The difference, by ear
Garage is what happened when teenagers with no training copied rock and roll and the British Invasion from records. Cruder, faster and much angrier.
Both are sung cleanly and move at much the same pace, around 140 to 180 bpm. To hear the difference, play The Sonics next to Chuck Berry. Garage rock grew out of rock and roll, nine years later.
In figures
Garage rock
Where it sits
Rock › Rock and roll › Garage rock
In short
High-school bands, a Farfisa organ and one good idea recorded badly. Attitude beats technique here, and punk descends from it directly.
How it sounds
- A Farfisa or Vox organ, very often louder in the mix than the guitar.
- Raw production cut in a few hours, with saturated vocals and distant drums.
- One good riff, repeated for two and a half minutes.
Key acts
- The Sonics
- The Standells
- The Seeds
- ? and the Mysterians
Start here
The pickThe Sonics - Psycho. Gerry Roslie's voice is a decade ahead of punk.
Full page →Rock and roll
Where it sits
In short
Ground zero: twelve-bar blues sped up, piano hammered hard, lyrics about cars and girls. It made the electric guitar the defining instrument of the century.
How it sounds
- Twelve-bar blues sped up, with piano pounded in eighths and saxophone where the guitar solo would later go.
- The guitar plays short repeating riffs rather than long solos - Chuck Berry essentially wrote the vocabulary.
- Mono production, one room, dance-hall energy.
Key acts
- Chuck Berry
- Little Richard
- Elvis Presley
- Bo Diddley
Start here
The pickChuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode. That opening riff is the DNA of the entire tree.
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