Rockabilly
Rockabilly is a 1950s music style that combines country music with rhythm and blues. Its energetic sound helped shape early rock and roll.
Country music: A popular music tradition rooted in the southern United States, known for storytelling and instruments such as guitar and fiddle. Its vocal styles, guitar picking, and rural themes supplied one half of rockabilly’s blend.
Elvis Presley: An American singer whose 1950s recordings helped make rock and roll a mass-market phenomenon. His early Sun recordings joined country phrasing with rhythm-and-blues rhythms.
Memphis, Tennessee: A city on the Mississippi River whose musical history includes blues, country, soul, and rock and roll. Sun Records recordings made Memphis a central early hub for rockabilly.
Blue Suede Shoes: A 1955 song written and first recorded by Carl Perkins, later popularized by Elvis Presley. Its success carried a distinctively rockabilly song into the wider rock-and-roll market.
Rock and roll: A popular music genre that emerged in the United States in the late 1940s and 1950s from rhythm and blues, country, and related styles. Rockabilly became one of the early forms through which rock and roll reached a broad audience.
Rhythm and blues: A popular music genre developed by Black musicians in the United States, combining blues, jazz, and gospel influences. Its strong backbeat and vocal intensity helped give rockabilly its rhythmic force.
Carl Perkins: An American singer and guitarist known for the 1956 rockabilly hit “Blue Suede Shoes.” His guitar-led songs became models for rockabilly songwriting and performance.
Sun Studio: A Memphis recording studio founded by Sam Phillips in 1950 and used for landmark early rock and roll sessions. Its small-room recording setup captured the raw, close sound associated with early rockabilly.
Rockabilly revival: A resurgence of interest in rockabilly music and style that gained momentum in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Revival bands brought the 1950s sound to new audiences and scenes.
Rockabilly guitar: A guitar style marked by bright tone, string-bending, rhythmic drive, and influences from country and blues. Its techniques helped carry rockabilly’s country and blues mixture into later guitar music.