The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 1006: Rock firsts by Black artists
We would not be sitting here talking about rock music if it weren’t for people of African descent. If you start in the present and begin to trace things backward to important innovations and accomplishments, nine times out of ten, you’ll end up exploring something from black culture.
And we can go way, way back, all the way to 1619 when the first slave ship arrived in North America at the British colony of Virginia carrying about 20 captives.
Over the centuries that followed, the people of Africa, consisting of many different communities, nations, tribes, and cultures, were brought to the West by force creating wounds that have yet to heal.
But more than just bodies made the trip across the Atlantic. These were human beings with identities, history, traditions—and music. These songs and rhythms helped sustain them during those brutal times.
There were work songs, protest songs, satirical songs, songs meant to be sung in the fields and streets, and songs that were games in themselves. Some had regular rhythms while others contained syncopated beats from traditional dance.
Over the centuries, the music evolved, mutated, and spread. Spirituals and gospel. Blues and boogie-woogie. Ragtime and jazz. R&B and bebop. And in the early 1950s, this music with its rich history and traditions was incorporated with country, western, hillbilly, R&B, and a few other ingredients to become what we call “rock and roll.”
Along the way, there were many musical firsts, and landmark contributions by black artists that changed everything. Without them, what we call “rock” today and so much of its culture would simply not exist.
These people and their accomplishments need to be recognized, commemorated, and celebrated. This is an episode, part of Black History Month, on rock firsts by black artists.
Songs heard on this show:
- Living Colour, Cult of Personality
- George W. Johnson, The Laughing Son
- Trixie Smith, My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)
- Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, Rocket 88
- Little Richard, Tutti Fruitti
- Chuck Berry, Johnny B. Goode
- Rage Against the Machine, Bulls on Parade
- Death, Keep on Knockin’
- Bam Bam, Ground Zero
Eric Wilhite has this playlist.
The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:
- 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7pm
- Q107/Toronto – Sunday night at 9pm
- Live 88-5/Ottawa – Saturdays at 9am and Sundays at 6pm.
- 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener – Sunday nights at 11pm
- FM96/London – Sunday nights at 8pm
- Power 97/Winnipeg – Sunday nights at 11pm
- Sonic 102.9/Edmonton – Sunday at 8am and 8pm
- The Zone/Victoria – Sunday at 8am and 9pm
- The Fox/Vancouver – Sunday at 11pm
- Surge 105/Halifax – Sunday at 7pm
- WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown – Mon-Fri at 9pm
- We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor, Montreal, Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.
