The distinctions between 'R&B' and 'rock 'n' roll' were mostly racial

A DJ helped popularize the term 'rock 'n' roll' to resell R&B to a broad audience

Cleveland DJ Alan Freed launched his radio show "Moondog's Rock 'n' Roll Party," rebranding R&B records, largely performed by Black artists, as "rock 'n' roll" to appeal to a largely white audience. The name was a double-entendre, describing the sound and the sexual activities it was said to induce.

Blues was a major influence on early rock

Early rock ‘n’ roll had a straightforward sound, relying mostly on guitar, bass, drums, piano, and saxophone playing up-tempo 12-bar blues. In subsequent decades, the form evolved and splintered into countless subgenres that used more diverse sounds, instruments, and lyrics.

Rock 'n' roll began as a hybrid of several American musical styles

Rock ‘n’ roll combined blues, swing, country, and other American musical forms in the late 1940s. From there, it splintered into countless subgenres and is still evolving.

'Rock 'n' roll' eventually became 'classic rock'

As the 1980s arrived, rock radio began pivoting to the term “classic rock,” allowing them to focus on the Baby Boomer demographic and ignore the still-evolving genre. Since then, “classic rock” remains, though it’s constantly being redefined, due in no small part to its slippery name.

Rock 'n' roll's history in 60 seconds

In the late 1940s, rock 'n' roll emerged from a mix of blues, country, gospel, and jazz. It gained traction through radio, rebellious icons, and evolving sound. This overview traces the genre’s roots, rise, and lasting influence—from early pioneers to the British Invasion and beyond.

Billboard's early music charts were racially segregated

In 1942, the publication introduced the Harlem Hit Parade chart, listing the top 10 records sold at select record stores in the majority-Black borough of New York. In 1945, it changed the chart’s name to Most Played Juke Box Race Records, using the music industry term (“race record”) that identified recordings by Black artists, even if they played music markedly similar to the white artists on the other charts.

In the 1920s, country was often called 'hillbilly music'

The term was meant to describe the rural people who typically performed the Appalachian folk music. Though Black people were also making country music at the time, their records were categorized as “race music.”

Jazz brought together ragtime and blues

Ragtime was a popular music genre that blended African-American spirituals, European folk songs, and military marches. Blues, brought to New Orleans by free Black people seeking opportunities, allowed musicians to play within basic standards. Jazz combined both forms by merging the syncopated, dance-friendly sounds of ragtime with the soulful, brass-instrumental style of the blues.

Take a look at an early rock 'n' roll artifact

This 1956 jukebox musical, "Rock, Rock, Rock!," is an early example of the burgeoning rock 'n' roll culture—with performances from Chuck Berry, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, D.J. Alan Freed, and several others. It was also a catalyst, sending the new youth culture into theaters around the country.

Ray Charles' 'Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music' albums blurred genre lines

Released in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, Charles’ records showed that country music, by then largely segregated, was an American music, no matter one’s background.

Rock expanded to Africa, where it was used as a political artform

The Nigerian rock scene began after Bill Haley’s "Rock Around the Clock" film premiered in the country, inspiring young people to take up electric guitars. The music was also an integral part of the country’s civil war, with conscripted bands entertaining soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

Many consider Jackie Brenston's 'Rocket 88' to be the first rock song

Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88,” a song penned in 1951 by a young Ike Turner and performed by his band the Kings of Rhythm, is widely considered the genre’s starting point. While late-40s R&B singles have similar elements, “Rocket 88” included distorted electric guitar, which would define the genre for decades.

At the height of its popularity, ragtime, a precursor to jazz, was criticized as dangerous, 'unmusical rot.'

Fearing the corruption of its youth, Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll in 1956.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe is considered the godmother of rock 'n' roll

Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Fats Domino are cited as the godfathers of rock ‘n’ roll, but the undisputed godmother is Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a gospel singer who crossed over to the secular world and changed the course of American music. Tharpe’s electric guitar playing influenced early rock ‘n’ roll.

Rapping has roots in numerous aspects of the Black oral tradition

Although “rapping” began in New York with hip-hop in the early 1970s, it can be traced back to griots, who were storytellers in West Africa, and “toasting,” which was a similar talk-sing style practiced by dancehall DJs in Jamaica.

Elvis was allegedly chided for playing rock 'n' roll at the Grand Ole Opry

Elvis Presley had deep roots in country music, though the Grand Ole Opry and its audience weren’t happy with Presley’s rocking take when he performed for his first (and only) time in 1954. Afterwards, the Opry’s manager Jim Denny allegedly told Presley, “Don’t quit your day job.”

A year before Elvis appeared on 'Ed Sullivan,' Bill Haley brought rock 'n' roll to the program

Although Elvis Presley's 1956 appearance on the popular TV show is viewed as a key moment in the rise of rock 'n' roll, the music appeared on the program a year earlier, on August 5, 1955, when Bill Haley and His Comets performed their hit "Rock Around the Clock."

How underground radio revitalized rock 'n' roll

Early FM was a wasteland and quickly became the domain of amateurs and risk-takers, including many stations and DJs who played music that flew in the face of mainstream trends. This history of the band's scrappy beginnings unpacks how it realigned the rock charts.

How smooth jazz took over the '90s

As jazz entered the '70s, it was at a crossroads. While the genre's figureheads explored fusion and free jazz, which intentionally flouted mainstream convention, other artists began veering towards pop. Eventually, that sound would be called "smooth jazz."

