![hillbillys playing rock roll hillbillys playing rock roll](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ecu1fHwhpB0/hqdefault.jpg)
Copying, also of extracts, or any other form of reproduction, including the adaptation into electronic data bases and copying onto any data mediums, in English or in any other language is permissible only and exclusively with the written consent of Bear Family Records® GmbH. But good or bad, they all remind us just how potent a force rock & roll was in the early days, and how even well-established Popsters believed they had to change to survive.Ĭopyright © Bear Family Records®. Others may draw a well-deserved snicker after all these years. You'll marvel at how good some of them were. Many of these tracks – by both the famous and the not-so-famous – have become quite rare. For the first time, B EAR F AMILY has col- lected some vintage performances by Popsters who tried their best to pass themselves off as rockers. Some Popsters were equipped to adapt and did a fine job of it.
![hillbillys playing rock roll hillbillys playing rock roll](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/o7UwQGRmO9Y/maxresdefault.jpg)
Popsters were faced with the same career-altering choice that affected the Hill- billies in Volumes 1 and 2: Do we fight 'em or join 'em? Many Popsters hated it and privately made fun of it, while at the same time they saw their record sales plummet and their radio play and personal appearances affected. This took place during the early to mid-1950s, before anybody knew whether it was just a fad that would blow over or something that truly threatened to re- volutionize popular music. Volumes 3 and 4 follow the early struggle by Popsters, including Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, the Mills Brothers, Perry Como and Law- rence Welk, who tried to come to terms with rock 'n' roll's challenge to traditional pop music. Country musicians wondered, "Do we fight it or join it?" They did both as the new music began to spread. Tradi- tional American music battling against stylistic and economic pressures that threatened to engulf it. The re- sults are all fascinating: the story of a genre struggling to hold its own against enormous forces of change in the 1950s. Some were very successful others were less so. We have collected a variety of examples of country musicians making the transition into rock 'n' roll. On two volumes of 'They Tried To Rock' you will hear music with these and other stories behind it. They're exciting – maybe you can find some like-minded musicians out there and work some of these new sounds into your own style. You're a young country musician and you hear some new sounds, perhaps on the radio, that grab your attention. You can always get off again if you don't like it. You don't want this train to go by without you getting on board. That's a lot of money and a whole new audience. These crazy rock 'n' roll records are selling in the millions. You're a little older than most of the kids who are doing this stuff, but so what? If you have a receding hairline nobody's gonna see it over the radio.
![hillbillys playing rock roll hillbillys playing rock roll](https://www.bear-family.de/media/image/c9/e2/7b/2500007002765a.jpg)
You're starting to get pressure from your record label – maybe it's worth trying just for the hell of it. What are you going to do? You listen to it. But people are starting to ask for it at your appearances. Everything is just humming along and then all of a sudden – there's this whole new style. You're writing songs, recording songs, selling re- cords.