PositiveThe Milwaukee Journal Sentinel\"Ward is briskly informative about such economic and technological influences on the birth and growth of rock \'n\' roll, including how World War II scuttled the record industry with shellac shortages and brought Southerners north to get factory jobs ... The most casual fans of early rock \'n\' roll might thus wonder why Buddy Holly’s 1959 death in a plane crash moves him out of this history so swiftly that his career and life feel even shorter than they were, or why Presley’s budding relationship with the 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu gets paragraphs when a couple sentences would suffice. Mostly, however, Ward doesn’t put in or leave out too much, and his geographical shifts are well-timed.\
