Rhythm & Blues

“Rhythm & blues” emerged in the late 1940s as a Billboard chart term replacing “race records,” describing upbeat, danceable Black popular music that fused blues harmony and forms with swing-era rhythmic drive. Wartime migrations, nightclub circuits, and independent labels (e.g., Atlantic, Chess, Specialty) nurtured the sound. Jump blues bandleaders like Louis Jordan popularized small-group horn sections, boogie‑woogie bass, and humorous, streetwise lyrics.

R&B hits by Ruth Brown, Big Joe Turner, Fats Domino, and Ray Charles crossed over to pop audiences. The music’s backbeat, electric guitars, and vocal stylings directly catalyzed rock ’n’ roll; artists such as Little Richard and Chuck Berry drew on R&B’s rhythmic feel, blues changes, and stage energy. Meanwhile, doo‑wop vocal groups evolved from R&B balladry and gospel-inflected harmonies.

R&B’s church-infused vocals and tighter arrangements evolved into soul (Motown, Stax/Volt), while James Brown pushed toward funk via rhythmic minimalism and accent displacement. Across the Atlantic, British bands adapted R&B repertoires, feeding the British Invasion. In Jamaica, American R&B on sound systems influenced ska and, later, rocksteady and reggae.

Classic R&B informed funk and disco, which later fed hip hop. The term “R&B” also broadened: by the 1980s–90s, “contemporary R&B” blended soul vocals with pop production, drum machines, and hip‑hop rhythms, preserving the lineage while updating the palette.

R&B’s backbeat, blues-based harmony, and call‑and‑response performance practice remain embedded in global popular music, underpinning rock, soul, funk, modern R&B, and much of dance and club culture.