History of R&B Genre
R&B, its original name, rhythm and blues, was first created by African Americans that involved elements of music from both blues and jazz. R&B music became increasingly popular in recent years because of its dance trait and heavy repeated beat.
Throughout the 1940's to 1970's, inequality was still present, and the R&B genre stayed very much with the African-American society. Many songs expressed how life was growing up as an African American, one in particular, that many modern artists have covered, is 'A Change Is Gonna Come' by Sam Cooke. This is an iconic R&B song, which dominated the genre in its time period. Growing up around racial abuse and social inequality, the song was very popular in the African American community, and is still very popular to this day.
Throughout the 1940's to 1970's, inequality was still present, and the R&B genre stayed very much with the African-American society. Many songs expressed how life was growing up as an African American, one in particular, that many modern artists have covered, is 'A Change Is Gonna Come' by Sam Cooke. This is an iconic R&B song, which dominated the genre in its time period. Growing up around racial abuse and social inequality, the song was very popular in the African American community, and is still very popular to this day.
From the 1980's onward, R&B and Soul music started to become to different genres. The 1980's to early 1990's was when artists such as Luther Vandross bought a much smoother, sensual style to R&B. Comparing 'A Change is Gonna Come' by Sam Cooke, with 'Never Too Much' by Luther Vandross, you can see the similarities in musical instruments and rhythm used in both time periods. The main differences between the two songs is the faster and bouncier beat in 'Never Too Much'. This is the time period in which R&B music started to become more modern, with faster beats and rhythms.
All these artists played a huge influence on the more recent R&B artists and groups such as Boyz ii Men. This was one of the last groups that held the traditional R&B sound, without involving dance/electronic music, and excluding rap and hip hop, which was now becoming increasingly popular in all societies, not just the African American's. Boyz II Men also introduced the R&B genre to music videos. In 1994, Boyz II Men released ' I'll Make Love To You', which was accompanied with a video, which included both narrative and performance. Boyz II Men were extremely popular throughout their time all the way up to 2011, and still touring in 2013. Boyz II Men were the foundation of many artists that are now classes as R&B/Pop.
In the recent years, artists such as NE-YO, Usher, Chris Brown, and many more, have built on the foundations that these iconic artists made. At this point, the distinction between R&B, Hip Hop, Dance and Soul were clear. In recent years however, many artists in these genres have collaborated with each other to produce music that have bots of different genres in them. NE-YO for example, had Boyz II Men as inspiration, which lead to his music being very similar to theirs. By looking at the lyrics of popular NE-YO songs and comparing them to popular Boyz II Men songs, you can see clear similarities in themes and ideologies. NE-YO, and other R&B artists started to make more and more songs, which were accompanied by music videos. This brings the R&B genre all the way from 1963, when African Americans are excluded from society, to 2013, where equal rights and equality have been established in the modern world.