Influence of Rock & Roll

1877

1. Thomas Edison invents the phonograph for playing back stored sounds. The first recording he
   makes is "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

1915

1. The Chicago Automatic Machine and Tool Company invents the jukebox that plays records (as
   opposed to the cylinder recordings type of player that had been around since 1889).

1917

1. In 1917, the first jazz record was issued in the U.S. when Nick LaRocca’s Original Dixieland
   Jazz Band released "The Dixieland Jazz Band One-Step."

1929

1. The 78 rpm record is introduced.

1931

1. Adolph Rickenbacker invents the electric guitar

1936

1. Billboard puts out its first record sales chart in 1936.
2. Bluesman Robert Johnson records his first record

1938

1. Pete Johnson and Joe Turner cut their first boogie records in Kansas City
2. Boom of boogie woogie in Chicago
3. Telefunken helps develop magnetic tape for use with tape recorders.
4. John Hammond's 'Spirituals to Swing' concert in NYC
5. Saxophonist Louis Jordan leaves Chick Webb's sax section to form his Tympany Five. This might well     mark the beginnings of what we know as Rock and Roll

1939

1. Leo Mintz founds a record store in Cleveland, the "Record Rendezvous", specializing in
   black music

1942

1. Los Angeles bluesman T-Bone Walker incorporates jazz chords into the blues guitar with "I
   Got A Break Baby"
2. Savoy is founded in Newark (NJ) to promote black music

1943

1. King Records is founded in Cincinnati by Syd Nathan to record hillbilly. In 1946 adds race music.

1945

1. Les Paul invents "echo delay", "multi-tracking" and many other studio techniques
2. Johnny Otis  assembles a combo for "Harlem Nocturne" that is basically a
   shrunk-down version of the big-bands of swing
3. Jules Bihari founds Modern Records in Los Angeles, specializing in black music

1946

1. Muddy Waters cuts the first records of Chicago's electric blues
2. Carl Hogan plays a powerful guitar riff on Louis Jordan's "Ain't That Just Like a Woman"
3. Lew Chudd founds Imperial Records in Los Angeles, specializing in black music
4. Specialty Records is founded by Art Rupe in Los Angeles to specialize in black popular
   music
5. Louis Jordan launches "jump blues" (rhythm and blues) with "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie "

1947

1. Billboard writer Jerry Wexler invents the term "rhythm and blues" for electric blues
2. Roy Brown writes and cuts "Good Rockin' Tonight" in Texas
3. Chess Records is founded in Chicago by two Polish-born Jews, Leonard and Phil Chessm to promote blues and later rhythm and blues
4. Ahmet Ertegun founds Atlantic Records in New York to promote black music at the border between
   jazz, rhythm and blues and pop

1948

1. Detroit R&B saxophonist Wild Bill Moore releases "We're Gonna Rock We're
   Gonna Roll"
2. John Lee Hooker records Boogie "Chillen'" for Modern Records, a a single, which topped the
   R&B charts in 1949.
3. Columbia introduces the 12-inch 33-1/3 RPM long-playing vinyl record
4. Homer Dudley invents the Vocoder (Voice Operated recorder)
5. Memphis' radio station WDIA hires Nat Williams, the first black disc jockey
6. The magazine Billboard introduces charts for "hillbilly" and "race" records

1949

1. Fats Domino cuts "The Fat Man," a new kind of boogie
2. Hank Williams' "Lovesick Blues" reaches the top of the country charts
3. Scatman Crothers cuts "I Want To Rock And Roll" (1949), with Wild Bill Moore on
   saxophone
4. RCA Victor introduces the 45 RPM vinyl record
5. Todd Storz of the KOWH radio station starts the Top 40 radio program
6. The Billboard chart for "race" records becomes the chart for "rhythm and blues" records
7. Aristocrat changes its name to Chess
8. Dewey Phillips (white) deejays race music show 'Red Hot and Blue' in Memphis (Delta blues, Chicago     blues, boogie)

1951

1. The white Cleveland disc jockey Alen Freed decides to speculate on the success of Leo Mintz's store and starts a radio program, Moondog Rock'n'Roll Party, that broadcasts
   black music to an audience of white teenagers
2. The first rock and roll record, Ike Turner's Rocket 88, is released
3. The first juke-box that plays 45 RPM records is introduced
4. Howling Wolf and Joe Turner popularize the "shouters"
5. Gunter Lee Carr cuts the dance novelty "We're Gonna Rock "