Portal:Rhythm and blues

Wikipedia's Rhythm and Blues Portal

Introduction

Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to African Americans, at a time when "rocking, jazz based music ... [with a] heavy, insistent beat" was starting to become more popular. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of a piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, one or more saxophones, and sometimes background vocalists. R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American history and experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy, as well as triumphs and failures in terms of societal racism, oppression, relationships, economics, and aspirations.

The term "rhythm and blues" has undergone a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s, it was frequently applied to blues records. Starting in the mid-1950s, after this style of music had contributed to the development of rock and roll, the term "R&B" became used in a wider context. It referred to music styles that developed from and incorporated electric blues, as well as gospel and soul music. By the 1970s, the term "rhythm and blues" had changed once again and was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. (Full article...)

Selected article

There's a Riot Goin' On is the fifth studio album by the American funk and soul band Sly and the Family Stone. It was released in November 1971 by Epic Records. The recording was dominated by band frontman-songwriter Sly Stone during a period of escalated drug use and intra-group tension. Recording sessions took place from 1970 to 1971 at Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, California and in Stone's home studio in Bel Air.

With the album, Sly and the Family Stone departed from the optimistic sound of their previous music and explored a darker, more challenging sound featuring edgy funk rhythms, a primitive drum machine, extensive overdubbing, and a dense mix. Conceptually and lyrically, There's a Riot Goin' On embraced apathy, pessimism, and disillusionment with both Stone's fame and 1960s counterculture amid a turbulent political climate in the United States at the turn of the 1970s, influenced by the decline of the civil rights movement and the rise of the Black Power movement. The album's title was originally planned to be Africa Talks to You, but it changed in response to Marvin Gaye's album What's Going On (1971), released six months before Riot.

A commercial success, There's a Riot Goin' On topped the Billboard Pop Album and Soul Album charts, while its lead single "Family Affair" reached number one on the Pop Singles chart. In 2001, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of at least one million copies in the US. Originally released to mixed reviews, the album has since been praised as one of the greatest and most influential recordings of all time, having impacted the funk, jazz-funk, and hip hop genres in particular. It has appeared in publications' best-album lists, including Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", on which it placed 99th in 2003 and 82nd in 2020. (Full article...)

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WikiProjects

WikiProject R&B and Soul Music

Parentage

WikiProject Music
- WikiProject Music/Music genres task force

Selected biography -

Winbush in 1996

Angela Lisa Winbush (born January 18, 1955) is an American R&B/soul singer-songwriter, musician and record producer who rose to fame first in the 1980s R&B duo René & Angela, also scoring hits as a solo artist. Winbush has sold over 10 million albums and singles worldwide. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies

General images -

The following are images from various rhythm and blues-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Georgie Fame, leader of one of the most widely influenced R&B groups, in 1968 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 2Chris Barber, one of the major figures in the early popularisation of the blues in Britain, playing at the Musikhalle, Hamburg, 1972 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 3The instruments of the skiffle group the Quarrymen, who would become the Beatles (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 4Kathy Young with the Earth Angels performing Kathy's hit "A Thousand Stars" during the festival of this genre celebrated at the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in May 2010 (from Doo-wop)
Image 5Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac onstage in 1970 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 6The Ramones in Toronto (1976) (from Doo-wop)
Image 7John Lee Hooker, whose visit to England was the anticipated R&B event of 1964, shown in 1978 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 8The Animals in 1964 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 9Herman Santiago, original lead singer of the Teenagers (from Doo-wop)
Image 10Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings at Middelburg in 2009 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 11Muddy Waters, a major influence on the movement, pictured in 1971 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 12The Jam in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1982 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 13The Moonglows, 1956 (from Doo-wop)
Image 14Beyoncé was named by Billboard the most successful female act of the 2000s. (from Contemporary R&B)
Image 15Alexis Korner in Hamburg in 1972 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 16The Cleftones during their participation in the doo-wop festival celebrated in May 2010 at the Benedum Center. (from Doo-wop)
Image 17Janet Jackson's Control, released in 1986, was one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the 1980s. (from New jack swing)
Image 18Usher was cited by Billboard as the no. 1 Hot 100 artist of the 2000s decade, with 7 number-one singles that accumulated 42 weeks at the top. (from Contemporary R&B)
Image 19Alicia Keys ranked fifth on Billboard Artist of the Decade list. "No One" ranks No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs of the decade. (from Contemporary R&B)
Image 20Lead Belly's recordings were major part of British R&B repertoires: he never performed in the UK (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 21The original line up of the Kinks, 1965 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 22The Jimi Hendrix Experience performing on Dutch television in 1967 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 23Led Zeppelin performing at Chicago Stadium in January 1975

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Rhythm and blues

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Sources

^ "Ruth Brown, the Queen of R&B, was born 93 years ago today". Frank Beacham's Journal. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved 2021-01-18.

Discover Wikipedia using portals

[1] "Ruth Brown, the Queen of R&B, was born 93 years ago today". Frank Beacham's Journal. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved 2021-01-18.