in Cleveland, where Alan Freed was a DJb.) "Rocking" was also used to describe the spiritual rapture felt by worshippers at certain religious events, and to refer to the rhythm often found in the accompanying music. A craze began in the rhythm and blues market for songs about "rocking", including "We're Gonna Rock" by Wild Bill Moore, the first commercially successful "honking" sax record, with the words "We're gonna rock, we're gonna roll" as a background chant. in the jazz-inflected writings of the Beats Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouacd.) At the same time, younger black musicians such as Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley took advantage of the gradual breakdown of ethnic barriers in America to become equally popular and help launch the rock and roll era. The song became much more successful the following year when recorded by Wynonie Harris, whose version changed the steady blues rhythm to an uptempo gospel beat, and it was re-recorded by Elvis Presley in 1954 as his second single. Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Where did rock and roll originate? “The Million Dollar Quartet” (from left to right: Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash). Black vocal groups such as the Dominoes and the Spaniels began combining gospel-style harmonies and call-and-response singing with earthy subject matter and more aggressive rhythm-and-blues rhythms. Why do we call it rock ‘n’ roll? However, many claim that Chuck Berry is the real King of Rock & Roll, not Elvis Presley. April 6, 2016 Alan Cross 3 Comments Ian Dury, Life Magazine, Memes, Sex and Drugs and Rock'n'Roll, Spectator. “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” (1954) Just as Big Joe Turner provided the source for "Rock the Joint," so he did again for "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" a few years later. [28] She changed Dorsey's "singing" to "swinging," and the way she rolled the "R" in "rock me" led to the phrase being taken as a double entendre, with the interpretation as religious or sexual.[29]. [146] Sister Rosetta Tharpe also was recording shouting, stomping music in the 1930s and 1940s, such as "Strange Things Happening Every Day" (1944), that in some ways contained major elements of mid-1950s rock and roll. Its roots are a complex tangle. the unique rock songs have been basically blues performed speedier and louder than customary. Paul Leslie and Slim Nadine respectively. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, an early use of the word "rock" in describing a style of music was in a review in Metronome magazine on July 21, 1938, which stated that "Harry James' "Lullaby in Rhythm" really rocks. [27] In 1935, Henry "Red" Allen recorded "Get Rhythm in Your Feet and Music in Your Soul" which included the lyric "If Satan starts to hound you, commence to rock and roll / Get rhythm in your feet..." The lyrics were written by the prolific composer J. Russel Robinson with Bill Livingston. [37] It was covered in 1948 by Wynonie Harris in a wilder version, in which "rocking" was ostensibly about dancing but was in fact a thinly veiled allusion to sex. Asked By adminstaff @ 10/12/2019 08:56 AM. For my money, this is the first rock and roll recording. 5 on the US pop chart), "Roll over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), refined and developed the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, focusing on teen life and introducing guitar intros and lead breaks that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music. Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. "[148], Music genre that emerged as a defined musical style in the United States in the early 1950s, "History of rock and roll" redirects here. So I became very noted for it and then everybody else started to pick up on it and away it went. [121] Its characterization as a rock and roll or rhythm and blues song continues to be debated. Rock and Roll dancing is actually swing dancing. This "jump blues" encompassed both novelty records, such as those by Jordan, and more heavily rhythmic recordings such as those by Lionel Hampton. Freed first started playing the music in 1951, and by 1953 the phrase "rock and roll" was becoming used much more widely to market the music beyond its initial black audience. As well as "rocking" rhythm and blues songs, such as the massively successful and influential "Rocket 88" recorded by Ike Turner and his band but credited to singer Jackie Brenston, the term was used to encompass other forms of black music. John Lee Hooker was another blues musician that did the same thing. The Pentecostal church has also been identified as a crucial component in the development of rock and roll. The social and economic changes that took place in America during and just after the Second World War contributed to its birth. [117][failed verification] Wynonie Harris' 1947 cover of Roy Brown's "Good Rocking Tonight" is also a claimant for the title of first rock and roll record, as the popularity of this record led to many answer songs, mostly by black artists, with the same rocking beat, during the late 1940s and early 1950s. 2004. [2], At around the same time, the terminology was used in secular contexts, for example to describe the motion of railroad trains. [124][125] Others have taken the view that the first was Roy Brown's "Good Rocking Tonight", or Wynonie Harris' 1948 version; the song received greater exposure when Elvis Presley covered it in 1954. Rock & roll music began in the 1950s. in Elvis Presley's blend of blues, country, and gospel New styles of music emerged among black Americans in the early 20th century in the form of blues, ragtime, jazz, and gospel music. (2016). When Americans think of rock 'n' roll, most tend to associate the origins of the music genre with the "King of Rock and Roll" Elvis Presley. [19][44], In 1947, blues singer Roy Brown recorded "Good Rocking Tonight", a song that parodied church music by appropriating its references, including the word "rocking" and the gospel call "Have you heard the news? [2] Examples include an 1821 reference, "... prevent her from rocking and rolling ...",[3] and an 1835 reference to a ship "... rocking and rolling on both beam-ends". [45], Although some of the rhythm and blues musicians who had been successful in earlier years – such as Joe Turner, Ruth Brown, and Fats Domino who had his first R&B hit in 1950 – made the transition into new markets, much of the initial breakthrough into the wider pop music market came from white musicians, such as Haley, Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, re-recording earlier rhythm and blues hits, often making use of technological improvements in recording and innovations such as double tracking, developed by the large mainstream record companies, as well as the invention of the 45-rpm record and the rapid growth of its use in jukeboxes. [19][43] According to the writer Robert Palmer: "Rock 'n' roll was an inevitable outgrowth of the social and musical interactions between blacks and whites in the South and Southwest. Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey Last Night's a book about some of the ways in which music became popular, and artists earned fans.Many rock artists and groups depended a great deal on radio—and later, club—disc jockeys to promote their sound. but rock was born in the states [46], Another white singer, Johnnie Ray, who began to achieve success in the early 1950s, has also been called a major precursor to what became rock'n'roll, for his jazz and blues-influenced music, and his animated stage personality. [117] People in the music industry have also called it the first, among several others. [117] According to The Boston Globe's Joan Anderman, most rock historians cite it as the first,[118] while The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll and the website of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said that it is "frequently cited" and "widely considered the first", respectively. 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