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Rockabilly

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockabilly

Rockabilly is a style of music made famous during the 1950s by American performers. At its heart, rockabilly is simply a fusion of rock and roll, Blues and Hillbilly. The music was propelled by catchy beats, an electric guitar and an acoustic bass which was played using the slap-back technique.

Rockabilly is generally considered to have begun in the early 1950s, when musicians like Bill Haley began mixing jump blues and electric country. In 1954, however, a singer named Elvis Presley truly began the popularization of the genre with a series of recordings for Sun Records. Rock Around the Clockt  (1955, Bill Haley) was the breakthrough success for the style, and it launched the careers of several rockabilly entertainers. By 1958, most of these performers had moved on to different sounds and rockabilly had largely disappeared from popular music.

In the 1980s, the Stray Cats led a revival of interest in rockabilly, though it was brief. Other bands like the Cramps and Reverend Horton Heat merged the music with punk, however, forming a distinct genre referred to as psychobilly.

Psychobilly

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychobilly

Psychobilly (also cowpunk, a somewhat earlier name) is a term used to describe bands who play a genre of music heavily based in punk rock, but with many elements of rockabilly. In addition, modern psychobilly often resembles horror punk. Musicians of this genre are often associated with a hairstyle called a quiff, which resembles a mohawk.

History

Psychobilly emerged at the end of the 70's, early 80's.

At the center of Psychobilly was Klubfoot at the Clarendon in Hammersmith, West London. It has now been demolished to make way for Offices and expanded underground/bus station. Some say The Misfits' "American Nightmare" may have been the first psychobilly song but the first true psychobilly band was the Meteors who played at Klubfoot, although a good case could be made for The Cramps inventing psychobilly in both music and look. Musically there are precedents ranging back to the the mid-1960s.

Soon psychobilly swept through Europe, Scandinavia and into Japan

Peoples own words, what is Psychobilly and where did it come from?

-This is something that i found, searching the internet, check the link, it has all sorts of different scenes.                                   http://groups.msn.com/l81gbab3j888ejtvik5eos6bm3/page5.msnw

Truly anti-establishment, this hardcore cult demanded a severe stylistic allegiance whilst offering a wild lifestyle of snakebite by the gallon and a frantic soundtrack rooted in rockabilly. With the punk explosion giving England's youth the license to rebel, the psychobilly phenomenon took up the baton gallantly. Flying in the face of classic rockabilly, it upset the purists with its anti-fashion stance. People crossed the road when a psychobilly approached - multi-colored quiffs, bleached jeans, DM's half way up their legs and a multitude of tattoos prevailed. Rockabilly bands like The Stray Cats and Polecats had enjoyed chart success, whereas psychobilly was far less commercial, far more punk. The first true psychobilly band was The Meteors, often covered in fake blood, they were the pioneers of the movement and proclaimed "only The Meteors are pure psychobilly." The psychobilly Mecca was the Klubfoot at the Clarendon in Hammersmith, West London. The scene rapidly swept across Europe, Scandinavia and into Japan and for a few years it seemed every teenager on the underground had a quiff and tattoo. It was a club for rebels. The music industry hated psychobilly - which just made it even more fun. Always misunderstood and better for it.