Who "invented" the rock beat?

A straight-eighth note rock beat and the 2 and 4 backbeat are different. The early rock drummers - D.J. Fontana, Jerry Allison, Earl Palmer, the Chess Records drummers, etc. - still played with a triplet or swing feel. Listen to their hi-hats. They're playing what drummers were playing in swing bands, but with a more pronounced backbeat.

Louis Jordan and his Tympani Five, along with other jump bands, are usually credited as the immediate forerunners to rock. Chuck Berry, for example, cites Louis Jordan as a major influence on his music.

Jordan came out of Chick Webb's band and had hit records starting in the mid-1940s into the early 1950s.

Best, skf
 
Clearly, none of these people know what they are talking about. Ringo Starr invented the rock beat. Do not doubt this.
 
What was the origin of rock and roll? Scholars (and by scholars I mean stoner music majors) have debated it for centuries, at least as far back as 1750, when Methaius Palmer observed: "The back beat in the Negro jump music causes one's body to rock, but the rhythm in the Negro spiritual causes one's body to roll. This, say I, is the origin of the 'rock and roll' and not, as some have claimed, the Polack's polka." Indeed. But what exactly was the origin of rock and roll?

First, we need to ask what defines rock and roll. Rock and roll is, and always was, defined primarily by:

4/4 time
a strong back beat
a strong, rolling rhythm
a blues scale melody
electric lead guitar


The blues scale arose out of African-American gospel music from the 19th century, and 4/4 time originated in jazz. The back beat was a feature of gospel (in the form of hand-clapping) and of rhythm and blues of the 1940s, which itself grew out of a combination of big band swing and intimate guitar and piano blues.
 
What was the origin of rock and roll? Scholars (and by scholars I mean stoner music majors) have debated it for centuries, at least as far back as 1750, when Methaius Palmer observed: "The back beat in the Negro jump music causes one's body to rock, but the rhythm in the Negro spiritual causes one's body to roll. This, say I, is the origin of the 'rock and roll' and not, as some have claimed, the Polack's polka." Indeed. But what exactly was the origin of rock and roll?

First, we need to ask what defines rock and roll. Rock and roll is, and always was, defined primarily by:

4/4 time
a strong back beat
a strong, rolling rhythm
a blues scale melody
electric lead guitar


The blues scale arose out of African-American gospel music from the 19th century, and 4/4 time originated in jazz. The back beat was a feature of gospel (in the form of hand-clapping) and of rhythm and blues of the 1940s, which itself grew out of a combination of big band swing and intimate guitar and piano blues.

Purists don't consider, Rock and Roll a form of Rock.
 
I'm trying hard not to diss anybody anymore. I kind of forget about that. Sorry Jeff.
 
Steve Smith has a DVD on "History of the US Beat."
He says that when rock and roll first started recording, there were no rock and roll session drummers, only jazz guys. So they would "swing" the beat. He says the original recording of Johnny B. Good was more of a triplet, swung feel.
According to Smith, it was Little Richard's piano that first popularized the "straight 8th" feel and drummers had to adopt that feel to play the music.

I always thought Ringo got the credit for the modern 2 and 4.
 
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