How Rock n’ Roll Became Part of Casino Culture

Rock n’ roll has been a staple of casino gaming around the world since the days of Elvis Presley, who was arguably the first mainstream rocker to hold down lucrative residencies in Las Vegas hotels and casinos.

While Presley is widely regarded as one of the trailblazers when it came to taking rock n’ roll music to casinos, he was far from the first musician to have performed live in the vicinity of a gaming floor.

Jazz, undoubtedly one of rock n’ roll’s biggest influences, was often either played live by artists like Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday, or recordings were played to gamers via casino sound systems.

However, once Presley came onto the scene in Las Vegas, the city and its casinos never looked back. They adopted rock n’ roll as its unofficial soundtrack, and other casino hubs around the world followed suit.

Hard Rock Café Hotels and Casinos

Perhaps one of the biggest purveyors of this cultural shift in the casino industry was the Hard Rock Café brand, which although it didn’t see the light of day until the 70s, realised the power that could still be harnessed by connecting people to the roots of Las Vegas gaming, music, and dining, wherever they might find themselves on the planet.

Today the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas remains one of the most iconic venues on the strip, despite having only opened its doors to the public in 1995. Because the franchise was first founded in the UK by two American entrepreneurs, its casino in Las Vegas boasts the best of both UK and US rock n’ roll.

Modern Rock Residencies Compete with Pop and Dance Music

Today the rock n’ roll landscape in casinos around the world is jumbled, as casinos look to diversify their music offerings and entertainment packages, attempting to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

This means that the top Las Vegas casino residencies tend to be taken up by DJs like Calvin Harris and pop acts like Adele.  This is not to say that rock n’ roll does not still have a place in Las Vegas casinos, although the acts given top billing tend to be those with a few years on the clock like Aerosmith, Carlos Santana, and Sting.

Rock n’ Roll Slots are Big Business

Aside from music still being integral to most major casino operations, be they online or offline, there is another obvious way that rock n’ roll is impacting casino gameplay.

That is in the number of slots which have been released, particularly online, bearing the names and branding of some of the world’s most iconic rock bands. These days it is almost a rite of passage as a platinum selling band to see your name up in lights as part of a fresh new slot title.

This means that most casino players can usually find a slot named after their favourite band, just as long as they are willing to look hard enough among the correctly themed slots titles.