Chapter
Rock starts in jukeboxes and small clubs, not museums. Chicago and Memphis electric blues bend notes with tube amps. Chuck Berry writes verse–chorus guitar songs you can dance to. Elvis brings country–R&B hybrids onto national TV in 1956. The toolkit is simple: amplified guitar, drums on the backbeat, radio airplay, a teenage market. Later British Invasion, metal, and punk still reuse licks, song lengths, and stage moves from this period.
Sound: Twangy single-coil, 2/4 backbeat, AM radio compression, loud small amps