during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues
, country, jazz
, and gospel music
. Though elements of rock and roll can be heard in country records of the 1930s, and in blues records from the 1920s, rock and roll did not acquire its name until the 1950s.
The term "rock and roll" now has at least two different meanings, both in common usage.
It's got a back-beat you can't lose it, any old time you use it... it's got to be rock and roll music if you want to dance with me.
As I define it, rock and roll is dead. The attitude isn't dead, but the music is no longer vital. It doesn't have the same meaning. The attitude, though, is still very much alive -- and it still informs other kinds of music.
If it's illegal to rock and roll, throw my ass in jail!
It's a nightmare set to music.
Men make angry music and it's called rock-and-roll; women include anger in their vocabulary and suddenly they're angry and militant.
Commercial rock 'n' roll music is a brutalization of the stream of contemporary Negro church music an obscene looting of a cultural expression.
Rock and Roll is passion, commitment, and spirit.
You've got to be hard, like the rock in that old rock and roll.
Rock and roll used to be for kicks, nowadays it's politics.
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore.