Orgin
Rhythm and blues which is commonly abbreviated R&B is a genre of music that originated in African American communities in the 1940s and is still going strong and evolving to this day
Characteristics
Mixing jazz styles and blues together and locking together of the drums and bass into a tight rhythm feel
important Performers
Commodification
Over the last 30 years, the soul of black music has been replaced with a more homogenized sound that embodies the characteristics of popular music, as defined by European ideology. As the genre gained acceptance over the 1940’s, texts that once signified black cultural identity and family unity has now been replaced with those of extreme materialism, violence and promiscuity. The more commercialized it becomes, the message of love, freedom, and self-expression gets diluted to the black community. .
Influences on Future Genres
The influence of r&b on future genres has been the emergence of pop music. The soul of R&B, powerful emotions and singing with passion, has made the emergence of pop music relevant
Social Implications
The social implications of R&B music is that it has more of a negative influence than before and now we have to bleep out certain things on the radio without them having a sexual or violent meaning.
My Opinion
The r&b music of today has lost its meaning behind the sexualization of a multitude of songs. The music used to embody a meaning of freedom and self-expression, but it just embodies sex and violence.
