Why study rock and roll? It is basically and primarily a musical style. It utilizes the same musical elements found in all styles of music--rhythm, pitch, dynamics, form, timbre, etc. How these ingredients are combined, in what proporotions and with what characteristics, defines rock as a distinct musical style.

But rock and roll is more than just a musical style. It is an extremely important and influential social factor. When the final figures are in from the second half of the twentieth century, rock will undboutedly prove to be the single most potent economic factor in the multibillion-dollar music industry. Musically, rock has influenced the music we hear on television, in films and in commercials. It has influenced jazz, church music, classical music and even its own ancestors, rhythm and blues, and country and western. Socially, the rock culture's influence has been witnessed in hairstyles, clothing, language, lifestyles, and politics. In other words, any history of the last half of our century must devote significant consideration to rock and roll being one of the primary forces in our society as a whole.