About This Lesson
This lesson looks into the possible futures of Rock and Roll music. Not pretending to have a prophetic sense for what might be coming next, it examines the past to understand the future. Where did Elvis Presley come from? Howlin’ Wolf? The Beatles? Grandmaster Flash? Ask that question and the answer is generally this: “Somewhere out there, where only a few eyes and ears caught their first stirrings.” The Beatles didn’t start doing what they did because they thought they would become the Beatles. They were answering a personal need, finding their voices, seeing what they could make for themselves amidst the rubble of Liverpool. The most celebrated figures in post-1950s popular music have typically come from out on the margins of society—the working classes, the marginalized communities, the garages and the basements rather than the penthouse apartments. One can’t make a rule of this, of course, but history suggests that Rock and Roll and its offshoots have a special connection to what one might call “the outskirts.” And Rock and Roll’s future will likely be determined somewhere out there.
