Ten great genre songs about songs and genres

ROCK & ROLL – “ROCK & ROLL MUSIC” by Chuck Berry (1957)

May as well begin with one of the seminal songs from the genre that would come to dominate western popular music in the latter half of the 20th century. Berry recorded “Rock and Roll Music” in 1957 and gave a blueprint for what this new type of music would be. The boogie-woogie piano dominated the orchestration, but the guitar was prominent as well.

Aware of this changing-of-the-guard moment, Berry references other forms from jazz to tango before declaring rock and roll and it’s unmistakable backbeat as the wave of the present. Within a decade, the biggest bands on either side of the Atlantic – the Beatles and the Beach Boys – would confirm Berry’s opinion with their covers of the song.

FUNK – “DANCE TO THE MUSIC” by Sly & the Family Stone (1968)

Sylvester Stewart began as a disk jockey and record producer who, from the very beginning of his career, blended black soul music with white rock & roll to create some of the earliest forms of fusion in the modern era. By the time he began fronting his own interracial, wildly eclectic band under the name Sly Stone, the world of popular music was exploding. Stone was one of the visionaries who lit the fuse.

On his second album, the title track was a loose, improvisational lesson in how to play funk. He literally does a role call – beginning with drummer Greg Errico, then brother Freddie Stone on guitar. Next, bass player extraordinaire Larry Graham pours on the funk when he joins the mix, followed by Sly himself on organ. And finally, his horn players – Cynthia Robinson and Jerry Martini – arrive and the song becomes a joyful collection of funk virtuosos, all doing their own thing while somehow remaining cohesive.