Rhythm and Blues (RnB) Rhythm and blues, also called as RnB or R&B is a well-known music genre that combined gospel, jazz, and blues influences. African American artists first performed this music genre. Billboard Magazine’s Jerry Wexler coined the term RnB in the United States for marketing purposes (Stone). This music genre is also recognized as one of the descendants of gospel music, spirituals, jazz, blues, and ragtime. It can also be considered as a complete evolution of its predecessors. It has an arrangement rhythm and vocal style that dominates over the racially charged lyrics and raw emotional content. It seems that the stagnation of the white pop music during the 1930s led to the emergence of danceable and more socially accessible …show more content…
The economic boom of the post-war era and the decline of costs of recording technology led to the emergence independent labels such as Atlantic Labels and Chess Records. Since major labels like Decca, RCA and Capitol solely focused on major pop stars, these independent labels focused instead to alternative kinds of music. They are hoping that they would find market niches that were ignored by the major recording labels. RnB serve as a great opportunity for them. They were delighted because it has a large demand from black audiences and some selected white listeners. Because the sales of RnB records soared, independent labels searched for new black performers to record since they want to increase their income further from the genre’s popularity. Major recording companies followed suit since they were unwilling to allow independent labels to earn all the profits. T-Bone Walker signed with Capitol and Arthur Crudup signed with RCA. These legendary performers created records intended for the black market. Even though white people control and handle black-oriented radio stations and record labels, African American musicians had more opportunities to create their music for a consumer audience. In the long-term, they also overcome boundaries of racial differences. RnB helped the Black Americans to introduce their culture to the white people who were previously unaware (Gallagher and Lippard …show more content…
White performers and musicians including Bill Haley and His Comets, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley borrowed sounds and songs of RnB when they started their careers during the 1950s. Presley’s popular “Hound Dog” was originally produced by Big Mama Thornton while Otis Blackwell originally produced “Great Balls of Fire” of Lewis. Big Joe Turner originally produced “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” that was later popularized into rock and roll song by Haley. Even though these popular rock and roll performers changed RnB into rock and roll by integrating some elements of country music, they are clearly indebted to the RnB performers. Nevertheless, the popularity of rock and roll also increased the popularity of RnB versions of those songs and even the RnB performers. As more RnB songs reached the pop charts, black musicians had better opportunities for financial success as artists (Gallagher and Lippard