History of R&B Music
Rhythm and Blues, or R&B music has an interesting and rich history 
behind it. Labeled as a predominately African American favored genre of music, R&B got its start in the 1940s. Billboard Magazine’s Jerry Wexler is given credit for coining the term rhythm and blues in 1948. The history of R&B music goes back a bit further, however.
R&B music was born from the migration of African Americans to urban areas of Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and other cities in the 1930s. Rhythm and Blues is the child of jazz and blues, which became more popular in the ’30s. Louis Jordan, Roy Brown and Billy Wright were some of the forerunners of R&B music, recording songs that reportedly had a “grittier” feel to them than jazz and blues songs previously recorded. Paul Williams had the number one R&B hit in 1949, with “The Huckle-Buck”, which stayed number one for the entire year.
R&B has evolved since it first was introduced in the 1940s. From it’s inception to the 1950s, R&B was mostly used to label blues records. After that, R&B was to include gospel songs and “electric blues” music. During the ’70s, R&B was used to label records as funk, and the ’80s brought about a newer style of R&B music.
The history of R&B music has an eclectic past, being born out of jazz and blues and migrating its way into popular music today. Only time will tell, for music lovers everywhere, what will come next for R&B music.
