How many times per week would you say you hear someone refer to "rock and roll" in some form or another? Probably more often than you realize. 

Let's think about this. Maybe you were watching LA Ink re-runs and heard tattooist extraordinaire Miss Kat Von D express her enthusiastic approval for, well, just about anything by proclaiming, "Rock on, dude!" Maybe your mom says, "that's rockin'" at the most inappropriate moments, like ours do. You may have followed MTV's advice and "turned up the volume on your rock style" by painting your toenails black. 

Oh, and, did you know that one of the fastest selling ringtones is a song called "Party Like a Rock Star" by the Shop Boyz, a hip-hop group that says they've sparked a new "movement" in music called "hood rock"?

The songs and the sounds we call "rock and roll" evolved from many different sources, in many different regions, and at many different moments in 20th-century history. The music was shaped—and continues to be molded and transformed—by countless regular people, some doing what they love, others seeking refuge from what they hate, some hoping to change the world, and still others resisting what they fear.

Do you like rock and roll? You may be thinking, "Well, it's okay, but I'm really into rap," or, "It's all about country music for me," or "White kids banging their heads isn't really my thing," or, "All that black makeup and big hair scares me," or, "Isn't that, like, really ancient?"

We won't call you a "hater," but maybe a tiny bit misinformed? The thing is, you may not realize how much "rock and roll" you actually listen to. Seriously. (But we'll come back to that.)

Or maybe you're saying, "Yes, I love rock and roll—I eat, sleep, breathe it. In fact, I am rock and roll!" 

Okay, Kat Von D, that's fine, but what do you mean when you say "I love rock and roll"? And by the way, contrary to what you might think, Britney Spears was not the first to sing that. But we encourage you to compare her version to the original. Wait, do you know who Joan Jett is, though? We'll come back to that, too.

So, what do you really mean when you say that? You, dear rock and roll fan, may not realize how much "rock and roll" you actually don't listen to, like music you never really considered "rock."

Then what exactly is rock and roll? And how does any of this fit into our day-to-day lives? How is Elvis related to Good Charlotte? Punk-rock and Jay Z? No way is there a connection. Oh, but there is. Jimi Hendrix and Justin Timberlake? Now you're just reaching. Well, a little, but the links are still there, we swear. 

Which artists and songs fit into this category, and why? Is it just a genre of music, or is it also an attitude? Is it something from the past, or something very contemporary? And where exactly did the term "rock and roll" come from?

You might be surprised by the answers to these questions, and really, the whole story of how rock and roll came to be. So, let's get rocking already.