Howdy! It’s Joey, back with more Fun Fact Friyay. Today, we’re excited to rock.
The term “rock and roll” was popularized by Cleveland DJ Alan Freed, who started using it in 1951 to promote the music he played on the radio.
I recently visited Cleveland, with one of my goals being to check out the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Notably, I wanted to experience the temporary exhibit on 50 years of Saturday Night Live music, which was even better than I could have imagined.
It was delightful to see costumes, props, and facial molds from years of hit SNL bits, such as The Lonely Island digital shorts, Fred Armisen as Prince, and Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer as Marty and Bobby Culp.
Beyond specific SNL characters, the collection also includes just about every musical performance from the show’s lengthy history.
I helped a man scroll through a screen to put on James Brown, and then we bopped along to his song and dance moves. I watched Shakira do an impressive back-bridge while singing “She Wolf.” I saw Fall Out Boy dress exactly like my friends and I did in 2005, complete with Pete Wentz having an extremely popped collar on his polo shirt. What a treat!
The Rock Hall also has a “Jamroom,” where you can play with studio musicians. I happened to be walking by as the room opened, so I was the first one up onstage! I said I’d play guitar, and another guy who was interested was told to wait, but I said, nah, he could be the vocalist if he wanted.
Since we were doing Green Day, he was the Billie Joe Armstrong to my…uh…Billie Joe Armstrong. (Billie plays guitar and sings for the band.)
In any case, we did great. I mostly remembered how “American Idiot” goes on guitar, and I nailed the end of the solo, truly the most important part for any rock legend. We even drew a crowd of about 25 people. I think that’s pretty good, considering all the other entertaining exhibits to check out.
Without one Cleveland disc jockey, however, rock and roll could perhaps be known by some other name. Or maybe it would have continued on as an existing genre like rhythm and blues.
Alan Freed wasn’t the first person to ever put rock and roll together; in 1923, Trixie Smith used the term in her song “My Man Rocks Me,” though it meant something different in that case.
However, it was Freed who popularized “rock and roll” as a musical genre. He said that rock and roll is “a river of music that has absorbed many streams: rhythm and blues, jazz, rag time, cowboy songs, country songs, folks songs. All have contributed to the big beat.”
Freed was working at WAKR in Akron in the late 1940s when he met Leo Mintz, a local record store owner. Mintz had started selling R&B records and noted more people were becoming interested in them, so he said Freed should play those records on the radio.
In 1951, Freed was hired by WJW radio in Cleveland. He hosted a midnight radio program where he used cool, hipster language to communicate with his listeners. Mintz bought AM radio airtime to devote an entire show to R&B, with Freed taking control of hosting duties.
On July 11, 1951, Freed played R&B on WJW, believed to be the first time that genuine R&B tunes were heard on a major radio station broadcast to mass audiences. Freed dubbed his show “The Moondog House,” referring to himself as “The King of the Moondoggers.”
Freed likely came up with “rock and roll” as a way to avoid referring to “rhythm and blues,” because segregation was still commonplace in the 1950s. White artists and bands had long been covering songs from Black musicians. Unlike other mainstream radio DJs, Freed played the originals, not the covers, helping introduce a wider (and primarily younger) audience to the music.
The musical trend continued, and Freed eventually hosted TV shows like The Big Beat and was in some of the earliest rock and roll movies, including Don’t Knock the Rock and Go, Johnny, Go!
Though Freed died at just 43 years old, his legacy continues to live on. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, among numerous other honors.
And as the poet laureates Reel Big Fish say in the opening of their song “Good Thing”: “You and I are mortal, but rock and roll will never die.”
I hope you put on a song today that rocks your socks off. Happy listening!