Rock music originated in the 1950s as rock and roll developed from genres like blues and country music. It is characterized by electric guitars, bass guitar, and drums in a typical verse-chorus form. Conventions of rock music include song lengths of 5-8 minutes compared to the average pop song of 3 minutes. The genre has a large, primarily male audience aged 16-24. Key artists include Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and albums like Elvis Presley's debut album and The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St. Rock music is covered across media like radio stations, websites, and rock music festivals.

1. Codes and Conventions

2. a. What are the codes and conventions of this genre?
 Conventions
 Some conventions of rock music is the length of
songs, the average song is about 3 minutes
meanwhile rock songs tend to be 5 to 8 minutes.
Another convention is the way the artist may look,
they may dress in black to seem violent.

3.  Codes
 A symbolic code may be the horn sign hand symbol as
its a well known symbol for rock. Also the use of
dressing in black, piercings, tattoos, metal studs and
black eyeliner is also a code.
 Another code is how the artists are always in groups
and bands,usually playing rock instruments like
electric guitar and drums.

4.  b. What magazines for it are there
 ?Some magazines for the rock music genre are
Kerrang!, Decibel, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer ,
Revolver , Guitar World and Rock Sound.

5.  c. Is this a main genre, sub genre or hybrid genre?
 Rock is a main genre.

6.  d. How wide is the audience?
 Rock music has a large audience. In 2009 25.7% of
music sold globally was rock, it followed pop, which
had the most sales with 29.2%. The audience is
largely male; this may be because most of the artists
within this genre are male, which links to the idea of
us liking music, which we can relate ourselves to,
which, in this case, is being male. The average age for
this genre is 16-24 year olds. This is because the
stereotypical lifestyle is often associated with youth,
and the younger generation are more likely to use the
genre as a way to rebel.

7.  e. Define and categorize the genre?
 . – What distinguishes it?"A form of popular music
which evolved from rock and roll and other music
genres during the mid to late 1960s. It is harsher and
often self-consciously more serious than its
predecessors, it was initially characterized by musical
experimentation and drug-related or anti-establishment
lyrics."

8.  f. History of the genre, from its beginning.
 "Rock music is a genre of popular music that originated as "rock and
roll" in the United states, in the 1950s, and developed into a range of
different styles in the 1960s and later, particularly in the United
Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s' and 1950s'
rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and
blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a
number of other genres such as blues and folk, and incorporated
influences from jazz, classical and other musical sources.Musically,
rock has centered on the electric, usually as part of a rock
music with electric base guitar and drums. Typically, rock is song-based
music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse-chrous
form, but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music,
lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of
other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis."

9.  g. Key artists, albums, songs and record labels of the
genre?Some key artists of the genre are Bob Dylan, ‘The Rolling
Stones’, Elvis Presley, and ‘The Who’. Some key albums are
Elvis Presley’s self titled album, The Rolling Stone’s ‘ Exile on
Main St.’ Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Are you experienced?’ and John
Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. Some of the key songs include Elvis
Presley’s ‘Are Lonesome Tonight’ of 1975, Rick Derringer’s
‘Lawyers. Guns and Money’ of 1978, and John Hiatt’s ‘I Could
Use an Angel’ 1982. The artist with the most sales are The best
selling artists of all time all wrote music in the rock genre, The
Beatles, with 600 million sales, Elvis Presley, also with 600
million, Micheal Jackson, with 400 million sales, Madonna with
300 million, Elton John, again with 300 million, Led Zeppein, with
also 300 million and Pink Floyd with 250 million sales, this
supports the idea of rock being a very popular genre of music.
Some record labels for rock music are ‘Fearless Records’,
‘Epitaph Records’ and ‘Fueled By Ramen’.

10.  j. Cross media.
 The media also covers the genre in TV stations such
as Scuzz, radio stations, such as Planet Rock, Rock
Radio and TotalRock Radio, websites, such as Rock
Loudwire, Rock Expert, Films, such as ‘AC/DC: Let
There Be Rock’ of 1980 and ‘Pink Floyd: The Wall’ of
1982, and events, such as Crue Fest, Download
Festival, Lollapalooza, Ozzfest, Projekt Revolution,
Reading Festival, Rock on the Range, Rockstar
Mayhem Festival and Roskilde Festival.