Page "Rock and roll" Paragraph 7

The immediate roots of rock and roll lay in the rhythm and blues, then called " race music ", and country music of the 1940s and 1950s.

Particularly significant influences were jazz, blues, gospel, country, and folk.

Commentators differ in their views of which of these forms were most important and the degree to which the new music was a re-branding of African American rhythm and blues for a white market, or a new hybrid of black and white forms.