Rock 'n Riots

For those living in the Northern Hemisphere,21 March means the official arrival of spring. Since 1999 it is also- I gather- World Poetry Day, so for those of you fond of poetry this is also an interesting day and another reason to celebrate. On top of that, every 21 March is specially celebrated by Kurdish, Iranian and other Central Asian communities as it marks the arrival of their New Year. I always thought that this was a pretty wise and exciting  way of starting a new year; celebrating the arrival of spring rather than winter seems to me much better and great fun too. 'Biji Newroz' to my Kurdish friends, if they are reading this. Plenty of things to write about but as this blog focuses on English-related stuff,  today T&S wants to write about one of those days where we look back and find that, on such a day sixty years ago, history was being made.Musical history,more precisely. In effect, the first ever official rock concert was staged on 21 March 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio, and it ended in chaos. A white radio DJ, Alain Freed and Leo Mintz, an African-American community leader, organised this pioneering event that attracted thousands of people, many of them without a ticket due to a printing mistake. 20,000 people for a venue that could hold half that number was a recipe for disaster. After a few songs, the event had to be cancelled but Rock 'n Roll  was already an unstoppable force.This revolutionary and sassy style was gathering pace and supporters at great speed. Rock 'n Roll was about to leave the fringes and become a social phenomenon soon.
For younger generations, it may hard to believe that at the time of the Red Scare in the US, Rock n' Roll was considered  blasphemous and undesirable by the authorities.
21 March 1952 laid the foundations for what we now take for granted: gigs, festivals,stardom, merchandising and everything that goes with the world of rock music. A far cry from what happened all those years ago in that event named Moondog Coronation Ball.