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Some
info about music genres: R&B and Soul Music
R&B
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Elvis
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Rhythm and blues (or R & B) is a musical marketing term introduced in the United States in the late 1940s by Billboard magazine.
It replaced the term race music, which was deemed
offensive. To some extent, the kind of music it is attached to has changed to
whatever form of contemporary music is popular with African-American pop musicians and
audiences.
In its first manifestation, rhythm and blues was a black version of a
predecessor to rock and
roll. It was strongly influenced by jazz, jump music as well as
black gospel music, and
influenced jazz in return.
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Fender Quilt-Top Jazz Bass Cherry Sunburst
 
Fender Reggie Hamilton Jazz Bass 3-Tone Sunburst
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In the 50s, white artists like Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins made the sounds of black music acceptable to white middle class listeners, paving the way for the popularity of black performers like Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino. Even Pat Boone's version of "Tutti Fruiti" played its part.
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Fats
Domino
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Jerry
Lee Lewis
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The first rock and roll consisted of
rhythm and blues songs like "Rocket 88" and "Shake, Rattle and Roll" making an appearance on the popular music charts as well as the R&B charts. "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", the first hit by Jerry Lee Lewis was an R&B cover song that made number one on pop, R&B and country and western charts.
Musicians paid little attention to the distinction between jazz and rhythm and
blues, and frequently recorded in both genres. Numerous swing bands (for
example, Jay McShann's, Tiny Bradshaw's, and Johnny Otis's) also recorded
rhythm and blues.
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Most of the studio musicians in R&B were jazz musicians. And it worked in
the other direction as well. Many of the musicians on Charlie Mingus's breakthrough jazz recordings
were R&B veterans. Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson was a one-man fusion, a bebop* saxman and a blues shouter.
It was not in the US but through the thriving UK pop scene of the early 1960s that R&B
reached the height of its popularity. Without the same kind of racial
distinctions that refused it acceptance in the USA, white British performers and
listeners adopted this novel style of music without question, and groups such as
The Rolling
Stones and Manfred
Mann brought it to a wider audience.
The term fell into disfavor in the 1960s being replaced by soul music and Motown, but has re-emerged in recent years indicating
black popular music encompassing pop heavily influenced by hip-hop, funk, and
soul music. In this context
only the abbreviation R&B is used, not the full expression. It is
gaining popularity nowadays. -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythm_and_blues
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Today, of
course, we can listen to any music we like, and popular artists freely find
inspiration in music from all traditions. But whether your favorite music is
rock 'n' roll, rhythm & blues, jazz, blues, shaggin' beach music, rap,
bebop or hip hop, you can trace its roots straight back to African-American
music, and those early, scratchy race records.
Notable Artists: Ray Charles; Ruth Brown;
Brook Benton; Big Maybelle
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R.
Kelly
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Soul Music
Soul music
is fundamentally
rhythm and blues, which grew out of the
African-American
gospel
and
blues
traditions during the late
1950s
and early
1960s
in the
United States
. Over time, much of the broad range
of R&B extensions in African-American popular music, generally, also has
come to be considered soul music. Traditional soul music usually features
individual singers backed by a traditional band consisting of rhythm section and
horns.
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Little
Richard
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Music produced by white musicians which is stylistically similar to black
soul music sometimes is called
blue-eyed soul.
The development of soul music was spurred by two main trends: the urbanization
of R&B and the secularization of gospel. Artists like Ben E. King, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and The Staple Singers mixed the passion of
gospel vocals with the catchy, rhythmic music of R&B, thus forming soul in
the late 1950s. Socially, the vast audience of white teens who had been
listening to (primarily) watered-down, white covers of black R&B and rock
hits began demanding records by the original black artists, such as Little Richard and Chuck Berry.
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During the 1960s, soul music was popular
among blacks in the US, and among many mainstream listeners throughout the United States and Europe. Artists like "Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight and the
"Godfather of Soul" James Brown have had enduring
careers.
Most blue-eyed soul
artists, like the Righteous Brothers, achieved only short-term
success.
By the early 1970s, soul music had been influenced by psychedelic rock and other influences. The social and political ferment of the times inspired artists like Marvin Gaye (What's Going On) and Curtis Mayfield (Superfly) to release album-length statements with hard-hitting social commentary. Artists like James
Brown led soul towards more dance-oriented music, resulting in funk music.
