Originally Posted by: LeedoggHow'd the genre get its name? Is it like a cross between rock and hillbilly music?


my best guess.

Rockabilly was where rock was born man. It took country (or hillbilly if you prefer) and comebined it with blues boogie patterns, cranked it up to 200-250 BPM and took off! Rockabilly was the style of the music oif Elvis (or Scotty Moore, his guitarist) and of course, he's one of the prime originators. A lot of rockabilly wasn't so much the playing as the attitude. It was the first form of rebellion for the new generation of kids.

Whereas the older generation preferred jazz and blues over their parents church music, the new one preferred rock 'n' roll to their parents jazz and blues!