What Is Rockabilly?

I hear a lot about rockabilly and while I don’t really care much about labels, I’m gonna share some of my thoughts on what it means to me.

It seems to have become synonymous with retro.

Rockabilly is NOT burlesque.

Rockabilly is music that combined the dirt poor sounds of hillbilly with rhythm ‘n’ blues (also known as rock ‘n’ roll) hence the name Rock-Billy.

As a music form it was marginalised and was able to explore themes that could not be expressed in the radio friendly pop market.

Because rockabilly was rarely popular, it did not need to worry about conforming to trends and so was able to continue in it’s underground form. Therefore, there was no rockabilly revival, as it never really died.