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. 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

House of Music is the fourth studio album by American R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!, released November 19, 1996, on Mercury Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at various recording studios during 1995 to 1996, with production handled primarily by the group members. Following the success of their 1993 album Sons of Soul and their hiatus as a group, Tony! Toni! Toné! members Raphael Saadiq, D'wayne Wiggins, and Timothy Christian Riley worked on songs for the album independently before putting together their finished recordings. House of Music expands on their previous work's classicist R&B influences with live instrumentation and balladry. Music writers have noted the album for its incorporation of traditional and contemporary musical styles, themes of love and romance, and witty, sensitive lyrics.

The album reached number 32 on the US Billboard 200 chart, on which it spent 31 weeks. It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) within its first year of release, having shipped one million copies in the United States. Two singles were released in promotion of the album, "Let's Get Down" and "Thinking of You". Upon its release, House of Music received general acclaim from music critics, who praised its musical style, classicist influences, and the group's musicianship and songwriting. An expected international tour in support of the album did not materialize and it proved to be the group's last album together, as they subsequently disbanded due to creative differences and pursued separate music careers.

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WikiProjects

WikiProject R&B and Soul Music

Parentage

WikiProject Music
- WikiProject Music/Music genres task force

Selected biography -

Ashford & Simpson in 2000

Ashford & Simpson were an American husband-and-wife songwriting, production and recording duo composed of Nickolas Ashford (May 4, 1941 – August 22, 2011) and Valerie Simpson (born August 26, 1946).

Ashford was born in Fairfield, South Carolina, and Simpson in the Bronx, New York City. Ashford's family relocated to Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he became a member of Christ Temple Baptist Church. While there, he sang with a group called the Hammond Singers (named after the founding minister, James Hammond). Later, Ashford attended and graduated from Willow Run High School in Ypsilanti, Michigan, before pursuing his professional career, when he would ultimately meet his wife, Valerie Simpson. They met at Harlem's White Rock Baptist Church in 1964. After having recorded unsuccessfully as a duo, they joined an aspiring solo artist and former member of The Ikettes, Joshie Jo Armstead, at the Scepter/Wand label, where their compositions were recorded by Ronnie Milsap ("Never Had It So Good") and Maxine Brown ("One Step at a Time"), as well as The Shirelles, The Guess Who, and Chuck Jackson. Another of the trio's songs, "Let's Go Get Stoned", gave Ray Charles a number one U.S. R&B hit in 1966. That same year, Ashford and Simpson joined Motown, where their best-known songs included "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "You're All I Need to Get By", "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing", and "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)." Ashford and Simpson wrote many other hit songs, including Chaka Khan's "I'm Every Woman" (1978) and "Is It Still Good to Ya?", originally recorded by the duo in 1978 and covered by Teddy Pendergrass in 1980. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies

General images -

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

Image 1Usher 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 2Janet Jackson's Control, released in 1986, was one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the 1980s. (from New jack swing)
Image 3The Moonglows, 1956 (from Doo-wop)
Image 4Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac onstage in 1970 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 5The Cleftones during their participation in the doo-wop festival celebrated in May 2010 at the Benedum Center. (from Doo-wop)
Image 6Alicia 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 7Georgie Fame, leader of one of the most widely influenced R&B groups, in 1968 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 8Muddy Waters, a major influence on the movement, pictured in 1971 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 9Chris 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 10The instruments of the skiffle group the Quarrymen, who would become the Beatles (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 11Alexis Korner in Hamburg in 1972 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 12Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings at Middelburg in 2009 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 13The Animals in 1964 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 14Led Zeppelin performing at Chicago Stadium in January 1975
Image 15John Lee Hooker, whose visit to England was the anticipated R&B event of 1964, shown in 1978 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 16The Jimi Hendrix Experience performing on Dutch television in 1967 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 17The Ramones in Toronto (1976) (from Doo-wop)
Image 18Lead Belly's recordings were major part of British R&B repertoires: he never performed in the UK (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 19The Jam in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1982 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 20The original line up of the Kinks, 1965 (from British rhythm and blues)
Image 21Herman Santiago, original lead singer of the Teenagers (from Doo-wop)
Image 22Kathy 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 23Beyoncé was named by Billboard the most successful female act of the 2000s. (from Contemporary R&B)

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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.