Rock music today is universal and its popular history is well known. Yet few know how and why it really came about. Taking a fresh look at events long overlooked or misunderstood, this book tells how some of the most disenfranchised people in a free and prosperous nation strove to make themselves heard—and changed the world. Describing the genesis of rock and roll, the author covers everything from its deep roots in the Mississippi Delta, key early figures, like deejay "Daddy-O" Dewey Phillips and gospel star Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and the influence of so-called "holy rollers" of the Pentecostal church who became crucial performers—Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.