The History of Casinos and Rock and Roll
The casino industry has a long history with music. However, the style of music played is often dictated by societal trends. Throughout the years, casinos have been linked with all kinds of music genres, from jazz to techno to pop and rock and roll and, of course, metal.
How did rock and roll become part of casino culture?
Casinos experienced a surge in popularity during the 1950s which coincided with a rise in mainstream jazz music. This meant casinos were playing pre-recorded background music by famous jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday.
As time went on and as music became a more important part of the whole gambling experience, casinos started replacing pre-recorded music by bringing in live musicians. This became — and still remains — a popular choice among many Las Vegas casinos.
Gambling in Las Vegas began in the late 1800s. Since then, it has grown exponentially, and Las Vegas is now known to be the biggest casino industry city in the world. Over the years, casinos in Vegas, such as the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, have hosted live concerts from some of the biggest names in rock, including the king himself — Elvis Presley. This paved the way for new and influential companies to carry the torch and continue the movement.
Hard Rock International – A brief history
Today, Hard Rock International has venues in over 74 countries. These venues include casinos, hotels and cafes. Across these venues, Hard Rock International hosts more than 15,000 live music events per year, but it didn’t start out this way.
Back in 1971, a couple of Americans, Peter Morton and Isaac Tigrett, were craving a real American burger, but couldn’t manage to find one anywhere in London. This gave them the inspiration for the first Hard Rock Café — an American style diner that served up a mean burger located on Old Park Lane.
It wasn’t until a couple of years later in 1973 that Hard Rock Café hosted its first live music event. This impromptu concert was performed by none other than Paul McCartney & Wings.
However, it wasn’t until many years down the road, in 1995, that the first Hard Rock Hotel and Casino opened in Las Vegas. This rock and roll-themed casino boasts its own 4000-seat rock club that regularly hosts mega stars such as The Killers and Avenged Sevenfold — check out this insane light show set to Avenged Sevenfold’s ‘Nightmare’ set up by a fan nearby.
Hard Rock’s memorabilia collection
Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is also home to one of the greatest rock memorabilia collections in the world. This collection all started with a bit of boyish banter between two rock legends.
The story goes that Eric Clapton used to be a regular visitor to the original London Hard Rock Café and got to know the owners quite well. One day, Clapton asked Tigrett if he would hang his guitar over a bar stool to “mark his spot.”
A week later, it’s said, a package arrived in the post and inside was another guitar with a note. The note read “Mine’s as good as his! Love, Pete,” written by none other than the famous guitarist of The Who, Pete Townsend.
Since that day, Hard Rock International has managed to acquire over 80,000 pieces of memorabilia with more being added every day. Some of the pieces include Michael Jackson’s red “Beat It” jacket, John Lennon’s glasses, Madonna’s “Like A Virgin” wedding dress, Jimi Hendrix’s Flying V guitar and Elvis Presley’s 24-karat gold leaf grand piano.
Rock and roll’s continuing influence on casino games
Nowadays, online casinos are finding humorous and entertaining topics to base their games around. You can find slot games themed around almost anything — fruit, superheroes, the supernatural, mythology, movie stars and music legends.
It’s not that surprising that there are an array of casino games that have been inspired by various rock stars and decorated with caricatures such as Jimi Hendrix, Guns N’ Roses, Megadeth and Motorhead, each typically playing the artists music. There are plenty of themed casino games to choose from online, and you can find the different games with live dealers here.
Rock and roll is probably one of the most common music themes for online casino games due to the rich history between casinos and rock and roll. From live casino performances by Elvis Presley and Paul McCartney to slot game caricatures, casinos and rock and roll go together like Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox.