Southern rap redefined the sound of hip-hop in the '90s

In the 1980s, most attention focused on New York, the birthplace of hip-hop, and Los Angeles, the epicenter of its burgeoning gangsta variant. By the mid-90s, though, artists like Outkast, Master P, and Missy Elliott shifted the focus to the south.

How British youth resurrected overlooked American soul music

Motown released some of the 1960s' biggest soul records and changed the sound of pop music. The label also inspired countless smaller, regional labels that released songs by lesser-known artists that received limited attention. That changed with the rise of British Northern Soul, an underground scene that repurposed these obscure records (including several overlooked Motown releases) for all-night dance parties and, in the process, minted some unexpected American superstars.

The classic girl group sound arrived with doo-wop

Doo-wop was a type of vocal-based pop music popular in the '50s that coincided with the rise of early rock 'n' roll. The mid-tempo, harmony-heavy songs about teenage life provided the template for the girl group sound, which arrived at the end of the decade.

Jazz provided a soundtrack for the Civil Rights Movement

Songs like Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," which portrayed the grim brutality of lynching, and John Coltrane's "Alabama," which was modeled on the rhythm of a speech by Martin Luther King Jr., were the backbeat of the movement.

Jazz was an integral part of the Harlem Renaissance

The Great Migration transformed New York City's Harlem neighborhood into the epicenter of Black American art, with artists such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Bessie Smith regularly performing. The music not only provided the backbeat to the cultural scene—it often influenced it, with Harlem Renaissance poets, in particular, inspired by jazz's approach to rhythm and improvisation.

Jelly Roll Morton claimed he invented jazz, though experts disagree

The pianist and arranger was one of the genre's biggest names in the early 20th century, though very few believed him when he claimed he had invented the music in 1902. One of his biggest contributions to the genre was a 1938 session with ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, who recorded nearly 8 hours of music and stories that have become an essential part of the music's history.

The Rolling Stones got their name from a Muddy Waters song

The band was set to play a live session on the BBC in 1962, though they still didn't have a name. When guitarist Brian Jones spoke to Jazz News magazine about the upcoming appearance, he realized the group still didn't have a name. He saw Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone" record on the ground and decided in that moment that it would be the name of the band.

DJ Alan Freed was eventually charged in a 'payola' scandal

After popularizing rock 'n' roll, both as a genre and as a culture, Freed became an industry power player, producing movies, hosting concerts, and minting superstars. By the end of the 50's, Freed was charged with 26 counts of commercial bribery, for a scheme they called "payola," and investigated by the House subcommittee on Legislative Oversight.

Jazz's popularity inspired a moral panic

When jazz exploded in the 1920s, some believed the music's sudden popularity was the sign of a rotten nation, with one 1920 address at the University of Wisconsin proclaiming, "We are in deadly fear of the Jazz Devil, the demon which is consuming the country." Often, the connections were racialized, with columnists and preachers suggesting that jazz's Black artists were attempting to degrade white America.

How the Vietnam War changed rock 'n' roll

This short video essay analyzes how rock music responded to US involvement in Vietnam, from the protest folk of Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan to the popularity of rock and soul records with soldiers stationed abroad.

Some critics argue bebop and free jazz led to jazz's decline in popularity

Although jazz was once a popular art form, it has largely been confined to the margins of pop culture, with many of the genre's current bestselling albums from previous decades. Some critics argue that this is because the music betrayed its position as dance music and focused instead on musical proficiency.

Chuck Berry was one of the genre's early innovators

A pioneer of rock ‘n’ roll, Berry redefined music in the 1950s with hits like "Maybellene" and "Johnny B. Goode." Drawing from blues and country, his signature riffs and storytelling influenced generations of artists.

Sun Records was responsible for some of rock 'n' roll's biggest artists

Memphis' Sun Records was one of the most important labels in American musical history, releasing pivotal records by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and countless others.

Western swing merged country with jazz

For as long as country music has been set to record, its artists have experimented with the genre’s boundaries. Look no further than this track from 1946, Bob Wills’ “Roly Poly.” The song is a classic example of Western swing, a country subgenre that blended country and jazz.

Brazil's tropicália movement fused rock 'n' roll, Latin music, and poetry

Tropicália was a short-lived Brazilian style of rock 'n' roll that blended samba, bossa nova, modernist poetry, and American rhythm and blues that offered provocative, anti-authoritarian, and avant-garde ideas through popular music, much to the delight of the country's evolving youth culture.

Brazil's tropicália movement fused rock 'n' roll, Latin music, and poetry

Tropicália was a short-lived Brazilian style of rock 'n' roll that blended samba, bossa nova, modernist poetry, and American rhythm and blues that offered provocative, anti-authoritarian, and avant-garde ideas through popular music, much to the delight of the country's evolving youth culture.

'Shuffle Along,' a 1921 Broadway musical, brought jazz to American musical theater and helped pave the way for Black culture in the 20th century.

Jazz built the template for hip-hop

Hip-hop was born out of obscure samples, including many that were taken from the annals of jazz. That style was especially popular in rap's early eras, with the subgenre "jazz rap" becoming an accurate descriptor for New York groups like A Tribe Called Quest and Gangstarr.

The Great Migration spread jazz to various parts of the country

The large-scale migration of Black Americans looking to escape Jim Crow laws in the South began in 1915 and helped bring New Orleans music to other parts of the country, including Chicago, New York, Kansas City, Detroit, and Los Angeles.