R&B Styles

Rhythm and blues, which is most commonly referred to as R & B, is comprised of a variety of different but related styles. This title often encompasses such styles as jump blues, club blues, black rock and roll, doo wop, soul, motown, funk, disco, and rap. The term rhythm and blues was originally coined in 1949 by Jerry Wexler.

Throughout the 20th century, R & B has been the largest influence on popular music all over the world. The influence can even be seen in forms of rock, country and western, gospel, and jazz. Despite the fact that there are many styles, there are common musical and social elements that link them. The musical rhythm is clearly the most important and distinguishing element.

All the genres of R & B typically depend upon a four-beat measure and a backbeat (the accentuation of beats two and four). However, the specific approach to the expression of this musical time (the "groove") is the primary differentiation between one genre and another. Except for rap, the performing ensemble is generally divided into a rhythm section and a horn section.

Origin::

Rhythm and blues originated from the massive social, industrial, and technological upheaval that took place in the United States just prior to and during World War II. Hundreds of black americans began moving northward into cities as high paying wartime employment opportunities became available. New musical styles were created to meet the emerging tastes of this demographic group. Thus, the new urbane sounds of rhythm and blues were developed. In addition, technological changes in music took place. The invention of the electric guitar and the tape recorder were major influences on rhythm and blues. The recording process was now simplified and companies were developed solely around distributing R & B music.

Early R & B Styles:

Club blues, a subdued style of R & B began early as pianists like Nat King Cole and Charles Brown gained greater acclaim. At the same time, jump blues, an up-tempo style that featured horns, began developing. During the l950s rhythm and blues began catering to a teenage audience, rather than an adult one. In addition, black rock and roll developed and forever changed American culture. Many artists began subdividing the basic quarter note into eighth-notes as opposed to the triplet or shuffle subdivision, the subdivision that was most commonly used in earlier rhythm and blues.

Motown and Soul Music:

The 1960s were marked by three main styles: 1. Chicago soul (influenced by gospel music); 2. Motown sound; and 3) southern soul. Each style had its own key features and musicians who made it popular.

Funk and Disco:

During the late 1960s, changes in cultural views began to be articulated by many black Americans. These changes were quickly reflected in rhythm and blues music in the development of funk. Funk de-emphasized melody and harmony and made rhythm the most important element. Disco also developed during this time and rivaled funk's popularity.

Dance and Rap:

During the 1980s and 1990s, superstars like Prince, Michael Jackson, and Janet Jackson created a new style by borrowing from funk and other dance styles. Rap was the most significant development in popular music during this time period. The roots of rap lie in African and African American verbal games. The first rap recording was "Rapper's Delight" by Sugarhill Gang in 1979, and it became a novelty hit almost immediately. It wasn't until 1986, however, when Run-DMC re-recorded "Walk this Way" (a popular Aerosmith song) that rap gained popularity among white audiences

R & B Styles Detail

Contemporary R&B:

Contemporary R&B Styles
Contemporary R&B developed after years of urban R&B. Like urban, contemporary R&B is slickly produced, but many of the musicians -- Maxwell, D'Angelo, Terence Trent D'Arby -- are obsessed with bringing the grit, spirit, and ambitiousness of classic soul (Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding) back to contemporary soul and R&B.
Neo-Soul

Early R&B

Early R & B
Evolving out of jump blues in the late '40s, R&B laid the groundwork for rock & roll. R&B kept the tempo and the drive of jump blues, but its instrumentation was sparer and the emphasis was on the song, not improvisation. It was blues chord changes played with an insistent backbeat. During the '50s, R&B was dominated by vocalists like Ray Charles and Ruth Brown, as well as vocal groups like the Drifters and the Coasters. Eventually, R&B metamorphosed into soul, which was funkier and looser than the pile-driving rhythms of R&B.
Doo Wop
New Orleans R&B
Swamp Pop

