Editing Rock and roll (section)

== Decline and later developments ==
[[File:Buddy Holly & The Crickets publicity portrait - cropped.jpg|upright|thumb|right|[[Buddy Holly]] and his band, [[the Crickets]]]]
Some commentators have suggested a decline of rock and roll starting in 1958.<ref>D. Hatch and S. Millward, ''From blues to rock: an analytical history of pop music'' (Manchester: Manchester University Press ND, 1987), p. 110.</ref><ref>M. Campbell, ''Popular Music in America: And the Beat Goes on: Popular Music in America'' (Publisher Cengage Learning, 3rd edn., 2008), p. 172.</ref> The retirement of [[Little Richard]] to become a preacher (October 1957), the departure of Presley for service in the [[United States Army]] (March 1958), the scandal surrounding [[Jerry Lee Lewis]]' marriage to his [[Myra Gale Brown|thirteen-year-old cousin]] (May 1958), riots caused by [[Bill Haley]]'s ill-fated tour of Europe (October 1958), the deaths of [[Buddy Holly]], [[the Big Bopper]] and [[Ritchie Valens]] in [[The Day the Music Died|a plane crash]] (February 1959), the breaking of the [[Payola]] scandal implicating major figures, including [[Alan Freed]], in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs (November 1959), the arrest of [[Chuck Berry]] (December 1959), and the death of [[Eddie Cochran]] in a car crash (April 1960) gave a sense that the initial phase of rock and roll had come to an end.<ref name="Campbell2008">M. Campbell, ed., ''Popular Music in America: And the Beat Goes on'' (Cengage Learning, 3rd edn., 2008), p. 99.</ref>

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the rawer sounds of Presley, [[Gene Vincent]], [[Jerry Lee Lewis]] and [[Buddy Holly]] were commercially superseded by a more polished, commercial style of rock and roll influenced pop music.  Marketing frequently emphasized the physical looks of the artist rather than the music, contributing to the successful careers of [[Ricky Nelson]], [[Tommy Sands (American singer)|Tommy Sands]], [[Bobby Vee]], [[Jimmy Clanton]], and the Philadelphia trio of [[Bobby Rydell]], [[Frankie Avalon]], and [[Fabian Forte|Fabian]], who all became "teen idols".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000046845|title=Pop {{!}} Grove Music|language=en|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.46845|access-date=2018-11-12|year=2001|last1=Middleton|first1=Richard|last2=Buckley|first2=David|last3=Walser|first3=Robert|last4=Laing|first4=Dave|last5=Manuel|first5=Peter|isbn=978-1-56159-263-0|archive-date=May 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522183313/https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000046845|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Johnny Rivers 1975.JPG|thumb|left|[[Johnny Rivers]] was a key 1960s rock artist known for hits like "Memphis" and his "Go-go" style.]]

Some music historians have also pointed to important and innovative developments that built on rock and roll in this period, including [[multitrack recording]], developed by [[Les Paul]], the electronic treatment of sound by such innovators as [[Joe Meek]], and the "[[Wall of Sound]]" productions of [[Phil Spector]],{{sfn |Gilliland |1969 |loc=show 21}} continued desegregation of the charts, the rise of [[surf music]], [[garage rock]] and the [[Twist (dance)|Twist]] dance craze.<ref name="KeightleyR&R"/> [[Surf music|Surf rock]] in particular, noted for the use of reverb-drenched guitars, became one of the most popular forms of American rock of the early 1960s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/surf-ma0000002883|title=Surf Music Genre Overview – AllMusic|website=AllMusic|access-date=August 22, 2014|archive-date=October 29, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191029040516/https://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/surf-ma0000002883|url-status=live}}</ref>

While the sounds of the [[British Invasion]] would become the superseding forms of rock music during the mid-1960s, a few American artists were nonetheless able to achieve chart successes with rock and roll recordings during this time. The most notable of these was [[Johnny Rivers]], who with hits such as [[Memphis, Tennessee (song)#Other popular versions|"Memphis"]] (1964), popularized a "[[Go-go dancing|Go-go]]" style of club-oriented, danceable rock and roll that enjoyed significant success in spite of the ongoing British Invasion.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-10-04 |title=Louisiana Music Hall of Fame - JOHNNY RIVERS 2009 |url=http://louisianamusichalloffame.org/content/view/95/114/ |access-date=2024-02-20 |website=Louisiana Music Hall of Fame |quote=One American artist after another faded into rock & roll purgatory, victims of Her Majesty's transatlantic onslaught. Among the few Yanks who survived the British Invasion, [was]... Johnny Rivers... A cover of Chuck Berry's "Memphis"... reached number 2 in the midst of Beatlemania, sending a message that American artists weren't ready to concede their turf to the Brits just yet. |archive-date=October 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004175822/http://louisianamusichalloffame.org/content/view/95/114/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Johnny Rivers Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/johnny-rivers-mn0000203639 |access-date=2024-02-20 |website=AllMusic |language=en |quote=... there were other artists playing this kind of basic, danceable rock & roll, mostly in club settings... In early 1964, however, none of those acts had broken nationally or even locally. Rivers got there first...}}</ref> Another example was [[Bobby Fuller]] and his group [[The Bobby Fuller Four]], who were especially inspired by Buddy Holly and stuck with a rock and roll style, scoring their most notable hit with [[I Fought the Law#Bobby Fuller Four version|"I Fought the Law"]] (1965).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Bobby Fuller Four Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-bobby-fuller-four-mn0000061534 |access-date=2024-02-20 |website=AllMusic |language=en |quote=... Fuller [was] a worthy inheritor of early rock & roll and rockabilly traditions...}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Bobby Fuller Four on Apple Music |url=https://music.apple.com/us/artist/bobby-fuller-four/1336938800 |access-date=2024-02-20 |website=Apple Music |language=en-US |quote=In the mid-1960s, Texas rocker Bobby Fuller championed the old-school rock-&-roll values of artists like Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Bobby Fuller {{!}} TheAudioDB.com |url=https://www.theaudiodb.com/artist/141865-Bobby-Fuller |access-date=2024-02-20 |website=www.theaudiodb.com |quote=At a time when the British invasion and folk rock were culturally dominant, Fuller stuck to Buddy Holly's style of classic rock and roll with Tex Mex flourishes.}}</ref>