Editing Rhythm and blues (section)

==Etymology, definitions and description==
Although [[Jerry Wexler]] of ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' magazine is credited with coining the term "rhythm and blues" as a musical term in the United States in 1948,<ref name="sacks">{{cite news|last=Sacks|first=Leo|date=August 29, 1993|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7D7163BF93AA1575BC0A965958260|title=The Soul of Jerry Wexler|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=January 11, 2007|archive-date=October 12, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012182140/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7D7163BF93AA1575BC0A965958260|url-status=live}}</ref> the term had been used in ''Billboard'' as early as 1943.<ref>Night Club Reviews Billboard February 27, 1943, p. 12</ref><ref>Vaudeville reviews Billboard March 4, 1944, p. 28</ref> However, the company's first list of songs popular among African Americans was named [[List of Harlem Hit Parade number ones of 1942|Harlem Hit Parade]]; created in 1942, it listed the "most popular records in [[Harlem]]," and is the predecessor to the ''Billboard'' [[R&B chart|RnB chart.]]<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.billboard.com/pro/weekly-chart-notes-baauer-continues-the-harlem-hit-parade/|title=Weekly Chart Notes: Baauer Continues The 'Harlem' Hit Parade'|date=February 22, 2013|magazine=Billboard|access-date=September 4, 2023 |quote=based on sales reports from Rainbow Music Shop, Harvard Radio Shop, Lehman Music Company, Harlem De Luxe Music Store, Ray's Music Shop and Frank's Melody Music Shop, New York." Andy Kirk and His Clouds of Joy topped the inaugural tally with "Take It and Git."}}</ref> "Rhythm and Blues" replaced the common term "[[race music]]", a term coined by [[Okeh Records|Okeh]] producer [[Ralph Peer]] based on the common self description by the African American press as "people of race."<ref name="Cohn">{{cite book|last=Cohn|first=Lawrence|title=Nothing but the Blues: The Music and the Musicians|date=September 1993|author2=Aldin, Mary Katherine|author3=Bastin, Bruce|publisher=Abbeville Press|isbn=978-1-55859-271-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/nothingbutbluesm00cohn/page/314 314]|url=https://archive.org/details/nothingbutbluesm00cohn/page/314}}</ref><ref name="wexler">''Jerry Wexler, famed record producer, dies at 91'', [[Nekesa Mumbi Moody]], AP Music Writer, Dallas Morning News, August 15, 2008</ref> The term "rhythm and blues" was then used by ''Billboard'' in [[Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs|its chart listings]] from June 1949 until August 1969, when its "Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles" chart was renamed as "Best Selling Soul Singles".<ref name="whitburnr&b">{{cite book |title=Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942–1995 |last=Whitburn |first=Joel |author-link=Joel Whitburn |year=1996 |publisher=Record Research |isbn=0-89820-115-2 |page=xii |url=https://archive.org/details/joelwhitburnstopr00whit }}</ref>
Before the "Rhythm and Blues" name was instated, various record companies had already begun replacing the term "race music" with the term "sepia series".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Rye|first1=Howard|title=Rhythm and Blues|url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/J676400?q=rhythm+and+blues&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1|website=Oxford Music Online|access-date=July 20, 2014|archive-date=May 11, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200511204557/https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-2000676400?_start=1&pos=1&q=rhythm%20and%20blues&search=quick#firsthit|url-status=live}}</ref> "Rhythm and blues" is often abbreviated as "R&B" or "R'n'B".<ref name="Randel1999">{{cite book|author=Don Michael Randel|title=The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7iuZ6HaEMmoC&pg=PA560|year=1999|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-00084-1|page=560}}</ref>

In the early 1950s, the term "rhythm & blues" was frequently applied to [[blues]] records.<ref>The new blue music: changes in rhythm & blues, 1950–1999, p. 8</ref> Writer and producer [[Robert Palmer (author/producer)|Robert Palmer]] defined rhythm & blues as "a catchall term referring to any music that was made by and for black Americans".{{sfn|Palmer|1995|p=8}} He has also used the term "R&B" as a synonym for [[jump blues]].<ref name="deep blues">{{cite book|last=Palmer|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Palmer (American writer)|title=Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta|date=May 21, 1981|publisher=Viking Adult|isbn=978-0-670-49511-5|url=https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palme}}</ref> However, [[AllMusic]] separates it from jump blues because of R&B's stronger gospel influences.<ref name=allmusic>{{AllMusic|class=genre|id=ma0000002809}}</ref> [[Lawrence Cohn]], author of ''Nothing but the Blues'', writes that "rhythm and blues" was an umbrella term invented for industry convenience. According to him, the term embraced all black music except [[classical music]] and [[religious music]], unless a gospel song sold enough to break into the charts.<ref name=Cohn/>  Well into the 21st century, the term R&B continues in use (in some contexts) to categorize music made by black musicians, as distinct from styles of music made by other musicians.

