A British youth subculture that first appeared in the 1950s; mainly from unskilled backgrounds, they adopted a pseudo-Edwardian dress code and rock’n’roll music.
My mother has long bragged that she was present at the first live performance of "Rock Around the Clock" performed by Bill Haley and the Comets. I’ve always thought that was pretty cool. An amusing comment she also frequently has made (paraphrased) "is Who the hell was Buddy Holly?" As someone who followed Rock and Roll pretty attentively during the 1950s my mother found it alarming to learn of Buddy Holly’s existence during the 1980s. She never heard of him! I am no student of that era but I think for some people Buddy Holly falls into the same category as a group like The Band, an influential group among other musicians but not particularly well known by their name. The poet Elizabeth Bishop is sometimes described in a similar way: The poet’s poet. The Band was the band’s band. I believe it was Joan Didion who described Norman Mailer as "essential."
