The difference, by ear
Rockabilly is the white, country-derived wing of rock and roll: slap bass, hiccup vocal, no horns and no piano. Rock and roll is the wider church that R&B and gospel also feed.
Both are sung cleanly and move at much the same pace, around 140 to 190 bpm. To hear the difference, play Carl Perkins next to Chuck Berry. Rockabilly grew out of rock and roll.
In figures
Rockabilly
Where it sits
Rock › Rock and roll › Rockabilly
In short
Rock and roll filtered through white country music: slapped upright bass, Sun Studio echo and a vocal hiccup. It gets rediscovered every couple of decades.
How it sounds
- Slapped upright bass - the strings snap against the neck and keep time in place of the drums.
- Tape slapback echo on the vocals, the Sun Studio trademark.
- Clean or lightly overdriven guitar with country-style picking and no distortion.
Key acts
- Carl Perkins
- Johnny Cash
- Gene Vincent
- Stray Cats
Start here
The pickCarl Perkins - Blue Suede Shoes, the original rather than the Elvis version.
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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