Rhythm and blues
In 1948, Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine coined the term rhythm and blues to describe recordings marketed predominantly to African Americans. Before this label existed, record companies used phrases like race music or sepia series to categorize black music for white audiences. The Harlem Hit Parade chart debuted in 1942 as a list of popular records in Harlem before evolving into the R&B charts. By June 1949, Billboard officially replaced the Harlem Hit Parade with its new Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles listing. This category remained unchanged until August 1969 when it became Best Selling Soul Singles. Louis Jordan dominated the top five listings of these early charts in 1948 with three songs based on boogie-woogie rhythms. His band, the Tympany Five, combined saxophone, trumpet, piano, bass, and drums to create what Robert Palmer called urbane, rocking jazz-based music with a heavy insistent beat.
New Orleans musicians began incorporating Afro-Cuban rhythmic motifs into their work during the late 1940s at precisely the moment R&B was first forming. Professor Longhair listened to Perez Prado's mambo records and fell under the spell of Cuban influences while developing his rumba-boogie style. Bartholomew superimposed tresillo over swing rhythm in his 1949 composition Oh Cubanas which placed the word mambo prominently on the record label. Fats Domino recorded Blue Monday produced by Bartholomew as another classic example of tresillo usage within R&B structures. Johnny Otis released Mambo Boogie in January 1951 featuring congas maracas claves and mambo saxophone guajeos embedded within blues progressions. The syncopated straight subdivision feel of Cuban music took root in New Orleans R&B during this period and later influenced James Brown's music before reaching popular music of the 1970s. Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records noted that Afro-Cuban rhythms added color and excitement to the basic drive of R&B.
In July 1951 Cleveland Ohio DJ Alan Freed started a late-night radio show called The Moondog Rock Roll House Party on WJW 850 AM. Freed began referring to the rhythm and blues music he played as rock and roll after receiving sponsorship from Fred Mintz whose record store had primarily African-American clientele. By early 1954 white teenagers across the country turned their musical taste toward rhythm and blues with 40% of sales at Dolphin's Hollywood record shop going to white customers. Little Richard Penniman recorded a demo in 1954 for Specialty Records that catapulted him to fame in 1955 with hits like Tutti Frutti and Long Tall Sally. Ike Turner recorded Rocket 88 at Sam Phillips studio in 1951 which many cite as one of the first records in the rock and roll genre though Turner himself insisted it was simply R&B causing rock and roll to exist. Bo Diddley's debut record Bo Diddley climbed to number two on the R&B charts in spring 1955 popularizing his original clave-based vamp that became a mainstay in rock and roll.
By the early 1960s the music industry category previously known as rhythm and blues was being called soul music while similar music by white artists received the label blue-eyed soul. Motown Records achieved its first million-selling single in 1960 with the Miracles Shop Around while Stax Records scored its first hit later that year with Carla Thomas Gee Whiz Look at His Eyes. The Mar-Keys instrumental Last Night released in 1961 introduced the rawer Memphis soul sound for which Stax became known. In Jamaica R&B influenced the development of ska before black culture and rhythm and blues reached another great achievement when the Grammys added the Rhythm and Blues category in 1969 giving academic recognition to the field. By the 1970s the term rhythm and blues had changed once again and was used as a blanket term for soul funk and disco. Sam Cooke founded Sar records in 1959 alongside Berry Gordy who established Motown Records that same year creating two black-owned labels that would become hugely successful.
In the late 1980s a newer style of R&B developed becoming known as contemporary R&B which combined rhythm and blues with various elements of jazz soul funk disco blues and electronic sounds. Hip-hop started to capture the imagination of America's youth during this period forcing R&B artists to adopt hip-hop images or feature rappers on their songs. Teddy Riley Guy Keith Sweat and Today gained new jack swing hits while Billboard reintroduced R&B in 1990 to categorize all Black popular music other than hip-hop. L.A. Reid CEO of LaFace Records produced some of R&B's greatest successes in the 1990s including Usher TLC and Toni Braxton before successfully marketing Boyz II Men. In 2004 eighty percent of the songs topping the R&B charts also appeared at the top of the Hot 100 marking the all-time peak for R&B and hip hop on radio. From about 2005 to 2013 R&B sales declined until hip-hop began taking cues from the R&B sound choosing to adopt a softer smoother sound incorporating traditional R&B with rappers like Drake who opened an entire new door for the genre.
During the 1940s in the US there was generally little opportunity for Jews in the WASP-controlled realm of mass communications but the music business remained wide open for them as it was for blacks. Milt Gabler born to Jewish immigrants created his own record label Commodore Records in the late 1930s primarily recording producing and promoting black singers and groups. He released Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit in 1939 which Time magazine later named Best Song of the Century boosting her career significantly. Decca Records recruited Gabler in 1941 placing him in charge of their subsidiary label Coral where he continued advancing careers of musicians including the Ink Spots Sammy Davis Jr and Louis Jordan. Gabler became the first person to deal in record reissues the first to sell records by mail order and the first to credit all musicians on recordings. In 1993 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by his nephew Billy Crystal after receiving the Grammy Trustees Award in 1991 for significant contributions to the field of recording.
British rhythm and blues developed in the early 1960s largely as a response to American artist recordings often brought over by African American servicemen stationed in Britain or seamen visiting ports like London Liverpool Newcastle and Belfast. The Rolling Stones covered Bobby Womack & the Valentinos song It's All Over Now giving them their first UK number one hit in 1964 while becoming the second most popular UK band after the Beatles. Bands such as the Yardbirds Animals Graham Bond Organisation and Zoot Money adopted an interest in wider ranges of rhythm and blues styles under blues influence. White R&B musicians popular in the UK included Steve Winwood Frankie Miller Scott Walker & the Walker Brothers the Animals from Newcastle the Spencer Davis Group and Van Morrison & Them from Belfast. Champion Jack Dupree New Orleans blues pianist toured Europe settling there from 1960 living in Switzerland Denmark then Halifax England before finally moving to Germany. The British mod subculture grew out of rhythm and blues and later soul performed by artists not available to small London clubs where the scene originated with bands like the Who performing Motown hits like Heat Wave reflecting young mod lifestyle.
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Common questions
When did Jerry Wexler coin the term rhythm and blues?
Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine coined the term rhythm and blues in 1948 to describe recordings marketed predominantly to African Americans. Before this label existed, record companies used phrases like race music or sepia series to categorize black music for white audiences.
What was the first Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles listing by Billboard?
Billboard officially replaced the Harlem Hit Parade with its new Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles listing by June 1949. This category remained unchanged until August 1969 when it became Best Selling Soul Singles.
How did Afro-Cuban rhythms influence New Orleans R&B musicians?
New Orleans musicians began incorporating Afro-Cuban rhythmic motifs into their work during the late 1940s at precisely the moment R&B was first forming. Professor Longhair listened to Perez Prado's mambo records and fell under the spell of Cuban influences while developing his rumba-boogie style.
Who started the radio show The Moondog Rock Roll House Party on WJW 850 AM?
Cleveland Ohio DJ Alan Freed started a late-night radio show called The Moondog Rock Roll House Party on WJW 850 AM in July 1951. Freed began referring to the rhythm and blues music he played as rock and roll after receiving sponsorship from Fred Mintz whose record store had primarily African-American clientele.
When did the Grammys add the Rhythm and Blues category for academic recognition?
The Grammys added the Rhythm and Blues category in 1969 giving academic recognition to the field. By the 1970s the term rhythm and blues had changed once again and was used as a blanket term for soul funk and disco.