ROCKUMENTARY

noun Also written rock-umentary (Lifestyle and Leisure) (Music) In informal use, a documentary film dealing with the history of rock music or the lives of rock musicians. Etymology: Formed by replacing the first syllable of documentary with rock, making use of the rhyme to form a punning blend. History and Usage: The word was coined by Ernie Santosuosso, a Boston critic, in a review of Beatlemania in 1977, at a time when the craze for films and television programmes about rock stars of the sixties was a favourite means of bringing rock music to a wider audience. It has remained principally an American word, but by the mid eighties had also been used in British and Australian film criticism. By 1984, rockumentaries were so numerous that a completely fictional one (This is Spinal Tap, about a British heavy metal group) was made as a parody of the genre. Spinal Tap lives: the famed 'henge' sequence from the classic 'rockumentary' was recently re-enacted. Music Making July 1987, p. 6 SBS at 7.30 has what it is billing a 'rock-umentary'--an account of Australian singer Jeannie Lewis' last trip to Mexico. Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 15 Nov. 1988, p. 28