I am doing a speech on Buddy Holly, but i can't find any information about what musicians inspired him or what type of music inspired him. Can anyone here help? thanks.

Buddy had many musical influences, and it's probably easiest to outline them from his earliest days... His older brothers, Larry and Travis, were already playing Country & Western (Hillbilly) music when Buddy came into the world in 1936, and his hometown of Lubbock, Texas was the buckle in the bible belt. So, Buddy's first exposure to music was pretty much along those lines---Country/Western and Gospel music.

As a little kid, Buddy played piano, violin and guitar (concentrating on the guitar as he grew older). By the time he was a teen, and although he had also tried banjo and mandolin, the guitar was his instrument of choice---he showed considerable talent playing rhythm and lead, as well as a great deal of style early on.

Throughout his teens, Buddy tuned in radio stations from the West, Midwest and South and followed pop music---this included Western Swing (such as Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys), Country (such as Hank Williams), Rhythm & Blues (such as Fats Domino and Clarence Henry), Rockabilly (such as Carl Perkins), as well as ballad, doo-wop, Latino, and Cajun music.

But Buddy's life changed when he heard a new kind of music that combined elements of the others...it was Rock & Roll. It's easy to see the influence of Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddly in Buddy's music.

However, Buddy was very inspired by the stage presence of Elvis Presley, and it's fair to say that when Elvis appeared in Lubbock, Buddy made a firm decision on the direction of his career... Buddy Holly had the talent, he had the style, and he had a good ear for music. Most importantly, Buddy was meticulous about composing, arranging and performing his own work. Even Elvis couldn't do that.

But, much more than simply copying the styles of other artists, Buddy blended them into his own unique style. Incidentally, Buddy actually created a new style of music---based on his musical background in West Texas, it was sort of a combination of Western and Latino music, a style that came to be known as the Tex-Mex Sound. It's a distinctly different kind of music that has continued to evolve since Buddy introduced it.

I think the best examples of Buddy's Tex-Mex Sound can be found in the songs "Heartbeat," "Listen to Me," and "Take Your Time"... These and most of the rest of Buddy's original songs don't sound like anything else that came out of the 1950s. They're timeless, just as good today as back then.

Hope that helps.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Charles Austin,

Sonny Curtis talks of a time when black music wasn't accepted, and I guess the only time to hear that sort of music was late at night. So guess where Buddy was almost every night? In his car, or someone else's car, listening to the broadcast from Shreveport, Lousiana, when the black music was broadcast. Like Charles Austin said, not just one type of music influenced Buddy Holly. Yet Buddy found a beautiful way of winding and entwining all those musics together.

here are but a few of Buddy's influences - some have previously been mentioned:

Hank Ballard and the Midnighters
Fats Domino
Hank Williams Sr.
Bo Diddley
Elvis Presley
Bill Haley and the Comets
Marty Robbins
Buddy Knox
Carl Perkins
Little Richard
Chuck Berry
Ray Charles
Ben Hall

like all great artists, Holly paid close attention to every bit of music he ever heard and every artist that he ever encountered. and elements of all of it influenced him, to one degree or another.

as Mr. Austin pointed out above -

quote:

....Buddy's original songs don't sound like anything else that came out of the 1950s. They're timeless, just as good today as back then.