding your immediate response until both clips have been shown and you are able to do a focused comparison. 

1) Watch Cliff Richard and the Shadows performance of "The Young Ones" from 1962. 

2) Next watch the clip of Big Mama Thornton, with Buddy Guy, performing "Hound Dog."

Write a comparison of the two performances, either in columns or in sentence form. Questions to address:

How do the artists sound different?

How do they look different?

Which performance has more energy?

If you were a young person growing up in England, which performance might be more exciting and why?

Share answers to group.

Now watch the first minute or so of the interview with the Who's Pete Townsend, from which the epigraph above is taken. Answer the following questions:

How does Townsend describe the British popular music of the early 1960s, before the Beatles hit?

What is his characterization of Cliff Richard?

What does Townsend say about the music and culture of the States as an alternative to what he and others felt was "watery and weak" in English music? 

Next, read "Long John Meets John Lee Hooker," the Rock's Back pages article from 1964 in which American Bluesman John Lee Hooker meets young British Bluesman Long John Baldry. 

Lets break into groups of three to answer the following questions about the article:

1) How would you describe the relationship between the two musicians?

2) How old was Long John Baldry when he started listening to American Blues?

3) What seems to be Baldry's relationship to American Blues music?

4) What would you say are the differences between the two men?

5) How did Baldry come to know so much about John Lee Hooker?

6) Why do you think Hooker matters so much to Baldry?

Share their answers with the class.

Many American Blues performers came to England during the 1950s and 1960s and that Long John Baldry and others got to see many of them in concert.

One series of traveling performances, called the American Folk Blues Festival, would visit France, Germany, and England for many years, starting in 1962. Members of the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin attended some of these shows, as did Long John Baldry. What follows is a clip from one of those shows:

Watch Muddy Waters performing "Got My Mojo Working" as a part of the American Folk Blues Festival.

What do you think Long John Baldry might have liked about the performance, based on the article you read.

After discussing the answers,  watch Baldry perform the same song with Cyril Davies. 

Discuss the following questions:

1) What do Davies and Baldry borrow from Muddy Waters' version of "Got My Mojo Working"?

2) What is different in Baldry and Davies' version of the song?

3) How does the Davies/Baldry performance differ from what you saw of Cliff Richard earlier?

4) How you you say their version of "Got My Mojo Working" is a reaction to the kind of Pop played by Cliff Richard?

Formative Assessment: S. write a short paragraph summarizing how they what they think the American Blues brought to young people in England?

Closure: S. share paragraphs from above.

Continuing Group Projects

Rough draft of written report must be finished today!!

Remember this is due Friday. No exceptions!!

Elvis Info

Elvis Presley.

Source:

Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition. Q2 2015, p1-1. 1p.

Document Type:

Biography

Abstract:

Presley, Elvis (Elvis Aaron Presley), 1935–77, American popular singer, b. Tupelo, Miss. Exposed to gospel music from childhood, Presley began playing guitar before his adolescence. He first recorded in 1953, became a national sensation by 1956, and dominated rock music until 1963. Presley sang successfully in three popular idioms: country and western, rock 'n' roll, and rhythm and blues. Although he had a pleasant baritone voice and a sincere delivery, it was his pelvic gyrations, considered wildly sexual by an entire generation of teenagers and their appalled parents, which skyrocketed Presley to fame. Among his most successful songs were Heartbreak Hotel, Love Me Tender, Hound Dog, and Don't Be Cruel. His success spawned a spate of B movies and from 1956 to 1972 he appeared in 33 motion pictures including Love Me Tender (1956), Jailhouse Rock (1957), and Follow That Dream (1962). Presley remained a popular and influential performer through the 1960s and 70s. His death was attributed largely to substance abuse. Since his death, popular interest in Presley has remained high; his home, Graceland, in Memphis, Tenn., has been turned into a highly successful tourist attraction and pop culture shrine. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition is the property of Columbia University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.(Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Lexile:

1110

Since emerging in the 1950s, rock has been the dominant form ofpopular music. It originated in the United States and spread to other English-speaking countries and across Europe in the 1960s. Eventually it became the sound track for young people throughout the world. The history of pop music into the 21st century has basically been that of rock and its variants, including disco, heavy metal, punk, and hip-hop.

