Rockabilly community - people living like it's 1951

[The Midway Rebel]

54. Good question. Its part marketing and part self described international subculture.

But you are correct about the original rockabillys, they were mostly poor rural Southerners. The term rockabilly was hurled as an insult by country music DJs and recording artists of the 1950s at the young white kids playing Black rhythm and blues music. That music and culture eventually morphed and was absorbed by American popular culture into what is now called rock n' roll.

All rockabilly is rock n' roll, but not all rock n' roll is rockabilly. The term "rockabilly" distinguishes the music and the style as it appeared in the 50s from what came after. Rockabilly/rock n' roll = Think Link Wray not Lincoln Park.


Guys like Chet Atkins and Frank Sinatra hated the new style. Music of the 1950s in America was jazz.

The current popular use of the term "rockabilly" arose with the revival of the style, which never really diminished in England, in the 1980s. Bands like the Stay Cats and the Rockats revived the style and infused it with punk rock energy and volume. Much of the culture emerged from the rockabilly music festivals in England in the 70s and 80s and migrated to Europe and the States. People were fanatical about the music style and that passion carries over into clothes, furniture cars, tattoos and what amounts to what some call a lifestyle. They don't say rockabilly rules for nothing. It always smolders in the background with shows, festivals, and touring band keeping the flame and occasionally it rears its head to gain the attention of the mainstream press and fashion industry.

This is rockabillys current "big thing" to crossover into the mainstream. He's been on Leno and Lettermen a few times.