R&B
Few genres have had as much influence on modern contemporary music as R&B and its many branching subgenres. R&B unofficially “began” in the mid-1940s when the actual term Rhythm and Blues was coined as a way to replace terms like “race music” which were used to describe any African-American secular music. R&B has seen many evolutions since its inception, with Gospel and Blues being commonly seen as the biggest inspirations for the first forms of R&B. Since then many different subgenres sprouted out from the soil of R&B, including sounds like funk, disco, hip hop, new jack swing, soul and so many more, with each of these main diversions having their own subgenres that can be traced back to the inception of R&B. Mainstays in the early years of R&B include artists like Fats Domino, James Brown, Sam Cooke or Ray Charles. Around the 1970s, original R&B evolved into what has now come to be known as soul, with artists like Teddy Pendergrass, Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Aretha Franklin or Marvin Gaye with Motown Records paving the way for future record companies in the genre. From this came the idea of “progressive soul” which focused more on social issues, artists like Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder again, Parliament or Earth, Wind and Fire being a part of it. Later in the 1980s came artists like Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson or Prince leading the way for a new form of R&B that incorporated new producing technology into their work, which can be heard with more electronic sounds seeping into the music. This evolution of R&B can still be seen in modern pop music, with Michael Jackson and Prince being trailblazers for its prominence. In the 90s came a similar form of R&B with things like new jack swing, which incorporated beats and tracks from the rising genre of hip hop, while featuring R&B singers over them. This can be seen in early forms with groups like New Edition and its former members Bobby Brown, and Bell Biv Devoe. In the late 90s and early 2000s came the inception of neo-soul which took more inspiration from the soul of the 1970s and combined it with contemporary inspirations, with artists like Erykah Badu, D’Angelo and Lauryn Hill paving the way for it. Modern R&B, while distinct, still pulls many inspirations, techniques and sounds from its ancestors with many new forms and ideas being produced every year. There is no one sound to describe R&B, but each of its splintering genres can be heard in music all across the globe.
