Tracing the origins of the phrase “rock ‘n’ roll”
When it was time for Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner to speak at the 2014 BRIT Awards after the Sheffield band were awarded Album of the Year for AM, something strange occurred. Although it might have seemed incomprehensible at the time, the rambling speech Turner gave about “that rock ‘n’ roll” hit a rather pertinent point.
With a hefty dose of his trademark surrealism, Turner said: “That rock ‘n’ roll, eh? That rock ‘n’ roll, it just won’t go away. It might hibernate from time to time and sink back into the swamp. I think the cyclical nature of the universe in which it exists demands it adheres to some of its rules.”
He continued: “But it’s always waiting there, just around the corner, ready to make its way back through the sludge and smash through the glass ceiling, looking better than ever. Yeah, that rock ‘n’ roll, it seems like it’s fading away sometimes, but it will never die. And there’s nothing you can do about it. Thank you very much for this. I do truly appreciate it. Don’t take that the wrong way,” the frontman concluded before mentioning something about the microphone…
For all of the criticisms that Turner drew at the time, there was something profound in this half-cut monologue. The most influential frontman of his generation noted the unyielding importance of rock ‘n’ roll, or what is affectionately known as rock music, and how it has managed to stay at the forefront of our minds despite shifting zeitgeists, the advancement of other forms of music, and the impact that technology now has on art.
The term rock ‘n’ roll and the attitudes and way of life it denotes have been alive and well since the 1950s, a time when the likes of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and others broke through and galvanised the generation of young baby boomers who were looking for excitement. Since then, the term and everything that comes with it has been ubiquitous. This then begs the question: Where did the phrase “rock ‘n’ roll” come from?
It transpires that the origins of the term can be traced back to the Middle Ages when “roll” was used as a reference to sexual encounters. Then, in the 17th century, “rock” was used to shake or disturb another person. Afterwards, the two words were joined as the naval phrase “rock and roll”, which referred to how a ship moved at sea. Later, there were other uses in the world of gospel.
Then from the 1920s to the 1940s, the phrase “rock and roll” was adopted by the younger generations again to describe sexual acts or dancing, with the latter being a more literal description of the body’s movement to the music of the day. The term was then used to describe the music that African American artists were pioneering that fused blues and gospel.
However, it wasn’t popularised as a genre and cultural phenomenon until the 1950s in America. This is largely down to the disc jockey Alan Freed who started promoting the term and genre on mainstream radio from 1951 onwards. Since then, the world has had one of its greatest cultural institutions.
