On 12/15/21, DJ Alan Freed was born.

[ificandream]

He's reportedly the man who coined the phrase "rock 'n' roll."

This compilation audio from Freed's "Rock 'n' Roll Dance Party" from 1957 features Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, The Cadillacs, The Platters, Chuck Berry, The Penguins and Bill Haley and the Comets. Many of the performances sound like they're live.

[Aristus]

1. As I understood it, Freed popularized an already existing term, rock and roll,

an R&B euphemism for sex, and applied it to the rising new form of music.

[ificandream]

2. Sounds very likely.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. He Got Shafted Over Payola

It may have been unethical, but wasn't illegal when he got involved with it.
The conviction in 1962 was pretty close to ex post facto, because the money involved between '60 & '62 was a pittance.
I cut him far less slack on his attempts to give himself songwriting credit for tunes he had nothing to do with.
Drank himself to death at a very young age.