Independent record labels, particularly the ones based in Los Angeles, California, issued some of the earliest-known R&B recordings. Most solos in R&B groups at the time were usually handled by the pianist. The reason was that guitar soloing was seen as too “country” and unsophisticated. For example: in a band led by the late R&B drummer Roy Milton, he played drums and sang, his bandmate Camille Howard played piano and sang, and his saxophonists would be featured at least once.Īnother hallmark of small R&B groups is the relegation of the guitar (if there was any, indeed), from solo to accompanying status. The small R&B groups, on the other hand, typically consisted of five to seven members and counted on individual musicians to take turns in the limelight. The big R&B groups consisted of singers who had experienced in big bands and were usually hired employees of bandleaders like Lucky Millinder or Count Basie. Let’s go back to the early days of rhythm and blues – there were many big and small R&B groups then. As rap and hip hop rose and began to dominate the black music scene a few decades later, the term “rhythm and blues” came to a different meaning – a bunch of love songs or sentimental songs. Rhythm and blues was rather considered a lowbrow counterpart to jazz’s highbrow type of black music and form of black expression. In the 1950s, the term “rhythm and blues” was associated with the black youths in honky-tonk bars and after-hour dance clubs. Billboard changed the chart’s name in its June 17, 1949, issue. Wexler found that record labels issuing “black” popular music found the chart terms in use at the time, such as “sepia series” or “race music,” too offensive. Jerry Wexler, a music journalist working for Billboard at the time, is widely credited with coining the term “rhythm and blues.” Billboard magazine created it for use as a marketing term. The term “rhythm and blues” entered the American lexicon during the 1940s.
Where did the term “rhythm and blues” come from? Rhythm and blues was also responsible for developing subsequent genres, notably rock and roll, doo-wop, disco, and hip hop or rap music, among many others. Rhythm and blues, also called rhythm & blues or R&B, is a type of music genre predominantly performed in the African communities during the 1940s.