Who came up with the name Rock 'n' Roll?

Answer 1

Alan Freed

Get Rhythm In Your Feet (June 25, 1935 with Helen Ward, and where you'll hear the line "... commence to rock and roll, get rhythm in your feet and music in your soul ....", long before Alan Freed "allegedly" coined the term

Answer 2

There are several explanations for this term. One is from Blues Music (the expression was a euphemism for sexual relations, and could be found in blues songs as far back as 1922. It is difficult to know which one is correct: we know that in music, Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed is widely credited with making the expression popular, but he did not invent it.

Another possible explanation, below, is from military aircraft slang.

Explanation for word origin of "Rock n' Roll":Returning World War II aircraft engine mechanics coined the term, 'rock 'n' roll". Since most military aircraft engines of this time had a part called a "rocker arm" that had a roller attached to one or both ends to open and close the intake and exhaust valves of an engine, and that this part could be seen when the engine was running with the "rocker arm cover" removed, the mechanics could see this part: "rocking and rolling". An engine that was running well was said to be, "rockin an' rollin". In the 1940's, when the mechanics had leave and could find a place to drink and dance, those G.I.'s who could dance fast and well were said to be able to "rock and roll", just like the fast operating engine part that they were all so familiar with. When these GI's came home at the wars end, they brought the term with them and applied it to the new music that combined Country Music, Popular and Western Swing with Rhythm and Blues. The term "Rock 'n Roll" was born from aircraft engines, greasy hands and talented feet from those who survived the war.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who is credited with coining the term rock n roll#ixzz1CbTG9XO0

Answer 3

Actually, nobody really invented it. It evolved from other musical genres, gradually, over a few decades. It probably started with what was once called "rhythm and blues" or "race music" (performed by mostly black musicians, beginning in the 1920s, and proceeding through the 1930s and 1940s). By the late 1940s, white listeners were hearing this music on powerful AM stations like WDIA in Memphis (which is where a young Elvis Presley heard it) and they started to like it.

By the early to mid-1950s, there was a hybrid of black music, performed by white musicians or a small number of integrated musical groups. The famous disc jockey Alan Freed began calling this music "rock 'n' roll"-- an expression that had been used in blues music for years as a euphemism for sexual intercourse; he used it to name this new genre. It would later be called top-40, or hit music. By the mid-to-late-1950s, people like Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and Jerry Lee Lewis (as well as black performers like Fats Domino and Little Richard) were among the performers playing this music to appreciative teen audiences.

Answer 4

This is the subject of much debate. The term "rock and roll" was around long before it became the name of a kind of musical genre. It was used in blues songs in the 1920s and 1930s as a euphemism for sex, in an era when there were many things you could not come right out and say. But most historians agree that the famous radio disc jockey Alan Freed, in the early to mid-1950s, was the first to apply this terminology to popular music; thanks to him, it became the common expression for a new genre that was attracting young listeners. It blended rhythm & blues (performed mainly by black musicians) with a new, harder-edged form of Pop Music done mainly by white musicians, and Freed began to call it "rock 'n' roll" on his radio shows.

Answer 5

Elvis Presley...yeah right. Elvis was a Pop toy. Mr Chuck Berry holds the title.

Answer 6

No individual gave it the name. Rock and Roll was black slang for sex in the late forties and early fifties. R & B and western swing evolved into rock and roll by the mid-fifties.

Answer 7

Alan Freid

Answer 8

Alan Freed