In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, and saxophone. Arrangements were rehearsed to the point of effortlessness and were sometimes accompanied by background vocalists. Simple repetitive parts mesh, creating momentum and rhythmic interplay producing mellow, lilting, and often hypnotic textures while calling attention to no individual sound. While singers are emotionally engaged with the lyrics, often intensely so, they remain cool, relaxed, and in control. The bands dressed in suits, and even uniforms, a practice associated with the modern popular music that rhythm and blues performers aspired to dominate. Lyrics often seemed fatalistic, and the music typically followed predictable patterns of chords and structure.<ref>Morrison, Craig (1952). "Go Cat Go!" University of Illinois Press. page 30. {{ISBN|0-252-06538-7}}</ref> R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy,<ref>{{cite book|last=Gilroy|first=Paul|title=The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness|location=Cambridge, MA|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1993|isbn=0674076052|pages=107, 122}}</ref> as well as triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, economics, and aspirations.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

One publication of the [[Smithsonian Institution]] provided this summary of the origins of the genre in 2016.<blockquote>"A distinctly African American music drawing from the deep tributaries of African American expressive culture, it is an amalgam of jump blues, big band swing, gospel, boogie, and blues that was initially developed during a thirty-year period that bridges the era of legally sanctioned racial segregation, international conflicts, and the struggle for civil rights".<ref name= folklife>{{Cite magazine |url=https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/freedom-sounds-tell-it-like-it-is-a-history-of-rhythm-and-blues |title=Tell It Like It Is: A History of Rhythm and Blues |access-date= |archive-date=March 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309121903/https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/freedom-sounds-tell-it-like-it-is-a-history-of-rhythm-and-blues |magazine=Folklife Magazine |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]] |url-status=live |date = September 20, 2016 |first= Mark|last= Puryear}}</ref></blockquote>

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame defines some of the originators of R&B, including [[Big Joe Turner|Joe Turner]]'s big band, [[Louis Jordan]]'s [[Tympany Five]], [[James Brown]] and [[LaVern Baker]]. In fact, this source states that "Louis Jordan joined Turner in laying the foundation for R&B in the 1940s, cutting one swinging rhythm & blues masterpiece after another". Other artists who were "cornerstones of R&B and its transformation into rock & roll" include [[Etta James]], [[Fats Domino]], [[Roy Brown (blues musician)|Roy Brown]], [[Little Richard]] and [[Ruth Brown]]. The "doo wop" groups were also noteworthy, including [[the Orioles]], [[the Ravens]] and [[Billy Ward and his Dominoes|the Dominoes]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rockhall.com/funk-and-rb#:~:text=Other%20cornerstones%20of%20R%26B%20and,the%20Ravens%20and%20the%20Dominoes |title=Funk and R&B |date=June 15, 2020 |work=Rock & Roll Hall of Fame |access-date=December 25, 2020 |quote=Not the least of R&B's legacy was its perpetuation of the group-harmony tradition as heard in the vocal blend of "doo-wop" groups}}</ref>

The term "rock and roll" had a strong sexual connotation in jump blues and R&B, but when DJ [[Alan Freed]] referred to rock and roll on mainstream radio in the mid-1950s, "the sexual component had been dialed down enough that it simply became an acceptable term for dancing".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/dc64e24d-c4e7-4e34-b2f7-e34a00ea16ad |title=The unexpected origins of music's most well-used terms |date=October 12, 2018 |work=BBC |access-date=February 22, 2021 |quote=its meaning covering both sex and dancing |archive-date=January 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190126010742/https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/dc64e24d-c4e7-4e34-b2f7-e34a00ea16ad |url-status=live }}</ref>