who really invented rock and roll...who invented the electric guitar?

[jefhatfield]

the more i hear about the history of these two american icons, the more i hear conflicting reports

i took a music appreciation class that believes that rock and roll...its structures...were invented by the slaves that came over to america in colonial times

as for the electric guitar, i think lloyd loar of gibson envisioned the instrument in the 1920s but was laughed at

twenty years later, les paul wanted that but was turned down...though rickenbacker had a working model ten years earlier

but i don't think the real deal was widely accepted until fender came up with a mass produced model that could appeal to the masses in the esquire model that came out in the summer of '50, followed up by the broadcaster months later, then telecaster shortly after that (of course, before fender put it out into general production, they had prototypes since '48)

but so far, that's all i have found on that matter

[Kid Red]

Chuck Berry.

[andrewlandry]

i don't know that anyone invented rock 'n roll. styles usually develop as opposed to being created by one person. although Little Richard and Chuck Berry helped to make it famous and arguable moved it's progression forward, i don't think there was a clear line between rhythm and blues and rock 'n roll. and since the term rock 'n roll was coined by a white DJ after it had been going on for a while, you might say that he 'created' it.

[iGav]

Originally posted by Kid Red
Chuck Berry.

Nah... Marty McFly....

Okay... not funny... *shuffles over to corner of room with 'Dunce' pointy hat on'*

[Roger1]

Didn't Marty Mcfly travel back to the future to learn how to play guitar??

[guitargeek]

I always credit Les Paul with the electric guitar, since he's the one that really made it an atainable instrument.

As far as the roots of rock and roll, no one person created it. Think back to the early stuff (like Chuck Berry), it was really just an up tempo blues. If someone where to play original music in the same style today, it would probably be classified as blues, actually. So really rock and roll was just an evolution from blues, which was an evolution of slave songs, which was an evolution of old African songs, etc.

[dstorey]

Well as far as I know the first electric guitar was called the frying pan and was made by Rickenbacker...at least a electric that was produced anyway.

As for RnR, well the first person called rock n roll or was popular at least was Elvis. Before him I guess it wasn't called rock n roll and wasn't popular with the typical rock fans, just the african american people. You have to credit Elvis for taking black music and taking it to a black audience. As for who was the first rock musician when it was still r&b and gospel, well who knows, probably someone we never heard of although people like little richard, chuck berry etc were the popular ones and had hits. It's just quite sad that a white man had to do black music for it to be taken seriously..but i guess that was the way of the world then...

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by guitargeek
I always credit Les Paul with the electric guitar, since he's the one that really made it an atainable instrument.

where as rickenbacker made the frying pan steel guitar in 1931, les paul wanted a regular guitar, but not with just electronics on a hollowbody, but a hollowbody which had a solid wood center with electronics in it...that was back in 1942

it took nearly ten years for gibson to accept the concept of the more controllable aspects of electronics on a solid wood base which gave the guitar a louder, more sustaining sound and yet avoided the feedback of the purely hollow body jazz guitar with the electronics on it like the 1937 model purely hollowbody electric dubbed the charlie christian model

les paul wanted the electronics to be mounted right onto the hard wood but gibson denied that little detail...many years later, eddie van halen, in search for the perfect sustain, wanted kramer guitars to do the same, but they denied his suggestion...finally, rather recently, musicman instruments then peavey instruments actually mounted all electronics, namely the pickups which produce the sound, right onto the hard wood of the solidbody to produce the optimum sustain possible...granted, it looks rather sloppy and unfinished that way, but the sound is what benefits

when rickenbacker made their steel guitar, the steel guitar was much more popular than the standard guitar so they made what would sell and be more popular for the time in 1931...so in that sense, they hit the market running first before gibson with their charlie christian hollowbody jazz electric in 1937 or the 1950 fender esquire and broadcaster solidbody electrics

of course epiphone was making jazz electrics and merle travis had a solidbody electric made in 1947 made by paul bigsby which looked like a cross between a les paul and a stratocaster...but the les paul came out in 1952 and the stratocaster in 1954, so it's very likely that both makers copied paul bigsby's idea

leo fender, one of the inventors of the stratocaster (along with a couple of his key employees) knew paul bigsby and merle travis, and les paul, who designed the les paul electric guitar knew leo fender

of course, bigsgy went onto later fame with his bigsby trem which made its way to many guitar makers and is most commonly seen on epiphone and gretsch guitars these days

[melchior]

Originally posted by Roger1
Didn't Marty Mcfly travel back to the future to learn how to play guitar??

nah that was bill and ted.
"Ted: Be excellent to each other.
Bill: Party on, dudes!"

Marty McFly travelled to 1955, at a dance plays Jonnie B. Good which won't be released until 1958. there is a black guitar player (who marty replaces cause he broke the guys hand) who calls his cousin, a disc jockey saying this is "the new sound you were looking for"

ummm, yeah. the 80's was good. real good.

[beez7777]

Originally posted by melchior
Marty McFly travelled to 1955, at a dance plays Jonnie B. Good which won't be released until 1958. there is a black guitar player (who marty replaces cause he broke the guys hand) who calls his cousin, a disc jockey saying this is "the new sound you were looking for"

you forgot the best part of the whole scene! what i thought was the best was how the guitarist picks up the phone,dials a number, and says, "hey, chuck, it's me, your cousin, marvin berry. you know that new sound you were looking for? i found it!" chuck berry was the guy who wrote and sang johnny b. good.

[melchior]

Originally posted by beez7777
you forgot the best part of the whole scene! what i thought was the best was how the guitarist picks up the phone,dials a number, and says, "hey, chuck, it's me, your cousin, marvin berry. you know that new sound you were looking for? i found it!" chuck berry was the guy who wrote and sang johnny b. good.

well, bugger! that's all i have to say. it's been some time since i watched it... maybe i never realised that's what he said. (goddamn mono tv's!)