Rockabilly Origins:

Music is an ever evolving thing. All world cultures from all eras of time have experimented, enjoyed, and practiced music. Many times music takes or borrows elements and creates hybrid sounds. Rock ‘n’ Roll from blues and Heavy Metal from Rock, music is constantly growing out of a previous style. One of these hybrids that developed, Rockabilly, became an instant sensation then died out. However, it didn’t get completely lost and erased from the staffs of history. Instead, it sustained a cult following and has added members to its audience slowly over time. Throughout the years it has even added a few styles from other genres to create and establish new forms of its original theme. In fact these new styles, such as Psychobilly, Gothabilly, Punkbilly etc. have essentially kept it going and will most likely continue to captivate the younger audiences and continue to strengthen its place in the music world. Editor in Chief of ‘Rockabilly Magazine’, an Austin based magazine says that it is because of the changing sound of Rockabilly, like music, that keeps Rockabilly alive, "if you take that sound and blend with new music, such as punk, you'll get the younger crowd into it, and you know what? They'll go out and look for the classic stuff as well."

Now that you’ve seen a brief taste of where Rockabilly is going, let’s focus on where it came from.

The Rockabilly sound can have many different forms for different people, but the essence of Rockabilly that many people can agree upon is that it is music from the mid 50s era of Rock ‘n’ Roll, and from southern artists that play faster tempos, country sounding riffs and that sound prominently like the popular Memphis artist Elvis Presley. “It’s Rock ‘n’ Roll performed by a country singer,” says Terry Gordon who worked for the Country Music Hall of Fame. To get even truer to the sound, think of taking out any horn sections, adding a stand-up bass(and slap those strings like you mean it), add some echo effects to the wild, yelping vocals. Oh, and unless you’re Jerry Lee Lewis, take away the piano too...Little Richard comes pretty close.

It may help to see and hear some examples of Rockabilly songs and artists and with that, here is a brief list:

Billy Lee Riley - Red Hot
Bill Haley - R-O-C-K
Buddy Holly - That’ll Be The Day
Carl perkins - Blue Suede Shoes
Charlie Feathers - That Certain Female
Collins Kids - Whistle Bait
Dale Hawkins - Suzie Q
Elvis Presley - Mystery Train
Johnny Burnette - Rockbilly Boogie
Ronnie Dee(Dawson) - Action Packed
Rose Maddox - Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Low
Wanda Jackson - Fujiama Mama



The term Rockabilly is an obvious compound of Rock and ‘Hillbilly’, which is essentially a term for Bluegrass music. The term has a few different stories to its origins. The first time Rockabilly was ever in print on a record was in 1956 in Johnny Burnette’s single, ‘Rock Billy Boogie.’ You can trace this back to Alan Freed(the DJ who also created the term Rock ‘n’ Roll), says Burnette Trio’s guitarist Paul Burlison, “The first person I heard call it that was Alan Freed. He kept saying ‘all you rockabilly guys’-this was 1956-and ever since then we started calling it ‘rockabilly’.”

Some think that Sam Phillips, legendary Sun Recordings creator, created the term, however, he says differently, “I had nothing to do with it...I think it was a slam at country music and at Rock ‘n’ Roll and I still don’t like it.

Whether or not the term was originally a negative or positive term, it has become widely accepted. Rockabilly declined after its original heyday, but came back around in the mid 70s and 80 with revivalists who were eager to create something different than what was out in the music world.

The scene didn't break big until the band the Stray Cats hit. Although there were numerous other bands that came out around the same time that mixed Rockabilly with newer sounds and song structures to form what is known as Psychobilly. Bands like The Reverend Horton Heat, The Cramps, and The Meteors all created new scenes by blending the old with the new. These bands are still around today. They have continued to play numerous festivals and tours, and have a huge cult following to back them.

Even though Rockabilly has changed, there is definitely no sign of it going away. "There is enough cultural importance in Rockabilly music...there will be more opportunities to perpetuate it and preserve it in other ways," says Texas State Faculty member Dee Lannon. Dee has been in a few different Rockabilly acts and has traveled around the world playing Rockabilly, and brushing shoulders with the like of Rose Maddox, The Collins Kids and the Reverend Horton Heat. Originally from California, she says the rockabilly retro movement in that area originally intersected with swing music causing a multitude of shows to see and a variety of music to hear, which as Dee says, "we were really running the gamett." She also feels that with any form of art you always have a progression of precursor and developing art that feeds off of previous styles, "and that's where the real richness of looking at music as a measure of cultural history...is in that progression."

With the multitude of sub-genres of Rockabilly and the constantly changing nature of the music, as in any art, it won't fade out, but will echo the past and evolve to the future until the end of the road.

"Rockabilly is basically all about the energy," says Texas State Faculty member Dee Lannon.