roll over beethoven

So today I was having a really intense conversation with one of my friends.  She was explaining how much she enjoyed her class she had today that was about the history of rock music.  She went into thorough detail about how almost every kind of rock group has some classical blues influences.  She said how influential african american musicians were back in the 50's.  And i knew from previous knowledge that Elvis Presley, one of the most popular rock artist of all time, did many covers from african american artists. The sad thing was that Elvis knew what he was doing; He was making covers better and more famous than the originals.  She then carried on to why this happened.  The reason was because "african american" music wasn't accepted at the time and when a caucasian could sing just as well as the african artists then they usually made it big.  It's an interesting topic in general.  The influences for present day bands might surprise you.  If you are really into music research your favorite band's influences. Then once you read up on your favorite bands influences than listen to those bands and learn to expand your music availability.  It's a ritual i do almost daily and i would suggest to anyone who listens to any type of music.