1959 saw the end of Early Rock, along with the death of three Early Rock greats. It was a time of transition from the raw enegry first put out to the more creative, expressionist music of the sixties. Basically, early rock ended as it had begun, safe and predictable. All the rough edges had been sanded over, and we were left with politically correct musicians with no message dominating the pop charts. The most prominant examples of this were the "teen idols", harvested and groomed mainly by Dick Clark. Although rock had lost it's edge, large steps were being taken, in both the fields of racial acceptance and political message.
The main element contributing to the death of early rock was the loss of its main artists. The King was in the army, and though he released a couple of songs in first year of his enterance, he never really regained his prominence as either a musician or an actor when in returned in 1960. Chuck Berry was in jail, again, convicted on what some suspect were false charges. He also returned later but never regained his former celebrity. Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13 year old cousin and was pretty much banned from the music community. Little Richard went back to Alabama to study the gospel and "make his peace with Jesus". He became a preacher, and, with the exceptance of some concerts (the '96 Olympics), never returned to music. With four huge influences of Early Rock gone, there wasn't really anyone left to carry the enormous burden of carrying rock along.
On top of this, in February, a plane that left Clear Lake, Iowa, bound for Fargo crashed.On that plane were three more great Early Rock musicians, rocakbilly greats Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper, Jiles P. Richardson. The Big Bopper only really had one song worth mentioning, "Chantilly Lace". Ritchie Valens, on the other hand, had many. Discovered in 1958 when he was 16 by producer Bob Keane, and soon recorded "Come on, Let's Go", "Donna" and "La Bamba". He appeared on American Bandstand and seemed to be promised further popularity until the crash. Most important of all was the death of Buddy Holly. Born Charles Hardin Holley, he recorded a great many rockabilly hits, including "Maybe Baby", "Peggy Sue", and his most important, "That'll Be The Day". He appeared on the Ed Sullivan show and was one of several white artists in the late fifties to popularise rock with parents with his clean cut image. Their deaths, combined with the other four virtual deaths, created such a great void that none of Carl Perkin's or the Everly Brothers could save it.
