Rock! Rock! Rock! (DVD)

Alan Freed is the man who’s credited with inventing the phrase rock and roll. He was a white disc jockey from Cleveland who in 1951 ‘stole’ the term from black music (actually he took it from a song called “My baby rocks me with a steady roll”), but the terms had cropped up often in the blues, and rhythm and blues, and, as we all know now, it was black term for sex. Freed was a big fan and promoter of rock and roll music, and he certainly made the phrase famous, and did a lot to popularise the music. There is a certain irony in the fact that he probably started using the phrase as a way of making black music more acceptable to white audiences. By 1956, ...  Read the complete review