Part 1

I have started at the beginning of rock and roll and what I have found so far is quite interesting. What we view now as "Rock & Roll" is quite a different type of music from the origanal form of the genre. I have come to discover the racistness of the beginning of the rock and roll movement in the fifties and sixties. Also that drugs were not a major starting point for rock and roll.
The other thing i found quite intriguing is that some people say that rock&roll is now dead, and has been since Big Joe Turner, Fats Domino, Bill Haley, the Midnighters, and Bo Diddley almost 50 yrs ago. I find this interesting because its true. That specific form of music is indeed dead but what it started was a movement unlike any other seen in recent culture in the past century. The affects of their music started something that sparked a global uprise [in the fifties], a passion for protest and proclamation of rights [sixties/early seventies], and so much more.

"Rock and roll was seen as a menace to society by many in the fifties...[it] was overtly racist....the very fact that much of the music was derived from black tradition was frequently raised as an issue."
"On the other hand, rock and roll was also considered by many to be simply a fad, the latest in a long line of trivialities embraced by whimsical youth.....[e.g.]The Beatles were dismissed for many years..." - Quotes from Jack Santino[from his artical off of The World and I site]

That was the earliest oppinion of rock and roll. Before Elvis, the Beatles, before the major rock stars and the drugs, rock and roll was just a way of rebellion and the adult generation of that time thought it only a "fad" and that this rebellion of the teenage youth would soon end. Only, in reality, this so-called fad gained momentum and became to encompass somthing that no one saw coming. This movement came to represent the raw and harsh feelings of an entire youthful nation fueled by drugs, sex, and [of course] music all piled into one form. Some say that is rock and roll right there. That feeling of breaking free, and if the drugs were what fueled that feeling then it seemed to be ok.
Drugs didnt take any real part of the spotlight of this new music culture until Elvis. Elvis was the beginning of the mainstream obsession of rock idols. Well he was the King. Of course there was drug use many yrs prior to Elvis, im sure in rock but also in other forms of music as well. But Elvis was the first real person that threatened the generation with the idea of mind ultering drugs. I know that Ray Charles was one of the earlier ones that was in the public eye with a severe drinking problem later on but he was not connected as well with the younger generation as Elvis. And, well, he was black and at that time that was a major contributing factor that the general public saw. There was also Johnny Cash. Now he was around the same time as younger Elvis and really they somewhat started doing the heavier drugs at the same time but Cash was hitting the Country demographic as opposed to the Rock and roll side of the spectrum.
So with Elvis the drug "illusion" began. I say illusion because people thought he was on drugs way before he ever actually was an addict to heavy drugs or really even used them. It was because of his actions and the way he sang, what he sang about. It was because he was a "threat" to what the adult generation at the time believed was a completely well functioning society...and it certainly didnt need this stuff called rock and roll.

"I remember seeing Elvis Presley..in 1956.....watching him on television, I was fascinated by the performance and my sisters loved him, but my parents decided he was 'on dope.' 'Look at his eyes!' my mother said, as if offering proof...Actually, despite Presley's later addiction to drugs, at that time he was not 'on' anything. But he managed to divide parents from children with his looks, and his stage movements. At that moment in 1956, a generation gap was created." - Jack Santino[off of the World and I site]

(From there Santio leads off into The Beatles and their connection to Michael Jackson but im not here to talk about MJ yet. [Besides he only had one good album, Thriller, and its nothing compared to the Jackson Five stuff he had.])

So i think the general beginning opinion of rock and roll really created a culture shock on the people of the US especially the older generation. The drugs were really just starting to be expieremented with and it was just a new phase that people werent ready for. But hey they still love Elvis and every other possible band that had drug influence as part of their deal and well thats a lot of bands out there.