What is Rock and Roll?

Most of us know a rock and roll song when we hear it on the radio. However, most of don't know exactly what distinguishes rock and roll from other forms of music.

Rock and roll began as a synthesis of rhythm and blues, country and gospel styles in the 1950s. Since then it has evolved into a style which hardly resembles its original form. Although the term was eventually truncated to "rock," rock really constitutes a subgenre of rock and roll. It refers more to a more modern form rock and roll, which originated in the mid sixties.

Rock and roll essentially is a genre of popular music. A musical genre is a grouping of musical pieces which share a similar style. Rock and roll differs from other musical genres, in that it has widely divergent subgenres or styles. For example, acid rock and disco are both subgenres of rock and roll. However, these two subgenres are so different from one another that many people would dispute that they belong to the same general genre. They use different instruments and a vastly different methodology. In fact, it's common for people to disavow disco as a form of rock, and claim that "acid rock" is "true" rock when this has no basis in fact. If you look more closely to both of these styles you will see that they have a great deal in common.

So what elements define rock and roll?

Time Signatures

Over the board, rock and roll is thought of as dance music. Not only do you dance to it, but you dance fast. Thus rock and roll favors a four-quarters or common time signature, often played with a heavy emphasis on eighth notes. However, there are some rock pieces written in six-eighths time, and a few pieces written in strange time signatures. For example, Pink Floyd's progressive rock song "Money" is written in a seven-quarters time signature. Though the list of rock songs written in odd time signatures is long, the body of rock works is to large that they still constitute an extreme minority.