rock 'n' roll, rock'n'roll, rock-and-roll, rock and roll, rock, rock music - a genre of popular music originating in the 1950s; a blend of Black rhythm-and-blues with White country-and-western; "rock is a generic term for the range of styles that evolved out of rock'n'roll." --1is a kind ofpopular music, popular music genre --1has parts: backbeat --1has particulars: