What is R&B Music?

Rhythm and Blues music, or R&B music, was originally termed "race music" and basically included any form of music intended for black audiences. A combination of jazz, gospel, and blues, the term "R&B" was originally coined in the late 1940s in the United States to be used as a less offensive marketing term. While R&B music has evolved over the years to spawn contemporary genres of R&B sounds, the original genre focused on boogie rhythms and included such famous acts as Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. The end of World War II produced a surprising call for race music, and the R&B music genre took off as a result.

Today’s contemporary R&B music has a distinctly different sound than its forebears, focusing on pop beats and culture rather than the blues, gospel and jazz sounds of previous generations (though those elements are still sometimes present). In the late 1940s and into the fifties, R&B groups consisted of brass instruments and woodwinds, as well as drums, piano and vocals. These elements were common in jazz bands, but R&B musicians produced a heavier sound with a steady beat. As the fifties progressed, the genre became notable for its sexually suggestive lyrics and provocative dancing associated with it. 

As the genre progressed throughout the decades, R&B music started becoming known as soul music; it was also no longer exclusively made by black artists. White musicians started composing R&B songs, though the genre was still dominated by black artists like Chubby Checker, Sam Cooke, and bands like The Miracles. R&B lyrics still focused on segregation and racial issues like past musical genres associated with black musicians, but arrangement and musical style was becoming more important than lyrical content. Artists like Muddy Waters descended upon Chicago’s south side, the new center of R&B music.

Electric guitars began to play a part in the instrumentation as a result of Waters’ proficiency, and the genre began to evolve once again. As the genre progressed and caught on in society, it helped dispel the commonly held belief that so-called "black" music was for black people only. The genre transcended race relations and survived through extremely tenuous race relations in the United States, and as a result, R&B music carved its own niche in the U.S. music scene.

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