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James
Brown
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During the 70s, some highly slick and commercial blue-eyed soul acts like
Philadelphia's Hall
& Oates achieved mainstream success, as well as a new generation of
street-corner harmony or "city-soul" groups like The Delfonics and Howard University's Unifics. By the end of the
70s, disco was dominating the charts and
funk, Philly soul and most other genres were dominated by disco-inflected
tracks.
After the death of disco in the late 1970s, the popularity of soul music
remained strong.
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Laurin
Hill
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Female soul singers like Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson gained great popularity during the
last half of the decade; and Tina Turner, then in her 50s, came back with a
series of hits with crossover appeal.
In the early 1990s, alternative rock, heavy metal and gangsta rap ruled the charts, though New Jack Swing groups began to merge hip hop and
soul. Boyz II Men was among
the most popular of these groups, but quickly fell out of favor.
During the later part of the decade, nu
soul, which further mixed hip hop and soul, arose, led by Mary J. Blige, D'Angelo and Lauryn Hill.-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_music
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Motown
Motown, also known as Tamla-Motown outside the U.S., is a record label founded on December 14, 1959 by Berry Gordy, Jr. in Detroit, Michigan ("Motor Town"), and named for the city's association with the automobile industry.
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In the 1960s it was the most successful proponent of what came to be known as The Motown Sound, a style of soul music with distinctive characteristics
including the use of tambourine
along with drums, bass instrumentation, and a 'call and response' singing
style originating in gospel
music.
The Motown Sound
While there were popular African American musicians prior to the 1960s,
including Louis
Armstrong, Ethel
Waters, Mamie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Louis Jordan, and Chuck Berry, Motown was the
most consistently chart-topping genre until hip-hop.
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The cover to the Jackson 5's first LP, Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5,
released on Motwn Records in 1969
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In contrast to previous genres of black
popular music, Motown soul used African-American performers instead of grooming
white musicians for crossover fame. It was also among the first genres of
African-American popular music to move beyond simple lyricisms into the realm of
socio-political topics, allowing for a wide range of African-American viewpoints
to be expressed in song.
The Motown Sound was also defined by the use of orchestration, string
sections, charted horn sections, carefully arranged harmonies and other more
refined pop music production techniques. It was also one of the first styles of
pop music of that era wherein girl
groups--including The
Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas and The Marvelettes--were
showcased as an act, as opposed to individual female artists.
History
Berry Gordy, Jr. got his start as a songwriter for local Detroit acts such as Jackie Wilson and the Matadors. In 1959, he started his own record label, Tamla Records.
Also in 1959, Gordy purchased the property that would become Motown's Hitsville U.S.A.
studio and offices.
Among its early artists were Mabel John, Mary Wells, and Barrett Strong. By the mid-1960, the label, with the help of songwriters and producers such as Robinson and Holland-Dozier-Holland, was a major force in the music industry.
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Stevie
Wonder
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In the 1960's (from 1961 to 1971) , Motown had 110 Top 10 hits and artists such as Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Temptations, The Jackson 5 and Gladys Knight & the Pips were
all signed to Motown Records. After Holland-Dozier-Holland left the label in 1968 over royalty payment disputes, the quality
of the Motown output began to decline, as well as the frequency with which its
artists scored #1 hits. Even so, Motown still boasted a roster of successful
artists during the 1970s and 1980s, including Lionel Richie and The Commodores and DeBarge.
Motown relocated from Detroit to Los Angeles in 1972 and attempted to branch out into the motion picture industry, turning out films such as Lady Sings the
Blues, The Wiz, and The Last
Dragon.
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Berry Gordy sold his ownership in Motown to MCA (Music Corporation of America - a music booking company and a record label) and Boston Ventures in June 1988 for $61 million. Today a subsidiary of Universal Music, Motown is still active as a record label, and has been home to artists such as Boyz II Men, Erykah Badu, and India.Arie. Stevie Wonder and The Temptations are still signed to Motown to this day. Over the course of its history, the Motown Corporation has owned or distributed more than 45 labels in varying genres.
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Examples
- "ABC" by The Jackson
5
- "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by Diana Ross and The Supremes
- "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" by Marvin Gaye
- "It's The Same Old Song" by The Four Tops
- "My Girl" by The
Temptations
-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motown
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Diana
Ross
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*bebop or bop - is a form of jazz which uses a fast tempo and complex improvisational techniques. It was developed in the early and mid-1940s. Hard bop later developed from bebop combined with blues and gospel music. -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebop
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