ABSTRACT
I can’t stand that surfing shit. Rock’n’roll’s been going downhill ever since Buddy Holly died.
From the film American Graffitti
And so, by 1960, it seemed to be all over. What had happened?
Rock’n’roll’s vitality and freshness had been sapped by show business and the established record industry. As early as 1957, new young singers were doing what would safely make money inside show business rather than reacting against it and doing what they felt was right. Even Elvis, on his return from the Army, seemed to have thrown in the towel and turned to the semi-operatic pop of ‘It’s Now Or Never’. It was his biggest-selling world-wide hit since 1956. He was a pop singer now. And in Britain, many of those who’d been inspired by him were already pop singers, not rock’n’rollers.
