The phrase also described the type of wild dance moves this raucous new type of music inspired. The term 'rocking and rolling' was also used to describe the frenzied feelings and actions of the people caught up in the spirit at African American religious services. A maritime, religious and sexual metaphorĪs least as early as the 17th century, “rocking and rolling” had been a metaphor seamen used to describe a ship's motion. Most people agree the rock n roll origin story comes from an attempt to describe what the music made people want to do with their bodies when they heard it blasting through the speakers at a live show or on the radio. With musicologists still arguing over which was the first rock n roll song, finding the origin of the term rock n roll can be just as challenging. The origin of the name 'Rock n Roll'įinding the origin of rock n roll as a term is a 5 decades long journey through the music mad masses, musicians, marketing men and DJs in America. Perhaps better known for the popularization of the phrase is Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed who used the phrase when playing and promoting this genre of music on his radio show in 1951.
It enjoyed more widespread use in the 40’s when in 1942 the term “rock and roll” was used by Maurie Orodenker to describe certain albums in his reviews in a Billboard magazine column. Throughout the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s it popped up in many recordings and referred to either the motion of the dance or was sexual in nature. Later, the words “rock” and “roll” began to take on more of a sexual meaning in music (which had been around for quite some time as seen in the phrase “a roll in the hay”).
It is the case that this phrase developed at different times in history within a different context.Ī prime example of this is found on a 1904 phonograph recording by the Haydn Quartet that contained the words “We've been rockin' an' rolling in your arms/ In the arms of Moses”. In the beginning, "rock n roll" was used to describe the movement of ships at sea, but with respect to music it really described the kinds of movements you would see from a gospel choir singing and experiencing a spiritual rapture.