Abstract:
The bass guitar became a permanent part of the instrumental ensemble in rock and pop music in a very short period of time during the 1950s and 1960s. After initially imitating the elementary double bass techniques typical of these genres, bassists found new ways to develop their part. This was manifested, for example, in the use of denser, more irregular or syncopated rhythms, freer melodic solutions or jazz chromaticisms. Rock and pop music thus gained a new face in the 1960s thanks to the significant contribution of new ways of playing the bass guitar. This is illustrated in more detail by the analysis of three selected innovative bass guitar lines of the second half of the 1960s, which can be considered British and American musicians such as Jack Bruce, James Jamerson and Paul McCartney.