History

Rhythm and Blues is a combination of several styles of music.  The genre of R&B was created by black artists combining jazz, blues, gospel and vocal-harmony.  The term "the blues" refers to the "the blue devils", meaning melancholy and sadness; its first recorded use to describe music is 1912. The social and economic reasons for the appearance of the blues are not fully known. The first appearance of the blues is often dated after the Emancipation Act of 1863,between 1870 and 1900, a period that coincides with Emancipation and, later, the development of juke.  The transition from country to urban blues, which began in the 1920s, had always been driven by the successive waves of economic crisis and booms and the associated move of the rural Blacks to urban areas, the Great Migration. This allowed these Southern Blacks to bring their rhythms and combine them with the music of the North creating a unique sound that was a mixture of countless different styles.  The biggest growth in R&B occurred after World War II.  Before WWII, R&B was known as race music.  Race music included gospel and jazz influenced and was produced by black artists for a black audience.  After WWII, the genre of R&B acquired its last component: gospel.  R&B then became an urban music originating in cities such as Chicago, Memphis, New York, and New Orleans.  Looking for new music to dance to, “jump bands” were created, bands whose rhythms sounded like they were jumping along because of their bouncing tempos and the bright sound, and these bands led to R&B bands.  Formed in 1934, The Ink Spots were among the first R&B bands and added the vocal-harmony called doo-wop.  Doo-wop singing uses nonsense syllables which add rhythmic vocal-harmony to the song.    Rhythm and Blues was created by black, urban musicians.  Two of the most important urban areas contributing to R&B were Chicago and New Orleans. R&B had many flavors but one consistent sound.  With the addition of the electric guitar, soulful lyrics, and the use of bouncing or boogie-woogie rhythms, Rhythm and Blues was born.

BB King

One of the most influential blues artists of all time is BB King. He began playing guitar at a young age, on street corners for dimes, and would sometimes play in as many as four towns a night.   King’s first big break came in 1948 when he performed on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio program on KWEM out of West Memphis. King assembled his own band; the B.B. King Review, and in the 1950s, B.B. King became one of the most important names in R&B music. He won a Grammy for his song “The Thrill is Gone” which was extremely rare for blues artists at the time, as the genre still had not found a specific structure. Soon after his number one hit, B.B. began touring nationally, and in 1956 alone, B.B. and his band played in 342 different venues.  He has been credited with introducing blues to a much broader audience.  Until King began playing, blues had largely been this niche genre with very little support from beyond the African-American community.  His biggest influences were on Rock and Roll. The blues' twelve-bar structure and the blues scale was a major influence on rock and roll music and is the basis for most modern country as well.  B.B. has mixed traditional blues, jazz, swing, mainstream pop and jump into a unique sound.  It is this mix that has allowed him to have the influence that he has today.  

Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye was one of the more influential R&B artists.  Gaye began his career as a drummer, but later a singer in 1961 in the black neighborhoods of Washington, D. C.  His music was the mainstream black music which led to the production of early Rock and Roll and the Motown Sound.  His lyrics were influential upon Americans because they spoke of current issues such as the Civil Rights Movements and the Vietnam War.  However, Gaye’s lyrics were not his only influence.

From a musical perspective, Gaye made changes to the way music was produced.  In the studio Gaye produced his last big hit, Sexual Healing in 1982.  His hit was on the R&B Billboard songs chart for ten weeks.  This song pulled on all forms of the R&B sound but included two new recording techniques.  He dubbed his vocal tracks to make a smoother, more-complete sound.  In addition, it was the first produced-song to use a drum machine instead of a human drummer.  These new techniques would change the way all future music would be recorded.

by Chris Denny and Eric Zarcone

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