rock-and-roll (räk'n rol') n. [[first so used (1951) by Alan Freed, Cleveland disc jockey, taken from the song "My Baby Rocks Me with a Steady Roll": use of rock, roll, rock and roll, etc., with ref. to sexual intercourse, is traditional in blues]] a form of popular music that evolved in the 1950's from rhythm and blues, characterized by the use of electric guitars, a strong rhythm with an accent on the offbeat, and youth-oriented lyrics. Rock2 (räk): a)ROCK-AND-ROLL b) popular music evolved from rock-and-roll, variously containing elements of folk music, country music, etc. and now often emphasizing loudness, distortion, the use of electronic synthesizers, etc.
The above definition appears thanks to the considerable confusion I felt once I sat down to write this essay - a confusion that caught me totally by surprise. After, what could be difficult about writing about a thing I was exposed to nearly every day in some form or other? Pop/rock is the music with which I am most familiar, the music I've been exposed to the most and the music I first learned to love outside the nursery tunes of early childhood. I figured writing about it would be a cinch.
But when I set myself to the task of actually writing about pop/rock, I found myself at a complete loss as to where to begin. Tim and I are nothing if not diverse in our tastes, and my friends are frequently astonished by Steve's and my expansive CD collection in which our popular music choices range from the mellowest of folk tunes to the metal cacophonies (I'm actually a bit proud of this - it seems to me that the young often try to label exactly who and what one is based on the style of music one listens to, and I had managed to defy classification in spite of my peers' best efforts in both high school and college). The term rock-and-roll applies to my albums by Rush, the Cranberries, Suzanne Vega, U2, Billy Bragg and Billy Joel just as much as it applies to my parents doo wop collections and the Elvis Presley records of their youth. It also applies to the "glam" rock of Poison, White Snake and Guns n' Roses of my high school years as well as the Beatles, Elton John, and (perhaps more on the folk side) to Simon and Garfunkel and Cat Stevens, artists my sister was fond of during her high school years.
In the past fifty or so years, rock music has split and divided again and again into many classifications: pop, bubble gum, progressive, alternative, folk, punk, etc. Even the classifications have classifications; for example, "metal" encompasses heavy metal, death metal, acid metal, etc. And all of these have their roots in...where? Where did rock-and-roll come from?
Elvis Presley is known as the king of rock-and-roll, while Bill Haley (of Bill Haley and the Comets fame) has been called its father. But to call the performer of the early hit "Rock Around the Clock" the founding father of this genre strikes me as a gross overestimation of the power of one human being. Evolution will occur, and music is no less immune to it than anything else.
What with my woefully inadequate musical knowledge, I will not attempt to venture into a study on the origins of rock-and-roll; rather, I will direct them to a web site far more qualified on the subject. It really is a great site with fascinating material, and I highly recommend perusing it when you have a few hours to burn. Then return here if you please, and let this page serve as an introduction to the essays honoring the artists of our choice whom we feel are a credit to the diverse musical genre known as rock-and-roll.
