From Rock 'n' Roll to Rock and Pop

Rock 'n' Roll Dead?

By 1960 rock 'n' roll was the most popular music among young people—not only in America but internationally. However, it comprised only one segment of American popular music, which also included country music, rhythm and blues, folk music and crooners such as Frank Sinatra. In fact, the charts early in the 1960s reflected such a diversity of musical styles that some unfriendly to the new music in the late 1950s announced that rock 'n' roll was passe. In February 1962 New York radio station WINS, which had been among the first in the country to jump aboard the rock 'n' roll bandwagon, instituted a new policy by playing sixty-six straight hours of Frank Sinatra as a death knell to rock 'n' roll.

Revival

Reports of its demise were highly exaggerated. In April WINS began playing rock 'n' roll again, including Chubby Checker's "The Twist," which had set off a national dance craze in 1960. Rock...

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