The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll" is an unordered list of 660 songs (initially 500) that they believe have been most influential in shaping the course of rock and roll. It was organized by Hall of Fame museum curator James Henke who, according to the hall, "compiled the list with input from the museum’s curatorial staff and numerous rock critics and music experts." The list is part of a permanent exhibit at the museum, and was envisioned as part of the museum from its opening in 1995. The list contains songs recorded from the 1920s through the 1990s. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones are the most represented on the list, with eight songs each. Elvis Presley has seven songs, while The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder and Chuck Berry each have five.
Read more about this topic: Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame
Famous quotes containing the words songs, shaped, rock and/or roll:
“Dylan is to me the perfect symbol of the anti-artist in our society. He is against everything—the last resort of someone who doesn’t really want to change the world.... Dylan’s songs accept the world as it is.”
—Ewan MacColl (1915–1989)
“How will it be with kingdoms and with kings—
With those who shaped him to the thing he is—
When this dumb Terror shall rise to judge the world,
After the silence of the centuries?”
—Edwin Markham (1852–1940)
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
“As I define it, rock & roll is dead. The attitude isn’t dead, but the music is no longer vital. It doesn’t have the same meaning. The attitude, though, is still very much alive—and it still informs other kinds of music.”
—David Byrne (b. 1952)