Rock music roll. Commentators have traditionally perceived a decline of rock and roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1959, the death of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash, the departure of Elvis for the army, the retirement of Little Richard to become a preacher, prosecutions of Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry and the breaking of the payola scandal (which implicated major figures, including Alan Freed, in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs), gave a sense that the rock and roll era established at that point had come to an
The Big Bopper throttle shortly after takeoff about 5 miles outside Mason City in the middle of farm country. The reason remains unknown, but Peterson may have lost his visual reference and thought that he was ascending while he was actually descending. It is also possible that he had mechanical problems and was attempting to turn back toward Mason City. The right wingtip of the Beechcraft Bonanza sliced into the frozen ground and sent the aircraft cartwheeling across a cleared cornfield at approximately 170 mph. Holly, Valens, and Richardson were ejected from the plane on impact and probably tumbled along with the wreckage