Rock music originated as rock and roll in the early 50's in the United States.
Rock and roll emerged as a defined musical style in the United States in the early to mid-1950s . Rock and roll ( often written as rock & roll or rock 'n' roll ) is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s , from African American musical styles such as gospel , jump blues , jazz , boogie woogie , and rhythm and blues , along with country music . According to Greg Kot , `` rock and roll '' refers to a style of popular music originating in the U.S. in the 1950s prior to its development by the mid-1960s into `` the more encompassing international style known as rock music , though the latter also continued to be known as rock and roll . '' Rock music is a genre of popular music that originated as `` rock and roll '' in the United States in the early 1950s , and developed into a range of different styles in the 1960s and later , particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States .