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Buddy Holly 
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Is Rhythm & Blues Rock n Roll? Or is Rock n Roll Rhythm & Blues? |
Listen To RM Radio 
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Listen to 100 top R&B on Playa Cofi Jukebox.
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The debate goes on and on.
Some have even said that Rock n Roll was the White Man's Rhythm & Blues. From our perspective, Rhythm & Blues is quite different to Rock n Roll and on its own is another fundamental ingredient in the evolution of Western Popular Music. |
Gene Vincent
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Buddy Holly
Carl Perkins
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The Loved Ones & Sad Dark Eyes' |
Aretha Franklin
Otis Redding
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'R & B'
Jazz and the Blues played an important role in the emergence of Rhythm and Blues
(R& B). In earlier years of the 20th century, Jazz and the Blues - regarded respectively
as Black urban music and Black country music, were treated as separate but related
forms/genres of Black music. As Clarke argued: 'the saying was that the Blues was not
Jazz, but Jazz had the Blues in it.' However beginning in the 1930s and 1940s, a
distinctive new form of Black music, R& B, emerged. People from all over the US, both
White and Black, came to enjoy this music. Soon mainstream American music included
a firm African-American presence. By the 1950s, Jazz which 'effectively became the
art music of the urban Black (and some Whites)', had come together with the Blues to
form Rhythm and Blues. As such - 'The Blues had come to town, and Rhythm and
Blues was big business.' (Clarke - Sources)
(R& B). In earlier years of the 20th century, Jazz and the Blues - regarded respectively
as Black urban music and Black country music, were treated as separate but related
forms/genres of Black music. As Clarke argued: 'the saying was that the Blues was not
Jazz, but Jazz had the Blues in it.' However beginning in the 1930s and 1940s, a
distinctive new form of Black music, R& B, emerged. People from all over the US, both
White and Black, came to enjoy this music. Soon mainstream American music included
a firm African-American presence. By the 1950s, Jazz which 'effectively became the
art music of the urban Black (and some Whites)', had come together with the Blues to
form Rhythm and Blues. As such - 'The Blues had come to town, and Rhythm and
Blues was big business.' (Clarke - Sources)
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The term `Rhythm and Blues’, itself, was introduced in 1949 by Billboard magazine as a substitute for the word `race’ in a chart that had been headed until then by the 'Top 15 Best Selling Race Records'. |
Chuck Berry - You Can Never tell |
The Term 'Rhythm & Blues'
The phrase 'race records' was used since the 1920s when many record labels began to
record Black female vocalists after the success of Mamie Smith's 'Crazy Blues'.
Soon the label 'race' became a catchall for all types of Black-American recordings in
all styles such as Jazz, Folk, Pop, and Big Band. However, following The Second
World War, the connotations of 'race' was perceived to be offensive and 'Rhythm and
Blues' soon appeared and was used instead.
record Black female vocalists after the success of Mamie Smith's 'Crazy Blues'.
Soon the label 'race' became a catchall for all types of Black-American recordings in
all styles such as Jazz, Folk, Pop, and Big Band. However, following The Second
World War, the connotations of 'race' was perceived to be offensive and 'Rhythm and
Blues' soon appeared and was used instead.
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The Rolling Stones spearheaded much of R&B 
The Rolling Stones -
The Ultimate R & B band
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R & B is said to combine an awareness of frustration and oppression with a vigorous rejection of it. |
Rolling Stones - Not Fade Away
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To quote one author: 'R & B was a response to a new environment, to the realities of inner-city ghettoes and urban migration. The most important source of R & B was Gospel music, which gave it a vital repertoire, form, and style. In R & B the 12 bar patterning of country Blues is replaced with the 8 bar form of Gospel and Pop songs.' |
Fats Domino - Ain't That A Shame
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R & B is different musically from the Blues that had preceded it. As musicologist
Arnold Shaw points out, 'If the Blues was trouble music and urban Blues adjustment
song, then R & B was good times dance music. If the Blues was loneliness and self
expression song, and urban Blues nostalgia and growing music, then R & B was group
and joy music. If the country Bluesman wailed and the urban Bluesman sang, the
Rhythm and Bluesman shouted.’
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Little Richard 
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Little Richard - Lucille
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Above all, it was R & B that gave rise to what disc jockey Alan Freed called 'Rock and Roll' (R&R). But R&R spelled the demise of R&B until the mid-1960s, when the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and other English groups appeared in America and brought R & B back to the 'States'. British R&R musicians refocused popular US attention back on the great Black Rhythm & Blues-men by recording their songs and promoting their performances. |
Kay Starr - Rock & Roll Waltz
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Top UK Bands Re-Introducing Rhythm
& Blues
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The Animals - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
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The Beatles - Ticket To Ride
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Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want
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As one expert noted, in the 1970s, R & B 'was again eclipsed by Popular music in
America, but this time foreign interest grew. With the rise of European record labels
and the international festival circuit, Black Americans gained a new and vital forum for
preserving and developing their music.'
As it was, foreign audiences outside the United States 'saved R & B from extinction'
and it continues today to provide an arena where older musicians are revered and
younger musicians, both Black and White, are able to launch their careers.
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Dusty Springfield -
Anyone Who Had A Heart |
Two famous latter day female Blues and R & B singers: Dusty Springfield & Amy Whitehouse |
Amy Winehouse -
Back To Black |
In the 1980s there was a resurgence of enthusiasm not just for the Blues in America but
also R & B, and it still rolls on today as an important ingredient in modern Western
Popular music.
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