It was used in 'Johnny Bowker', a popular sea shanty that went 'Oh do, my Johnny Bowker/ Come rock and roll me over'. The phrase 'rock n roll' had been used for decades before it came to describe a musical genre. It was a feeling and a type of movement inspired by the music. Rocking and rolling was a popular double entendre that peppered the conversation of the young and began popping up in rhythm and blues, country and other types of song lyrics in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. Rocking and rolling was what it made your body feel like doing. Young seamen and sailors celebrated their safe return from World War I with wide-eyed teens dancing to music that was a mixture of rhythm and blues, rockabilly, country music and a little bit of jazz that made people want to rock and roll. The early 20th century was a unique time in America. Spontaneous shouts of 'Rock n Roll, baby' were heard at parties long before the music was christened and blessed with the name.

The rock n roll origin story begins with the masses of people who made, danced to and enjoyed this exciting, eclectic, electric, new musical genre. The phase began to be used in songs as early as 1922 in вЂњMy Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)вЂќ, a Trixie Smith blues ballad. Moves drenched in sexual suggestiveness and innuendo. The phrase also described the type of wild dance moves this raucous new type of music inspired. The term 'rocking and rolling' was also used to describe the frenzied feelings and actions of the people caught up in the spirit at African American religious services. A maritime, religious and sexual metaphorДЄs least as early as the 17th century, вЂњrocking and rollingвЂќ had been a metaphor seamen used to describe a ship's motion. Most people agree the rock n roll origin story comes from an attempt to describe what the music made people want to do with their bodies when they heard it blasting through the speakers at a live show or on the radio. With musicologists still arguing over which was the first rock n roll song, finding the origin of the term rock n roll can be just as challenging. The origin of the name 'Rock n Roll'ДЇinding the origin of rock n roll as a term is a 5 decades long journey through the music mad masses, musicians, marketing men and DJs in America. Perhaps better known for the popularization of the phrase is Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed who used the phrase when playing and promoting this genre of music on his radio show in 1951. It enjoyed more widespread use in the 40вЂ™s when in 1942 the term вЂњrock and rollвЂќ was used by Maurie Orodenker to describe certain albums in his reviews in a Billboard magazine column. Throughout the 20вЂ™s, 30вЂ™s and 40вЂ™s it popped up in many recordings and referred to either the motion of the dance or was sexual in nature.

Later, the words вЂњrockвЂќ and вЂњrollвЂќ began to take on more of a sexual meaning in music (which had been around for quite some time as seen in the phrase вЂњa roll in the hayвЂќ). It is the case that this phrase developed at different times in history within a different context.ДЄ prime example of this is found on a 1904 phonograph recording by the Haydn Quartet that contained the words вЂњWe've been rockin' an' rolling in your arms/ In the arms of MosesвЂќ. In the beginning, 'rock n roll' was used to describe the movement of ships at sea, but with respect to music it really described the kinds of movements you would see from a gospel choir singing and experiencing a spiritual rapture.

Songs with the words rock and roll