What is R&B music?

60's guy

60's guy

Well-known member
DoGooder posted a great question and statement.
"What is R&B these days?. When I was younger it was Chuck Berry."
It was a great question....... worthy of discussion.

I have no doubt that there is much to be read at Wikipedia about the history of R&B music written there. I'm not in the least interested in reading anything at Wikipedia, but I am interested in reading your opinions of what R&B music was.....and perhaps still is.

 
Riffing here...

What hits my brain first when I think "R&B" - is the gospel and soul music associated with the Motown movement of the 60's and 70's roughly. But from a more academic point of view I think that "rhythm and blues" first described the predecessor to that - more specifically blues music and what led to Rock & Roll - black music of the 40's and 50's which was co-opted and popularized by the mainstream in the 50's and 60's.

For the last 20-30 years, and by now, when I think R&B music.... I think of the pop music that I mostly don't relate to (with some exceptions) along the lines of Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Bionce (sp?), Alicia Keys, R Kelly, John Legend, etc, etc.

Now I'm going to go read the Wiki entry as you've peaked my curiosity.
 
60's guy said:
"What is R&B these days?. When I was younger it was Chuck Berry."
Click to expand...
It's definitely not Chuck Berry.


60's guy said:
I have no doubt that there is much to be read at Wikipedia about the history of R&B music written there. I'm not in the least interested in reading anything at Wikipedia, but I am interested in reading your opinions of what R&B music was.....and perhaps still is.
Click to expand...
It is what is says it is - Rythmn - good beat, danceable, moving - and Blues - elements of societies that's on the poorer side - and the triumph and tribulations that go with that lifestyle. Through the years - People have taken elements from R&B and attempted to call it R&B - but it's mostly Pop music - and these days everything is so homogenized that there really isn't set styles of music - unless of course you go to Rap or Heavy Rock - but for most the people they play Pop music with twists.
 
This guy explains it well, I think. In fact, this whole series is great. Just a guy talking, so maybe a little boring, but still very good:



 
Papanate said, " It's definitely not Chuck Berry."
I don't know where he was when I was a young lad.
"Dig these rhythm and blues" Straight from the horses mouth and I am not about to debate CB.
 
Last edited:
PorterhouseMusic said:
Bionce
Click to expand...
lol -- Beyonce.

Anyway, great points y'all! R&B to me is Jackie Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, etc.

Papanate said:
Pop music
Click to expand...
Well -- what is Pop music then? Your definition of R&B perfectly applies to any Pop music:
Papanate said:
It is what is says it is - Rythmn - good beat, danceable, moving - and Blues - elements of societies that's on the poorer side - and the triumph and tribulations that go with that lifestyle. Through the years - People have taken elements from R&B and attempted to call it R&B - but it's mostly Pop music - and these days everything is so homogenized that there really isn't set styles of music - unless of course you go to Rap or Heavy Rock - but for most the people they play Pop music with twists.
Click to expand...
So could one say that all modern "pop music" is derived to some extent from R&B?
 
Random dude said:
This guy explains it well, I think. In fact, this whole series is great. Just a guy talking, so maybe a little boring, but still very good:



Click to expand...

Funny that you posted that. John is a hell of a guitar player. In addition to teaching music theory at Rochester's Eastman school of music, he plays guitar for fun in a Yes tribute band called Going for The One.



Just for grins, I looked up the current top R&B songs on Spotify. I think I had only heard of 3 or 4 of the artists (Beyonce, Usher, Bruno Mars, and Rhianna) I really couldn't recognize any of the songs. Oh yeah, they included T-Pain, which is an apt name as it pains me to listen to his stuff!

When I think of R&B, I think of artists like Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Wilson Pickett, The Temptations, Four Tops, Ray Charles, Gladys Knight and The Pips, Supremes. Even back to the 50s, you had folks like Fats Domino and Sam Cooke.

Today, it seems like any black artist is labelled as R&B. But then why is that surprising, when you have Dolly Parton in the Rock and Roll hall of fame, yet Joe Cocker, Frampton, and the Guess Who aren't included. Music styles and labels are whatever somebody wants to say it is.
 
Last edited:
TalismanRich said:
Funny that you posted that. John is a hell of a guitar player. In addition to teaching music theory at Rochester's Eastman school of music, he plays guitar for fun in a Yes tribute band called Going for The One.
Click to expand...
That's so cool. I had no idea. His online course on the history of rock and roll I posted above is really good.
 
If I were to take a stab at it, without consulting wiki...and I don't say this to be controversial...rhythm and blues was what was termed as "race music". For better or worse, unspokenly, still is to a degree. The term probably has roots in illegal booze juke joints. Whatever the origin, it's "colored music". It became less about the style of music than the culture from which it came and gave voice, a designation which categorized and segmented for popular consumption. In my humble opinion, and not that I know anything about the current R&B charts, very little of what occupies the R&B charts has much in common musically with the style of music of what was once called R&B, other than that voice. That said...

If I were to come off the top of my head and provide an example of what R&B sounds like, it would sound something like this....

 
Mick Doobie said:
If I were to take a stab at it, without consulting wiki...and I don't say this to be controversial...rhythm and blues was what was termed as "race music". For better or worse, unspokenly, still is to a degree. The term probably has roots in illegal booze juke joints. Whatever the origin, it's "colored music". It became less about the style of music than the culture from which it came and gave voice, a designation which categorized and segmented for popular consumption.
Click to expand...
That's pretty much what the dude in the "History of Rock and Roll" video I posted says about it. Maybe not as much now, but definitely before Rock and Roll and into Rock's infancy.
 
Mick Doobie said:
If I were to take a stab at it, without consulting wiki...and I don't say this to be controversial...rhythm and blues was what was termed as "race music". For better or worse, unspokenly, still is to a degree. The term probably has roots in illegal booze juke joints.
Click to expand...
I agree that juke joints were the point(s) of origin.
 
R&B baby. I wanted to play sax, my mother bought me a guitar instead and the rest is history. I wound up getting my saxes eventually.

If a one chord song can keep you interested, someone is doing something right. I know, the relative minor is in the intro, we can dismiss that.
This one took a lot of coin out my pocket feeding the jukebox.
 
Last edited:
What is R&B?

Friends, inquisitive friends
Are asking me what's come over me
A change
There's been a change,
and it's oh so plain to see

Love just walked in on me
And it's taken me by surprise
Happiness surrounds me
You can see it in my eyes
Now it was just a little while ago
My life was was incomplete
I was down so doggone low
Had to look up at my feet
And don't you know that

I just wanna testify
What your love has done for me
Everybody sing
Little girl, wanna testify
What your love has done for me
Hear me now

ooh ooh luscious.
sure been delicious to me
hear me now
ooh ooh luscious.
sure been delicious to me

Once I was a hollow man
In which a lonely heart did dwell
Then your love came sneaking up on me
Bringing a life to an empty shell
Now I've heard so many times before
That your love can be so bad
but I just want to tell you people
It's the best love I ever had
and talkin bout I..
 
Last edited:
dogooder said:
What is R&B?
Click to expand...
You asked that question before in another thread.

I took it a step further by asking the same question in the form of this thread.

So far, so good! Everyone, so far, has an opinion of R&B music, the origins of R&B music.
 
60's guy said:
You asked that question before in another thread.

I took it a step further by asking the same question in the form of this thread.

So far, so good! Everyone, so far, has an opinion of R&B music, the origins of R&B music.
Click to expand...
refer to the post above, that is R&B. It was a rhetorical question.
 
The funny thing. i copy and pasted the lyrics then took a half an hour to correct them. I have played this song in quite a few bands.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top