Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll or rock 'n' roll) is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s,^[1][2] primarily from a combination of African-American genres such as blues, boogie woogie, jump blues, jazz, and gospel music,^[3] together with Western swing and country music.^[4] Though elements of rock and roll can be heard in blues records from the 1920s^[5] and in country records of the 1930s,^[4] the genre did not acquire its name until the 1950s.^[6][7]

The term "rock and roll" now has at least two different meanings, both in common usage: referring to the first wave of music that originated in the US in the 1950s and would later develop into the more encompassing international style known as "rock music", and as a term simply synonymous with the rock music and culture in the broad sense.^[8] For the purpose of differentiation, this article deals with the first definition.

In the earliest rock and roll styles of the late 1940s and early 1950s, either the piano or saxophone was often the lead instrument, but these were generally replaced or supplemented by guitar in the middle to late 1950s.^[9] The beat is essentially a blues rhythm with an accentuated backbeat, the latter almost always provided by a snare drum.^[10] Classic rock and roll is usually played with one or two electric guitars (one lead, one rhythm), a string bass or (after the mid-1950s) an electric bass guitar, and a drum kit.^[9] Beyond simply a musical style, rock and roll, as seen in movies and on television, influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language. In addition, rock and roll may have contributed to the civil rights movement because both African-American and white American teens enjoyed the music.^[11] It went on to spawn various genres, often without the initially characteristic backbeat, that are now more commonly called simply "rock music" or "rock".

The term "rock and roll" now has at least two different meanings, both in common usage. The American Heritage Dictionary^[12] and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary^[13] both define rock and roll as synonymous with rock music. Encyclopædia Britannica, on the other hand, regards it as the music that originated in the mid-1950s and later developed "into the more encompassing international style known as rock music".^[14]

The phrase "rocking and rolling" originally described the movement of a ship on the ocean,^[15] but was used by the early twentieth century, both to describe the spiritual fervor of black church rituals^[16] and as a sexual analogy. Various gospel, blues and swing recordings used the phrase before it became used more frequently – but still intermittently – in the 1940s, on recordings and in reviews of what became known as "rhythm and blues" music aimed at a black audience.^[16]

In 1934, the song "Rock and Roll" by Boswell Sisters appeared in the film Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round. In 1942, Billboard magazine columnist Maurie Orodenker started to use the term "rock-and-roll" to describe upbeat recordings such as "Rock Me" by Sister Rosetta Tharpe.^[17] By 1943, the "Rock and Roll Inn" in South Merchantville, New Jersey, was established as a music venue.^[18] In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing this music style while popularizing the phrase to describe it.^[19]

Main article: Origins of rock and roll

Bill Haley and his Comets performing "Rock Around the Clock" on TV in 1955

The origins of rock and roll have been fiercely debated by commentators and historians of music.^[20] There is general agreement that it arose in the Southern United States – a region which would produce most of the major early rock and roll acts – through the meeting of various influences that embodied a merging of the African musical tradition with European instrumentation.^[21] The migration of many former slaves and their descendants to major urban centers such as Memphis, New York City, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland and Buffalo (See: Second Great Migration (African American)) meant that black and white residents were living in close proximity in larger numbers than ever before, and as a result heard each other's music and even began to emulate each other's fashions.^[22][23] Radio stations that made white and black forms of music available to both groups, the development and spread of the gramophone record, and African American musical styles such as jazz and swing which were taken up by white musicians, aided this process of "cultural collision".^[24]

The immediate roots of rock and roll lay in the rhythm and blues, then called "race music",^[25] and country music of the 1940s and 1950s.^[20] Particularly significant influences were jazz, blues, gospel, country, and folk.^[20] Commentators differ in their views of which of these forms were most important and the degree to which the new music was a re-branding of African American rhythm and blues for a white market, or a new hybrid of black and white forms.^[26][27][28]

In the 1930s jazz, and particularly swing, both in urban based dance bands and blues-influenced country swing, was among the first music to present African American sounds for a predominantly white audience.^[27][29] The 1940s saw the increased use of blaring horns (including saxophones), shouted lyrics and boogie woogie beats in jazz based music. During and immediately after World War II, with shortages of fuel and limitations on audiences and available personnel, large jazz bands were less economical and tended to be replaced by smaller combos, using guitars, bass and drums.^[20][30] In the same period, particularly on the West Coast and in the Midwest, the development of jump blues, with its guitar riffs, prominent beats and shouted lyrics, prefigured many later developments.^[20] In the documentary film Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, Keith Richards proposes that Chuck Berry developed his brand of rock and roll, by transposing the familiar two-note lead line of jump blues piano directly to the electric guitar, creating what is instantly recognizable as rock guitar. Similarly, country boogie and Chicago electric blues supplied many of the elements that would be seen as characteristic of rock and roll.^[20]

Sign commemorating the role of Alan Freed and Cleveland, Ohio in the origins of rock and roll

Rock and roll arrived at a time of considerable technological change, soon after the development of the electric guitar, amplifier and microphone, and the 45 rpm record.^[20] There were also changes in the record industry, with the rise of independent labels like Atlantic, Sun and Chess servicing niche audiences and a similar rise of radio stations that played their music.^[20] It was the realization that relatively affluent white teenagers were listening to this music that led to the development of what was to be defined as rock and roll as a distinct genre.^[20]

Because the development of rock and roll was an evolutionary process, no single record can be identified as unambiguously "the first" rock and roll record.^[31] Contenders for the title of "first rock and roll record" include Goree Carter's "Rock Awhile" (1949);^[32] Jimmy Preston's "Rock the Joint" (1949), which was later covered by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1952;^[33] and "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (backed by Ike Turner and his band The Kings of Rhythm), recorded by Sam Phillips for Sun Records in March 1951.^[34] In terms of its wide cultural impact across society in the US and elsewhere, Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock",^[35] recorded in April 1954 but not a commercial success until the following year, is generally recognized as an important milestone, but it was preceded by many recordings from earlier decades in which elements of rock and roll can be clearly discerned.^[31][36][37] Other artists with early rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Gene Vincent.^[34] Chuck Berry's 1955 classic "Maybellene" in particular features a distorted electric guitar solo with warm overtones created by his small valve amplifier.^[38] However, the use of distortion was predated by Guitar Slim,^[39] Willie Johnson of Howlin' Wolf's band,^[40] and Pat Hare; the latter two also made use of distorted power chords in the early 1950s.^[36] In addition, Bo Diddley introduced a new beat and unique electric guitar style,^[41] heavily influenced by African music and in turn influencing many later artists.^[42][43][44]

Early rock and roll[edit]