Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to
R&B and
RnB, is a
genre of
popular African-American music that originated in the 1940s.
[1] The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking,
jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular.
[2]
The term has subsequently had a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s, the term
rhythm and blues was frequently applied to blues records.
[3] Starting in the mid-1950s, after this style of music contributed to the development of
rock and roll, the term "R&B" became used to refer to music styles that developed from and incorporated
electric blues, as well as
gospel and
soul music. By the 1970s,
rhythm and blues was used as a blanket term for soul and
funk. In the 1980s, a newer style of R&B developed, becoming known as "
Contemporary R&B".