Important points about Rhythm & Blues & Soul!
- Rhythm ‘n’ Blues (“R&B” or “RnB”) is the powerful combination of two old music genres. Gospel (represented by “Rhythm”) and Blues.
- R&B originated in the 1940’s, with a heavy African- American influence.
- R&B can be the middle ground between Blues and Rock, but also between Rap and Pop or Gospel and House, which makes it one of the most accessible music genres.
- Motown was one of the first widely popular versions of R&B/Soul. Motown was a record company that started in Detroit, an all African American company started by Berry Gordy Jr. in the 50’s and 60’s. Artists signed to the Motown records and were taught the “Motown” sound, the label had a formula for creating “pop” music. Artists include: Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, The Marvelettes, The Supremes, The Jackson 5 etc…
- The rhythmic backbeat makes R&B highly danceable, eventually leading to Disco and the concept of nightlife dance culture and clubbing.
- “Soul” is a secular (non-religious) and more pop oriented continuation of Gospel: gentle and emotional songs (usually about love) with high production values.
- R&B led to the genre of “Funk” which reaches out to Jazz and a bit of Rock to create even more rhythmical music.
- Contemporary R&B blends with Rap, Pop and a bit of Latin into a fusion that should function equally well for nightclubbing, album sales, live concerts or radio performances. Therefore Contemporary R&B has become a very dominant music genre and often criticized for commercialism.
- Topics in R&B have changed through the decades, but can be narrowed down to relationships, freedom, economics, aspirations, and sex.
- R&B Artists: Ray Charles, Etta James, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys, Mary J. Blige, SZA, H.E.R., Jhené Aiko etc…
- Instrumentation: Rock band set up: (bass, drums, guitar, vocals), sometimes horns (trumpets, saxophones, etc), piano, sometimes strings.
Sites to reference…