Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music, and genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitar and vocals. Although it is unknown from where the term southern rock came, "many people feel that these important contributors to the development of rock and roll have been minimized in rock's history."

Rock music's origins lie mostly in the music of the American South, and many stars from the first wave of 1950s rock and roll such as Bo Diddley, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis hailed from the Deep South. However, the British Invasion and the rise of folk rock and psychedelic rock in the middle 1960s shifted the focus of new rock music away from the rural south and to large cities like Liverpool, London, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco.

In the late 1960s, traditionalists such as Canned Heat (from Los Angeles), Creedence Clearwater Revival (from Northern California), and The Band (Canadian, though drummer Levon Helm was a native Arkansan) revived interest to the roots of rock and to Southern themes in Americana. See also Muscle Shoals Music, Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.