Rock and roll has come a long way since 1952, when music icon Sam Phillips created it. Sam Phillips is considered the father of Rock and Roll. He went against the social norm of segregated music and made the music he felt needed to be made. Even in the face of criticism that ended his career, Phillips continued to make history. Sam Phillips is not only responsible for the origin of the seemingly eternal Rock and Roll movement, but he also segregated the music amidst all kinds of cultural upheaval with civil rights. Sam Phillips is considered a musical revolutionary who, despite adversity, changed the world forever. Samuel Cornelius Phillips was born in 1923 in Florence, Alabama, to a family of tenant farmers (Sam Phillips Obituary. 3). He grew up listening to his parents' songs. , mostly black, colleagues' songs as they tended the cotton fields. Phillips said he "felt an awakening of [his] spirit when [he] heard the singing of the African Americans who worked alongside him." This early exposure to racial equality remained with him for the rest of his years. When Phillips grew up, he took a job as a disc jockey for an "open format" radio station (Sam Phillips Bio. 2). He experienced firsthand the reaction of listeners to black rhythm and blues, and this led him to found Sun Records. Sam Phillips founded Sun Records in 1952 in the heart of Memphis' black music scene. Sun Records was created in an effort to “develop new and diverse artists, achieve freedom in music, and record people who were not being exploited; despite the boundaries” (Sam Phillips Bio. 5) Furthermore, the task at hand is not easily accomplished. For the music to be a hit, it had to be a hit within the white community. The......middle of paper......barriers broken down. What better way to understand what is unknown to you than by appreciating other people's emotional experiences? And how better can these emotions be represented than through music?” (Impact of rock and roll on America 4). This philosophy established by Phillips helped transform a segregated culture into an equal culture by uniting everyone through music. In conclusion, Sam Phillips transformed the world in two ways. He created a revolutionary genre of music that went against everything people knew and succeeded. As well as playing a primary role in the integration of popular music with Rock and Roll. Sam Phillip has crossed every boundary that dared to hinder him to guarantee everyone the freedom of expression through music. Phillips overcame the challenges of social authority to redefine racial equality and freedom of expression.
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