A type of popular music dating from the 1940s and 1950s which combined melodic and textual features of the blues with the rhythm section of a pop group (electric guitars, keyboards, and drum set). It was an important forerunner both of rock and roll and of soul music.
Rhythm and blues (aka R&B or RnB) is a popular music genre combining jazz, gospel, and blues influences — first performed by African American artists. The term was initially used to identify the rocking style of music that combined the 12 bar blues format and boogie-woogie with a back beat, which later became a fundamental element of rock and roll. The words were reversed by Wexler of Atlantic Records, the most aggressive and dominant label in the R&B field in the early years. Roll: An Unruly History” (1995) Robert Palmer defines "rhythm and blues" as a catchall rubric used to refer to any music that was made by and for black Americans. In his 1981 book “Deep Blues” Palmer used "r&b" as a synonym for jump blues. Lawrence Cohn, author of “Nothing But the Blues”, writes that rhythm and blues was an umbrella term invented for industry convenience, which embraced all black music except classical music and religious music, unless a gospel song sold enough to break into the charts.
By the 1970s, rhythm and blues was being used as a blanket term to describe soul and funk. Today the acronym R&B is almost always used instead of the full rhythm and blues, and mainstream use of the term refers to a modern version of soul and funk-influenced pop music that originated as disco became less favorable.
Original rhythm and blues
In its first manifestation, rhythm and blues was one of the predecessors to rock and roll. It was strongly influenced by jazz, jump blues and black gospel music. rhythm and blues, blues, and gospel combined with bebop to create hard bop. The first rock and roll hits consisted of rhythm and blues songs like Rocket 88 and Shake, Rattle and Roll, which appeared on popular music charts as well as R&B charts. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On, the first hit by Jerry Lee Lewis, was an R&B cover song that reached #1 on pop, R&B and country and western charts.
Musicians paid little attention to the distinctions between jazz and rhythm and blues, and frequently recorded both genres. Most of the R&B studio musicians were jazz musicians, and many of the musicians on Charlie Mingus' breakthrough jazz recordings were R&B veterans.
The 1950s was the premier decade for classic rhythm and blues. Overlapping with other genres such as jazz and rock and roll, R&B developed regional variations. Other artists who popularized this Louisiana flavor of R&B included Clarence "Frogman" Henry, Frankie Ford, Irma Thomas, The Neville Brothers and Dr. John.
At the start of their careers in the 1960s, British rock bands like The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds and the Spencer Davis Group were essentially R&B bands.
Contemporary R&B
It was not until the 1980s that the term R&B regained ordinary usage.
R&B today defines a style of African-American music, originating after the demise of disco in 1980, that combines elements of soul music, funk music, pop music, and (after 1986) hip hop in the form known as contemporary R&B. In this context only the abbreviation "R&B" is used, not the full expression.
Sometimes referred to as "urban contemporary" (the name of the radio format that plays hip hop and R&B music) or "urban pop", contemporary R&B is distinguished by a slick, electronic record production style, drum machine-backed rhythms, and a smooth, lush style of vocal arrangement.
R&B in the 2000s
By the 2000s, the cross-pollination between R&B and hip hop had increased to the point where, in most cases, the only prominent difference between a record being a hip hop record or an R&B record is whether its vocals are rapped or sung. Mainstream modern R&B has a sound more based on rhythm than hip hop soul had, and lacks the hardcore and soulful urban "grinding" feel on which hip-hop soul relied. R&B began to focus more on solo artists rather than groups as the 2000s progressed. As of 2005, the most prominent R&B artists include Usher, Beyoncé (formerly of Destiny's Child), and Mariah Carey whose music often blurs the line between contemporary R&B and pop.
Soulful R&B continues to be popular, with artists such as Alicia Keys, R. Some R&B singers have used elements of Caribbean music in their work, especially dancehall and reggaeton. Timbaland, for example, became notable for his hip hop and jungle based syncopated productions in the late-1990s, during which time he produced R&B hits for Aaliyah, Ginuwine, and singer/rapper Missy Elliott. By the end of the decade, Timbaland's influences had shifted R&B songs towards a sound that approximated his own, with slightly less of a hip hop feel. Jon gave R&B artist, Ciara, the title of "The First Lady of Crunk & B", and Brooke Valentinethe Colombian CHARLIE RANDALL and Usher have also recorded R&B songs with strong crunk influences.
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