Module: FSH1100 Title: Generic Fashion: Rockabilly

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll, dating back to the early 1950s. It originated mainly in the Southern USA (noteably Tennessee and Memphis) and is a mixture of rock and roll and country music. Influences include: western swing; boogie woogie; rhythm and blues.

The name ‘rockabilly’ is an amalgamation of ‘rock’ from rock and roll and ‘billy’ from hillbilly. This style of music was known in the 40s and 50s as ‘hillbilly’ music. ‘Rockabilly’ is a fairly modern phrase.

Examples of Rockabilly artists include:

Wanda Jackson- worked with Elvis early on in her career, he encouraged her to play rockabilly. During 1960-64 Jackson was nicknamed ‘Queen of Rockabilly’.

The Maddox Brothers and Rose- began what was known as the ‘Hillbilly Boogie’- hillbilly vocals and boogie baseline. They were the leading edge of rockabilly with the slapped bass Maddox had developed. They were lively and loud onstage which loosened up the traditional motions of stage decorum. Younger artists began to follow this behaviour. Some believe that they were the first ‘rockabilly’ group

Influence on the British

First wave was Teddy Boys but later in the 60s this morphed into rockers- t shirt, jeans, leather jacket

Image source: Google Images

The Beatles- Combined Buddy Holly’s music style with the rock sound of Carl Perkins

Image source: Google Images

The Rolling Stones- recorded ‘Not Fade Away’ on every single

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The Who- although a mod favourite, they started as a Teddy boy band

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Other artists include Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Beck has performed with modern rockabilly artist, Imelda May.

Image source: Google Images

There are many branches of rockabilly, one of which is Psychobilly. Starting in the late 70s in England, it fuses punk rock with rockabilly. Psychobilly normally features lyrics about sci-fi, horror, violence and other taboo topics, but presented in a comedic fashion.