Rhythm And Blues
Rhythm and Blues is the name given to the music that was performed by the blacks in late 1940s to early 1950s. It was previously stated to be as the race music, but after WWII this term became inappropriate under the law. The record companies also used this term to differentiate between music that was played by whites and blacks, when new jazz music played by whites was increasing in popularity. Rhythm and Blues subsequently contributed in the making of Rock and Roll music in 1960s. In 1970s Rhythm and Blues was termed for the music that was religious and gospel based and used electric blues. In early 1990s, Funk music also became a part of the Rhythm and Blues. Currently the new pop music is also considered to be umbrella under the Rhythm and Blues music.
Conventionally, Rhythm and Blues mainly consisted of piano, saxophone, drums, bass and some guitars with backstage vocalists. The main emphasis of the music was on creating momentum and rhythmic interplay during which no single sound was used (Southern, 1971). The singers and members of the groups most of the times were suited and the lyrics were fatalist and it seemed that the music was inevitable in its own respect.
The history of Rhythm and Blues goes back to 1930s when jazz and blue music was famous in the market. Musicians like Leroy Carr and Cab Calloway started to add up some extra features in the existing music creating a lot new sense. It was the first time when guitars started to evolve as the lead instrument with piano and saxophone playing their part in providing it tune and rhythm (Southern, 1971). The trend of playing music in group was also becoming popular with musicians then started to perform it as a fulltime job. Jerry Wexler was the first man who termed this new music, Rhythm and Blues in 1948 (Gazzah, 2008). In the same year first album of purely Rhythm and Blues music was marketed by RCA Victor.
In 1949, Billboard Music Company changed its top ten charts name to Rhythm and Blues to clearly dignify that this music had something special about it that could later prove very beneficial to the music industry. Paul Williams during this time became the first renowned Rhythm and Blues performer by staying on the top of Rhythm and Blues charts for many weeks. In the early 1950s Johnny Otis worked with many African American singers to find number one spot on the charts. He produced many number one songs that later became the trademark of this music. Alan Freed in Ohio also started a late night radio program that was consisted of the singers and musicians who performed on the R&B music (Ripani, 2006). Alan Freed was a DJ and he later stated that he has been playing this music under the name of Rock n Roll, though his statements didn’t provide any proof of it being true.
In the 1950s, various types of R&B music started to evolve, with every musician using blues’ themes and usage of the necessary musical instruments like guitar and saxophone provided whole lot progressiveness to the music. Elvis Presley and James Brown were the most famous singers of that time who sang on the R&B songs like “Tutti Fruiti” and “Long Tall Sally” in the late 1950s. In 1956, a tour was organized which included top 56 artists of that era including Carl Perkins, Shirley & Lee, Al Hibbler, Della Reese and the Cleftones (White, 2003). The tour was a magnificent success. The singers performed in front of thousands of audiences in Columbia, Annapolis, Rochester and Pittsburgh. In the end, the tour was called off because it was creating riot situations where many people got injured. With the success of R&B, film makers started to emphasize more on this music for their movies. In conjunction with Rock n Roll, R&B became the sole owner of the background music in the movies. In 1957 R&B hit the height of its popularity when Elvis Presley released two of his albums. The songs hit the top on many charts for many weeks to follow and Elvis became the greatest ever singer in the history of America.
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