Early Rock and Roll

In its early years rock was known as rock and roll (or rock ’n’ roll). This music was largely a mix of country music and rhythm and blues. Signifying rebellion and sexuality, rock and roll appealed to teenagers and often horrified their parents.

Frank Driggs Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesFrank Driggs Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

By the mid-1950s such performers as Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and Fats Domino, who had generally been considered rhythm and blues artists, were popular with white audiences as well as African Americans. Radio disc jockeys began calling their music rock and roll. Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti,” Berry’s “Maybellene,” Diddley’s “Bo Diddley,” and Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame”—all early rock-and-roll hits—were released in 1955.

© Bettmann/Corbis© Bettmann/Corbis

In 1954 record producer Sam Phillips, who had been searching for a “white man with the Negro sound and the Negro feel,” had begun recording the country singerElvis Presley at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. Records such as “That’s All Right Mama” featured Presley’s high tenor voice singing with bluesy inflection. In 1956 the 21-year-old Presley created a sensation with his rock-and-roll-styled “Heartbreak Hotel,” the first of his 14 records in a row that sold more than a million copies each.

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesMichael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Presley’s success inspired other country performers to sing rock and roll music in the late 1950s. They were called rockabilly singers, and the most prominent of them were the hiccupping vocalist Buddy Holly and the frenetic singer-pianistJerry Lee Lewis. Other popular rockabilly stars included Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran, and Gene Vincent. The popularity of Presley also helped to encourage the practice of “cover” recordings. That is, when new records by black performers appeared on the charts, white singers would record simplified versions of the same songs. The recordings by the white performers received wider distribution and were consequently played on more radio stations than the original recordings.

Frank Driggs Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesFrank Driggs Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Another trend in rock and roll in the 1950s and ’60s was vocal groups called “doo-wops” because they sang nonsense syllables in many of their songs. Most of them featured bass singers who could sing extremely low notes and also singers who could sing tones in extremely high falsetto voice ranges. The Platters were one of the most popular of such vocal 

Bo Diddley Info

Bo Diddley 

Contents

1. Bibliography

Diddley, Bo, 1928–2008, African-American singer, guitarist, and songwriter who was one of the founders of rock and roll, b. near McComb, Miss., as Otha Ellas Bates. He and his cousin, Gussie McDaniel, who raised him and whose last name he adopted, moved to Chicago when he was five. He studied violin, received his first guitar in 1940, and acquired the nickname "BoDiddley." Within a decade he was performing in South Side clubs, often playing the rectangular electric guitar he designed. Diddley became known for his pounding signature beat (bom ba-bom bom, bom bom; later an essential component of rock music) and for his guitar effects, jive talk, and strutting stage style. He reached a wider audience with the release (1955) of his first record, containing "BoDiddley" and "I'm a Man." He had a number of other hits, but is perhaps most important for his powerful influence on generations of rockers, e.g., Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, and BruceSpringsteen.

Bibliography

See G. R. White, Bo Diddley: Living Legend(1998)

Diddley, Bo, 1928–2008, African-American singer, guitarist, and songwriter who was one of the founders of rock and roll, b. near McComb, Miss., as Otha Ellas Bates. He and his cousin, Gussie McDaniel, who raised him and whose last name he adopted, moved to Chicago when he was five. He studied violin, received his first guitar in 1940, and acquired the nickname Bo Diddley. Within a decade he was performing in South Side clubs, often playing the rectangular electric guitar he designed. Diddleybecame known for his pounding signature beat (bom ba-bom bom, bom bom; later an essential component of rock music) and for his guitar effects, jive talk, and strutting stage style. He reached a wider audience with the release (1955) of his first record, containing Bo Diddley and I'm a Man. He had a number of other hits, but is perhaps most important for his powerful influence on generations of rockers, e.g., Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, and Bruce Springsteen. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

 

Copyright of Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition is the property of Columbia University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.(Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)