Alan Freed is commonly referred to as the "Father of Rock 'n' Roll" due to his
promotion of the style of music, and his introduction of the phrase "Rock and Roll"
On July 11, 1951, Freed began playing rhythm and blues records on WJW, Cleveland,
Ohio. While R&B records were played for many years on lower powered, inner city radio
stations aimed at African-Americans, this is arguably the first time that authentic R&B
was featured regularly on a major, mass audience station. His on-air manner was energetic,
in contrast to many contemporary radio presenters of traditional pop music, who tended to sound more
subdued and low-key in manner. He also began using the phrase "Rock and Roll"
to describe the music he played.
The two major ingredients involved in the origin and evolution of "Rock and Roll" were the
intruduction of the 45 RPM record by RCA in March, 1949 and
Alan Freed's pioneering introduction of "Rock and Roll" to main-stream America.
Between the years 1949 and 1954, popular AM radio play and the "Top 10 Record Charts"
were dominated by mostly white singers and their middle-of-the-road tunes. But on July 17th,
1954 something musically ground-breaking took place. For the very first time, a "Rock and Roll"
song made it onto the Billboard Top Ten Chart. It was "Sh-Boom" by the Chords.
This was the beginning, and by December, 1956 almost all top 30 Billboard songs were catagoized
as "Rock and Roll". In the span of only 30 months the whole popular music landscape changed
completely. The graph below illustrates month-by month how this new music made its impact on the
popular record charts.