Even before the appearance of Elvis, in the days when Dickie Valentine led the UK charts, music language has been outside of the normal vocabulary. Yet the babyboomer generation invented a whole new dictionary and now much of it has been adopted by the Oxford English Dictionary. Why did we invent new words and phrases? How was it triggered? Why should we care about it? Here's the how and why of it.

At BabyboomersUK.com, we might harp on about it sometimes but the generation who fought World War two were special not least because they represented a connection to the old Victorian/Edwardian world. Cultural change occurred during the 1930s and 40s, especially in the music world. But the discipline of war and the historical connections gave our parents a certain way of speaking. Babyboomers were raised in a different world to them. And they wanted a different culture, although the culture identity was often unknown or indescribable. So babyboomers invented their own language just as other "outsider" cultures had done before them.

Here are a few examples taken from "The Language of Rock 'n' Roll" by Bob Young and Nicky Moody

"Dawn Patrol" The remains of various band members & crew staggering into hotel lobbies at 5am.

"Gigs" Booking engagements. A word which today's teenagers think that they invented.

"HOs" Hangers on.

"Hughie (Ralph, Barf etc)" The song sang to a toilet bowl after too much alcohol.

"Jobsworth" Derived from the classic quote "Its more than me job's worth".