Funk

Funk
Named after a slang word for "stink," funk was indeed the rawest, most primal form of R&B, surpassing even Southern soul in terms of earthiness. It was also the least structured, often stretching out into extended jams, and the most Africanized, built on dynamic, highly syncopated polyrhythms. As such, it originally appealed only to hardcore R&B audiences. The groove was the most important musical element of funk -- all the instruments of the ensemble played off of one another to create it, and worked it over and over. Deep electric bass lines often served as main riffs, with an interlocking web of short, scratchy guitar chords and blaring horns over the top. Unlike nearly every form of R&B that had come before it, funk didn't confine itself to the 45-rpm single format and the classic verse/chorus song structure. Funk bands were just as likely to repeat a catchy chant or hook out of the blue, and to give different song sections equal weight, so as not to disrupt the groove by building to a chorus-type climax. In essence, funk allowed for more freedom and improvisation, and in that respect it was similar to what was happening around the same time in blues-rock, psychedelia, and hard rock (in fact, Jimi Hendrix was a major inspiration for funk guitar soloists). The roots of funk lay in James Brown's post-1965 soul hits, particularly "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (1965) and "Cold Sweat" (1967). Sly & the Family Stone, who started out as a soul band influenced by rock and psychedelia, became a full-fledged (albeit pop-savvy) funk outfit with 1969's Stand!. However, the record that officially ushered in the funk era was James Brown's epochal "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine." The arrangement was spare, the groove hard-hitting, and Brown's lyrics were either stream-of-consciousness slogans or wordless noises. Brown followed it with more records over the course of 1970 that revolutionized R&B, and paved the way for the third artist of funk's holy trinity, George Clinton. Clinton's Parliament and Funkadelic outfits made funk the ultimate party music, not just with their bizarre conceptual humor, but their sheer excess -- huge ensembles of musicians and dancers, all jamming on the same groove as long as they possibly could. Thanks to Sly, Brown, and Clinton, many new and veteran R&B acts adopted funk as a central style during the '70s. Funk gradually became smoother as disco came to prominence in the mid- to late '70s, and lost much of its distinguishing earthiness. However, it had a major impact on jazz (both fusion and soul-jazz), and became the musical foundation of hip-hop. Thanks to the latter, funk enjoyed a renaissance during the '90s, especially among white audiences who rushed to explore its original classics.
Deep Funk

Hip-Hop/Urban

Hip Hop / Urban
Hip-Hop and Urban music emerged in the late '70s, and their histories have often been intertwined. Urban Soul grew out of the smooth stylings of Philly Soul and the slick dance of disco. Urban owed as much (if not more) to mainstream pop as it did to classic soul, and with its layers of synthesizers, slick production and reliance on ballads, Urban Soul rarely sounded like soul. It did sound like pop, which is one of the reasons why it became the dominant African-American music genre in the '80s. Some musicians, such as Michael Jackson and Prince, enlivened the genre by turning conventions on their ear, but most Urban artists simply followed the conventions, both for better (Luther Vandross) or for worse. By the end of the decade, Urban had tentatively incorporated Hip-Hop innovations. Hip-Hop is the catch-all term for rap and the culture it spawned. Initially, rap was quite simple, with vocalists rapping over scratched records and drum beats, but as it progressed it became more complex. Hardcore rappers, such as Run-D.M.C. and Boogie Down Productions, kept the beats minimal and emphasized the lyrics, while occasionally adding hard-rock guitars. They paved the way for Public Enemy, whose edgy, political rhymes and dense, sample-heavy beats were the trailblazing sound of the late '80s and early '90s. By that time, Urban had assimilated Hip-Hop in the form of New Jack Swing -- Urban soul that had rap rhythms. Furthermore, such rappers as MC Hammer, Young MC and Vanilla Ice smoothed over Hip-Hop's rougher edges to make the first successful pop-rap singles. Some rap groups, such as N.W.A., responded with gangsta rap. N.W.A. adopted PE's sound but concentrated on cartoonish tales of violence, crime and sex, but as the group splintered, with Ice Cube, Eazy-E and Dr. Dre taking solo careers, gangsta rap took an interesting spin. Under the direction of Dre, gangsta embraced the rolling beats and heavy bass of Funkadelic. Sonically, this was considerably less confrontational than Public Enemy's blueprint, and soon this sound crossed over into Urban in the form of such vocalists as Mary J. Blige. Within a few years, post-gangsta rappers like Puff Daddy had blurred the lines between Hip-Hop and Urban soul so well, that the two were impossible to distinguish.
Alternative Rap
Bass Music
British Rap
Christian Rap
Comedy Rap
Contemporary R&B
Dirty Rap
Dirty South
East Coast Rap
G-Funk
Gangsta Rap
Go-Go
Golden Age
Hardcore Rap
Jazz-Rap
Latin Rap
Left-Field Hip-Hop
Midwest Rap
New Jack Swing
Old-School Rap
Party Rap
Political Rap
Pop-Rap
Post-Disco
Quiet Storm
Reggaeton
Southern Rap
Turntablism
Underground Rap
Urban
West Coast Rap

