Rock music first grew out of the rock’n’roll movement of the 1940s and 50s, which itself was inspired by country and African-American rhythm and blues from the 1920s and 30s. Even from its ...

Hail! Rock and Roll! It was the same theater that turned him away as a child because he was Black. See An Exploration of Smithsonian Collections Featuring African American Music from Smithsonian Music ...