The full name of R&B is Rhythm & Blues, which is generally translated as "Rhythm Lament." In a broad sense, R&B can be regarded as "African American Pop Music." It originates from the African American Blues music and serves as the foundation for today's Western pop and rock music. Billboard magazine once defined R&B as encompassing all African American music except Jazz and Blues, indicating how extensive the scope of R&B is. In recent years, Hip Hop and Rap, which are prevalent in the African American music circle, have originated from R&B while still retaining many R&B elements.
The birth of Rhythm & Blues (R&B) can be traced back to the mid-1940s when early R&B was known as Jump Blues.
Jump Blues absorbed the wind instrument (Horn-driven lineup) performances from Jazz and the rhythm from Swing music. It also combined the basic overlapping vocal technique (Riff) and stringed instrument playing from Blues music, forming a new style of music. You could say that Jump Blues is the combination of Rhythm Jazz and Blues.
Although Jump Blues largely absorbs features from Blues, it was Rhythm Jazz that ultimately established its fundamental structure, shaping it into a new musical style. However, Jump Blues has a faster rhythm, rougher vocals, and its use of instruments differs from Jazz and Blues: the piano plays with strong rhythms, and the saxophone's performance is sharper. Early Jump Blues still belonged to African American music: both the performers and the audience were African Americans.
In Jump Blues, singers were called "Shouters." Many famous Jump Blues Shouters came from Big Bands, such as Big Joe Turner, who was part of Kansas City jazz bands. There were other notable Shouters at the time, like Wynonie Harris, Roy Brown, Roy Milton, and Nappy Brown.
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