R&B Soul

R & B Soul
Evolving out of jump blues in the late '40s, R&B laid the groundwork for rock & roll. R&B kept the tempo and the drive of jump blues, but its instrumentation was sparer and the emphasis was on the song, not improvisation. It was blues chord changes played with an insistent backbeat. During the '50s, R&B was dominated by vocalists like Ray Charles and Ruth Brown, as well as vocal groups like the Drifters and the Coasters. Eventually, R&B metamorphosed into soul, which was funkier and looser than the pile-driving rhythms of R&B. Soul came to describe a number of R&B-based music styles. From the bouncy, catchy acts at Motown to the horn-driven, gritty soul of Stax/Volt, there was an immense amount of diversity within soul. During the first part of the '60s, soul music remained close to its R&B roots. However, musicians pushed the music in different directions; usually, different regions of America produced different kinds of soul. In urban centers like New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, the music concentrated on vocal interplay and smooth productions. In Detroit, Motown concentrated on creating a pop-oriented sound that was informed equally by gospel, R&B, and rock & roll. In the South, the music became harder and tougher, relying on syncopated rhythms, raw vocals, and blaring horns. All of these styles formed soul, which ruled the black music charts throughout the '60s and also frequently crossed over into the pop charts. At the end of the '60s, soul began to splinter apart, as artists like James Brown and Sly Stone developed funk, and other artists developed slicker forms of soul. Although soul music evolved, it never went away -- not only did the music inform all of the R&B of the '70s, '80s, and '90s, there were always pockets of musicians around the world that kept performing traditional soul.
Beach
Blaxploitation
Blue-Eyed Soul
Brown-Eyed Soul
Chicago Soul
Country Soul
Deep Funk
Deep Funk Revival
Deep Soul
Disco
Doo Wop
Early R&B
Freestyle
Funk
Go-Go
Latin Soul
Memphis Soul
Motown
Neo-Soul
New Orleans R&B
Northern Soul
Philly Soul
Pop-Soul
Psychedelic Soul
Retro-Soul
Smooth Soul
Soul
Southern Soul
Uptown Soul
Urban

Soul

Soul

Soul music was the result of the urbanization and commercialization of rhythm and blues in the '60s. Soul came to describe a number of R&B-based music styles. From the bouncy, catchy acts at Motown to the horn-driven, gritty soul of Stax/Volt, there was an immense amount of diversity within soul. During the first part of the '60s, soul music remained close to its R&B roots. However, musicians pushed the music in different directions; usually, different regions of America produced different kinds of soul. In urban centers like New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, the music concentrated on vocal interplay and smooth productions. In Detroit, Motown concentrated on creating a pop-oriented sound that was informed equally by gospel, R&B, and rock & roll. In the South, the music became harder and tougher, relying on syncopated rhythms, raw vocals, and blaring horns. All of these styles formed soul, which ruled the black music charts throughout the '60s and also frequently crossed over into the pop charts. At the end of the '60s, soul began to splinter apart, as artists like James Brown and Sly Stone developed funk, and other artists developed slicker forms of soul. Although soul music evolved, it never went away -- not only did the music inform all of the R&B of the '70s, '80s, and '90s, there were always pockets of musicians around the world that kept performing traditional soul

Urban

Urban
Also known as urban contemporary, Urban was the term given to the R&B/soul music of the 1980s and '90s. Like quiet storm and Philly soul, both strong influences, urban was very smooth and polished, but while its romantic ballads fit well into quiet storm radio formats, urban also had room for uptempo, funky dance tracks, which usually boasted the same high-tech, radio-ready production and controlled yet soulful vocals. That's why, in spite of its name, urban didn't usually have the earthy grit associated with the term "soul music," preferring to tone down the raw emotion in favor of a slick refinement. Up until the late '80s, most urban music was highly pop-oriented, often in melody but nearly always in terms of production. A number of artists -- like Janet Jackson, Billy Ocean, and Whitney Houston -- crossed over from the R&B charts to the pop charts, although there were others like Freddie Jackson, Luther Vandross, Stephanie Mills, and Levert whose R&B popularity never translated quite the same way. The urban landscape began to shift with the advent of hip-hop; producer and Guy member Teddy Riley crafted a fusion of the two, inserted occasional rap breaks, and dubbed it new jack swing. New jack made a superstar of Bobby Brown and proved greatly beneficial to his ex-New Edition mates as well. In addition to Riley, songwriting/production duos whose work straddled pop and R&B -- like Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis (Janet Jackson), Denzil Foster & Thomas McElroy (En Vogue), and Antonio "L.A." Reid & Babyface -- dominated urban music at the turn of the decade, with Babyface going on to a hugely successful singing career in his own right. Urban and hip-hop continued to cross-pollinate during the early '90s, eventually resulting in a new hybrid tagged "hip-hop soul." Hip-hop soul was rooted in new jack swing, but the beats were funkier, more elastic and unpredictable; while hip-hop soul was still slickly produced, it had a grittier, more soulful feel than new jack. There was still a side of urban that retained roots in quiet storm and adult contemporary, though, and regardless of which side of the spectrum they fell on, the songs were increasingly becoming showpieces for elaborate vocal technique. Partly owing to the steep decline of mainstream pop/rock in the wake of alternative, urban more or less dominated the pop singles charts for the latter half of the '90s, with major acts including Mary J. Blige, Toni Braxton, R. Kelly, Boyz II Men, SWV, Blackstreet, Jodeci, Monica, and Brandy, among others
New Jack Swing
Quiet Storm