Music's Big Bang: The Genesis of Rock 'n' Roll

Explores the factors — musical and cultural — that led to the birth of American rock 'n' roll music in the early 1950s. Covers in detail the genres, styles and people that converged to create this new music.

• Four basic themes of our course
• Some basic tenets of rock 'n' roll
• In the beginning: American popular music
• There were many, many genres, styles and sub styles of American pop
• The blues: Mississippi Ghosts 1
• The Mississippi Delta, an area surrounding the Mississippi River, becomes the cradle of the blues
• The blues: Mississippi Ghosts 2
• The legend of Robert Johnson and his visit to "the crossroads"
• A tale of three cities: New Orleans
• New Orleans is the city of jazz
• A tale of three cities: Chicago
• Chicago is where the blues went electric
• A tale of three cities: Memphis
• The delivery room of rock 'n' roll