I'm having students learn a batch of songs in each of what I consider the major periods of Rock and Roll and in preparing the classes and digging deeper into a subject that I thought I had a pretty good handle on I'm discovering that there is a ton of really cool music and information to ingest.
Rock didn't spring into existence fully formed, so just getting a handle on the R&B, Blues, Country and Jazz influences that simmered together in the styles formation has been a great education. Just reading through this is pretty cool: http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_timeline-r1.html
It's a full band class so I have to teach (and usually play at some point) all of the instruments so I'm also getting a better idea of where those parts came from and what the people that we as guitarists usually ignore when we learn something like "Johnny B Goode" are playing
I think that it's probably a great thing for anyone who plays rock to step back and study since no matter what period of rock music your are influenced from you'll get a better idea of where your favorite players are coming from by studying their influences, their influences influences and so on.
Since this is an ongoing class I'll probably be blogging my experiences both in teaching the class and my own research to prepare the students. I've had to play a ton of these styles and songs over the years but never this comprehensively so a class that I thought would be a snap to teach is turning a bit into a research project/personal education, too....it's kind of nice to be challenged like this at work.
And yes, the picture is not of me but Jeff Garvin teaching another of our classes and I thought it looked cool