Also known as rock 'n' roll, a musical genre that evolved in the US in the late 1940s as a combination of the rhythms of the blues, R&B, country and western music, as well as gospel. It became popular in the early 1950s and quickly spread to the rest of the world. It later spawned the various sub-genres of what is now called simply 'rock'.
The beat is basically a boogie woogie blues rhythm with an accentuated backbeat, the latter almost always provided by a snare drum.
Classic rock and roll is played with one or two electric guitars (one lead, one rhythm), an electric bass guitar and a drum kit. Keyboards are a common addition to the mix. In the rock and roll style of the early 1950s, the saxophone was often the lead instrument, replaced by guitar in the mid 1950s. In the earliest form of rock and roll, during the late 1940s, the piano was the lead instrument and indeed, among the roots of rock and roll is the boogie woogie piano of the big-band era that dominated American music in the 1940s.
The massive popularity and eventual worldwide scope of rock and roll gave it an unprecedented social impact. Far beyond simply a musical style, rock and roll influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language. Many of its early stars, notably Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison and Bill Haley, built movie and/or television careers around their 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. An early form of rock and roll was rockabilly, which combined the above elements with jazz, influences from traditional Appalachian folk music and gospel. 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.
While rock and roll musicians increasingly wrote their own material, many of the earliest white rock and roll hits were covers of earlier rhythm and blues or blues songs and blues continued to inspire rock performers for decades. Delta blues artists such as Robert Johnson also proved to be important inspirations for British blues-rockers such as the Yardbirds, Cream and Led Zeppelin.
In 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. Early rock and roll artists included Elvis Presley, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Bill Haley and the Comets. Elvis developed a rock and country and western fusion called rockabilly, which was characterised by hiccupping vocals, slapping bass and a spastic guitar style, as in his hit That's All Right (Mama) in 1954.
The following year's Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley really established rock and roll in popular culture. Another key artist was Buddy Holly, who was killed in a plane crash in 1959, along with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. In 1955, Lonnie Donegan's version of Rock Island Line began skiffle music, which inspired many young musicians and primed the UK for American rock and roll. New artists such as Cliff Richard and the Shadows, Tommy Steele, Adam Faith and Billy Fury became very successful, inspired by US artists such as Elvis and touring acts such as Gene Vincent.
By the early 1960s, rock and roll was beginning to transform into rock.