- Rhythm and Blues or (R&B) came into the fold as a way to describe all secular music of black artists. R&B was the all encompassing aspect of black music that featured the musical stylings, traditional, rural, swing, jazz, and blues. R&B has elements that incorporate modern and old school secular components. There are lemmas of jazz and soul through the genre that give R&B its title. R&B has a particular set of social implications in the late 40’s it became feel good music for the community. Being a background soundtrack for the time in which the community needed something to groove to. Nat King Cole is one of the influential performers of the genre, he seamlessly fused jazz, soul, and blues to create his own sound. With one of the greatest voices to ever grace the stage, Nat King Cole had a universal appeal that transcended generations. Record companies saw the appeal of African American secular music, and they started signing artists out the the wazoo try to get a piece of the pie that was the profitability of these groove songs. R&B has influences on many genres because it is the all encompassing genre. It has footing its Hip-hop and rap, especially nowadays in this new age of rap music, that has coopted the smooth sounds of R&B. Pop music came off the heels of R&B distancing it self even more from the bed of religious music. Without R&B we wouldn’t have most of the music of today. R&B be came and outlet and means of expression that didn’t have to do with the church but with expression in general. [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1glriB54oE[/embedyt]