Where did the term "rock and roll" originate? What does it actually mean? How stupid am I?

Answer 1

It comes from a song, I forgot who sings it, but it was called "Rock and Roll music"

Answer 2

The TERM "Rock N Roll"

Rocking was a term first used by black gospel singers in the American South to mean something akin to spiritual rapture. By the 1940s, however, the term was used as a double entendre, ostensibly referring to dancing, but with the subtextual meaning of sex; an example of this is Roy Brown's "Good Rocking Tonight." This type of song was usually relegated to "race music" (the music industry code name for rhythm and blues) outlets and was rarely heard by mainstream white audiences.

1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing this type of music for a multi-racial audience. Freed is credited with coining the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the rollicking R&B music. While working as a disc jockey at radio station WJW in Cleveland, he organized the first rock and roll concert called "The Moondog Coronation Ball" on March 21, 1952. The event, attended mainly by African Americans, proved a huge drawing card — the first event had to be ended early due to overcrowding

Answer 3

Rocking was a term first used by black gospel singers in the American South to mean something akin to spiritual rapture. By the 1940s, however, the term was used as a double entendre, ostensibly referring to dancing, but with the subtextual meaning of sex; an example of this is Roy Brown's "Good Rocking Tonight." This type of song was usually relegated to "race music" (the music industry code name for rhythm and blues) outlets and was rarely heard by mainstream white audiences.

1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing this type of music for a multi-racial audience. Freed is credited with coining the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the rollicking R&B music. While working as a disc jockey at radio station WJW in Cleveland, he organized the first rock and roll concert called "The Moondog Coronation Ball" on March 21, 1952. The event, attended mainly by African Americans, proved a huge drawing card — the first event had to be ended early due to overcrowding. Thereafter, Freed organized many rock and roll shows attended by both whites and blacks, further helping to introduce African-American musical styles to a wider audience."

Answer 4

Rock and roll began to emerge as a defined musical style in America in the late 1940s as a part of African American culture, when it was called Rhythm and blues, or R&B. Though elements of rock and roll can be heard in blues records as far back as the 1920s it did not acquire its eventual name until the 1950s. An early form of rock and roll was rockabilly, which combined elements of blues, boogie woogie, and jazz with influences from traditional Appalachian folk music, gospel, and country and western. Going back even further, rock and roll can trace one lineage to the old Five Points district of mid-19th century New York City, the scene of the first fusion of heavily rhythmic African shuffles and sand dances with melody-driven European genres, particularly the Irish jig.

Answer 5

The term "rock and roll" was not invented by Alan Freed, but it can be argued that he was the first to use the term specifically to refer to the new forms of both rhythm & blues, pop vocal, and rockabilly that were popping up in the early-to-mid Fifties.