As a personal note, I am deeply saddened by today’s contemporary music industry trend of dividing listeners into exclusive categories, so that people are loyal to one particular genre at the expense of all others. It’s a Yankee thing, and I hope and pray that young Southerners will see through this nonsense and continue the tradition of their ancestors by embracing multiple directions in music, no matter the artificial category.
In this fifth installment of the series “What Makes This Musician Great,” we will travel back to the cultural hurricane in the early days of Rockabilly music, and celebrate the innovative musical giant known as Carl Perkins.
As our society moves further beyond those explosive, tumultuous days of the mid-1950’s, it’s becoming easier to lose focus on everything that was happening simultaneously in music back then. We have a habit of organizing historical events into singlular timelines that don’t often tell an accurate story because overlapping events just don’t fit. For example, what is the difference between Rock ‘n Roll and Rockabilly? Was Elvis considered to be Rockabilly or Rock ‘n’ Roll? Which was Carl Perkins? Since they performed together, and they both recorded the same songs in the same studio at the same time, what’s the difference? The answer is that at first, not much. The word “Rockabilly” is obviously a blend of the words “Rock” and “Hillbilly,” but it’s a lot more complicated than that. Since Rock ‘n Roll was a blend of Country and Rhythm & Blues, then those styles must be noted. However, Rockabilly differs from Rock ‘n Roll by having a stronger Country and Bluegrass influence in the sound. That’s why Elvis was Rockabilly, at first and then more Rock ‘n Roll later. Carl Perkins did not change – he was always Rockabilly to the very end. Rockabilly is not a spinoff from Rock ‘n Roll. It was its own separate genre that simply didn’t go as far as Rock ‘n Roll because it wasn’t as adaptable.
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