Why Is Rock Music Called ‘Rock’?

Why is rock music referred to as rock?

Our writers, our readers and the entire followers you see on the live shows you go to all have a minimum of one factor in frequent — we’re all followers of rock music. “Rock” is brief for rock ‘n’ roll, which was a style that was derived from the rhythm and blues and nation artists of the a long time prior. Rock ‘n’ roll first turned in style within the U.S. within the late Nineteen Forties and early Fifties.

“Rock” by itself might be probably the most commonly-used phrases in our vocabulary, however do you ever surprise how the style received its identify within the first place? We’ve studied the origins of many subgenres, however the identify “rock” as a common class appears to be usually neglected.

So, the place did the time period “rock ‘n’ roll” come from?

Where Did the Term “Rock ‘n’ Roll” Originate?

As we already said, “rock” is brief for rock ‘n’ roll. The style’s identify got here from the phrase “rocking and rolling,” which, in keeping with BBC, was first utilized by sailors within the seventeenth century to explain the motion of a ship on the ocean.

Of course, a number of hundred years later, the phrase “rocking and rolling” turned a reference for dancing, and for intercourse. BBC cited American blues singer Trixie Smith’s 1922 music “My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)” for example of a music that makes use of the phrase as a metaphor for each intercourse and dancing.

The lyrics of the refrain are as follows [via Genius], “My man rocks me with onе steady roll / There’s no slippin’ whеn he once takes hold / I looked at the clock and the clock struck six / I said ‘Daddy, you know lots of tricks’ / Oh, he was rockin’ me with one steady roll.”

How Did ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ Become the Name of a Music Genre?

An early occasion the place “rock and roll” was used to explain music was when Billboard Magazine praised Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s 1938 observe “Rock Me” in a 1942 evaluation, writing, “It’s Sister Rosetta Tharpe for the Rock-and-Roll Spiritual Singing,” as famous by Produce Like a Pro. However, it did not turn into a extra widely-used time period till the next decade.

In the Fifties, music was nonetheless segregated for black and white audiences. Alan Freed, who hosted a radio present on WJW in Cleveland, Ohio, is credited as having been the primary DJ to introduce rhythm and blues music to a white viewers, calling it “rock and roll” within the meantime [via Time].

“Rock ’n roll is really swing with a modern name,” Freed as soon as mentioned [via Ultimate Classic Rock]. “It began on the levees and plantations, took in folk songs, and features blues and rhythm. It’s the rhythm that gets to the kids – they’re starved of music they can dance to, after all those years of crooners.”

Freed helped arrange a musical occasion that turned often called the Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland in 1952, which is now regarded by many because the first-ever rock ‘n’ roll live performance. Paul Williams and the Hucklebuckers and Tiny Grimes and the Rocking Highlanders had been chosen because the headliners for the occasion, which was really marketed as a dance, in keeping with History.

READ MORE: Why Is Metal Music Called ‘Metal’?

There was apparently solely a capability of 10,000 on the venue, and an estimated 20,000 plus individuals confirmed up and stormed it, so it was referred to as off by Cleveland officers.

Freed and the Moondog Coronation Ball are the explanation the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is positioned in Cleveland.