Rhythm and Blues Emerges

What is Rhythm and Blues, how did it develop, and what is its relationship to Rock and Roll?

Know (knowledge):

• The historical development of Rhythm and Blues (R&B) as a genre
• R&B’s relationship to Rock and Roll
• The role of labels like Atlantic Records in circulating R&B to both a black and a white audience

Be able to (skills):

• Extrapolate arguments about music by assessing sound, mood, tone, instrumentation
• Draw connections among various print, audio and visual texts
• Write creatively for personal and/or small group expression
• Compare and contrast texts, arguments and ideas

All popular music comes from somewhere. But when innovative music gets on the radio, the television, or to the public's ears and eyes in some other fashion, it often sounds like it appeared from nowhere; like it landed on the doorstep and had no parents. But whether Punk, Hip Hop, Hard Rock or any other music, it all came from somewhere.

So, too, was the case with early Rock and Roll and later, Soul. One crucial "parent" to both of these styles was Rhythm and Blues, or R&B.

When the Swing bands went out, due in part to the wartime economy and the daunting costs of keeping a large ensemble on the road, smaller combos became popular. Those smaller combos had a sound that many described as more "raw." Artists like Louis Jordan emerged in this moment.

As the R&B recordings reveal, these smaller combos retained the emphasis on horn sections, but, by virtue of being smaller groups of players, their sound left more musical room for other instruments. That being the time when electric guitar technology was getting more advanced, this meant that when the guitar players got more space, they met it with more volume.

But even if R&B provided early Rock and Roll with many of its constituent elements, it is important to also consider what made them different.