"Flip Flop n Fly"

"Shake, Rattle n Roll!" To a few these words mean nothing. But for ten million American teen-agers they are an invitation to the biggest dance craze to sweep the nation since the jitterbug: Rock n Roll. Though its roots are deep in the Rhythm and Blues of the South, Rock n Roll, with its "big beat," is an entirely new kind of music.

First played several years ago on Cleveland's radio station WJW by disc-jockey Alan Freed, Rock n Roll soon attracted over 20,000 people to a dance at the Cleveland Arena. When Freed moved to New York's WINS in 1954, the popularity of Rock n Roll had grown. In New York the energetic Mr. Freed disc jockeyed for WINS, answered his mail (15,000 letters a week), ran Rock n Roll Jubilee Balls in local ball parks, and encouraged 2,000 Alan Freed - Rock n Roll fan clubs.

By this time, however, Rock n Roll needed little encouragement. Americans took to it as they had to Davy Crockett. When the movie called Blackboard Jungle appeared with music by Bill Haley and his comets, teenagers all over the country had begun to "Rock Around the Clock." Another film with Sheree North's controversial interpretation of Rock n Roll was followed by a sharp rise in the "juvenile delinquency" rate, and subsequent protests from law enforcement agencies. To no avail. Rock n Roll shows signs of lasting.

"It is," explains the eclectic Mr. Freed, "the only basic AMERICAN MUSICAL HERITAGE we can call our own." Other scholars have sought to trace its growth from early Mithraic fertility rites--some claim that Tonganese natives were the first to Rock n Roll.

With this depth of background, Rock n Roll appeals to all groups. Its lyrics sound the outcry of the suffering romantic, "I'm a Mississippi bullfrog sitting on a Harlem dump, so many girls I don't know which way to jump." With equal fervor, Rock n Roll sympathizes with the nihilistic element of the Cambridge community, "I gotta Flip Flop n Fly, and I don't care if I die."

Striking at the core of these basic problems, Rock n Roll has won the approval of the nation's top recording stars. Perry Como, Georgia Gibbs, and Eddie Fisher have Rocked n Rolled, and sold records. But "the big beat" has brought with it many new vocal performers. Most are from the South, like Nappy Brown, Earl Bostick, and Chuck Berry, whose recording of Maybelline now leads the hit parade. Many have gotten their start in the Amateur Shows at Harlem's New Apollo Theatre, the nation's Rock n Roll center.

Like all successes, Rock n Roll, has had imitations. Wishing to capitalize on its great success, certain musicians have exploited Rock n roll to promote new types of music. so the first popular Cha-Cha was titled Rockin; the Cha-Cha. for the future, however, Rock n Roll devotees have no qualms. The tourists who spread Rock n Roll through France this summer, have, on returning, given local Rock n roll a French touch with new songs like Ay La Bah. With the influx of such new ideas, says Boston disc jockey Stan Richards, "Rock n Roll is to be reckoned with." And Mr. Freed rejoins " ' The Big Beat in American Music' was here one hundred years ago. It will be here a thousand years after we are all gone." It may.