Jersey Shore sound

The Jersey Shore sound is a genre of rock and roll popularized at the Jersey Shore on the Atlantic Ocean coast of New Jersey, United States, that goes by a variety of names or, more often, is defined by its artists. A synthesis of pre-Beatles rock and roll and pre-Motown rhythm and blues, the genre enjoyed a vogue from roughly the late 1960s through the mid-1980's, although it still exists today.

Origins

The Jersey Shore sound evolved from the mixing of pre-Beatles rock and roll, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, and the urban culture of the Mid-Atlantic states, especially Pennsylvania (more specifically Philadelphia), Maryland, Rhode Island, New York, and, of course, New Jersey. The form has a strong Italian-American influence, in as much as many of the form's key precursors and artists, from Frankie Valli through Bruce Springsteen, are of Italian ancestry and urban background.

Characteristics

Jersey Shore music shares two thematic elements with its contemporary (and in many respects related) genres of Heartland rock and Roots rock: a focus on the daily lives of people (in this case, those living in the stereotypically industrial society of Northern and Central Jersey), and a sense of being the underdog (a theme in the genre from The Four Seasons' "Rag Doll", "Walk Like a Man", and "Big Man in Town" and through Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town). The New Jersey sound has also been heavily influenced by Italian accordion music. In...
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