Bill Haley in 1953

AN OBJECT LESSON is to listen to Joe Turner’s “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” and Bill Haley’s “Crazy Man Crazy.” Haley’s was jazzier, hipper, and more fun. The difference is that Haley was consciously creating a product. He remade his music in the same way he remade himself from a cowboy singer into, briefly, the hippest cat around.

The key thing Haley did to turn rhythmn and blues into pop was to speed up the pace. This immediately made the music attention-getting—a punch in the face. (The punks did the same thing to recharge rock in the 1970’s.)

One can recharge prose in the same way.