In 1948, RCA a record label started marketing black music under the name of Blues and Rhythm, in that year Louis Jordan, a pioneering American jazz, blues,

In 1948, RCA a record label started marketing black music under the name of Blues and Rhythm, in that year Louis Jordan, a pioneering American jazz, blues, and rhythm & blues musician, dominated the top five listings of the R&B charts. Jordan’s band called the Tympany Five which Lawrence Cohn described the music as "grittier than his boogie-era jazz-tinged blues".Robert Palmer described it as "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat". Greek American Johnny Otis, started working with African American musicians who had signed with Newark based Savoy records and produced many R&B hits in 1951, including: "Double Crossing Blues", "Mistrustin' Blues" and "Cupid's Boogie", all of which hit number one that year.The Clovers, a vocal trio who sang a distinctive sounding combination of blues and gospel, had the #5 hit of the year with "Don't You Know I Love You" on Atlantic Records. In 1956, an R&B "Top Stars of '56" tour took place, with headliners Al Hibbler, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, and Carl Perkins, whose " Blue Suede Shoes" was very popular with R&B music buyers. Cities visited by the tour included Columbia, SC, Annapolis, MD, Pittsburgh, PA, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, NY, into Canada, and through the mid Western US ending in Texas. In Columbia the concert ended with a near riot as Perkins began his first song as the closing act. Perkins is quoted as saying, "It was dangerous. Lot of kids got hurt. There was a lot of rioting going on, just crazy, man! The music drove 'em insane." In Annapolis 70,000 to 50,000 people tried to attend a sold out performance with 8,000 seats.

The Supremes, an American female singing group, were one of the signature acts on Motown Records during the 1960s. Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes and disco. They were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts, with twelve of the group's singles peaking at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Most of these hits were written and produced by Motown's main songwriting and production team, Holland-Dozier-Holland. At their peak in the mid-1960s, The Supremes rivaled The Beatless in worldwide popularity, and their success made it possible for future African-American R&B and soul musicians to find mainstream success. Founding members Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross and Betty McGlown, all from the Brewster-Douglass public housing project in Detroit, formed The Primettes as the sister act to The Primes (with Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks, who would go on to form The Temptations). Barbara Martin replaced McGlown in 1960, and the group signed with Motown the following year as The Supremes. Martin left the act in early 1962, and Ross, Ballard and Wilson carried on as a trio.

“Everything is immaculate about the R&B fan, the girls are just the sexiest girls on the planet they would say. The hair, the nails, their sleek you would see high heels whether or not its comfortable enough to dance in them, you’ll see tight dresses. The men are smooth you’ll see big chests and white vest on boys, you’ll see pencil thin moustaches, for women it’s almost having an unobtainable sassy attitude, it’s having an heir of ‘you can look but don’t you even think of touching’ and for men it’s about being smooth and slick and its about being very manly. I think everyone at some point irrespective of how you look has listened to R&B and soul music, you don’t have to be a typical R&B fan to understand and relate to it, it’s about someone else singing a song and it has you as it’s subject, not someone else” The Expert at BBC Music DirectoryThe demographic of an R&B fan is usually from teens to early middle ages, they are usually from a African origin , from a working class background and mostly live in America but R&B is a genre well known around the world.

R&B music journalist

Contempaory GospelLuther Barnes, Helen Baylor, James Bignon, Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

Contemporary R& BGene Rice, Roachford, Evon Geffries & Stand, Marc Nelson

FunkB.T. Express, Bohannon, Brass Construction, The Fantastic Four

MotownChris Clark, Dennis Edwards, The Elgins, The Four Tops

Luther Barnes

Gene Rice

BT Express

Denis Edwards

New Orleans R&B/BluesSnooks Eaglin, Paul Gayten, Guitar Slim, Guitar Slim, Jr.

Pop Soul/Quiet StormThe Average White Band, California Raisins, Heatwave, Jennifer Holliday

R&BRoy Brown, Wynonie Harris, Big Joe Turner, Chick Willis

Soul Master Henry Gibson, Little Johnny Taylor, Calvin Bridges

Snooks Eaglin

The Average White Band

Roy Brown

Master Henry Gibson

Traditional GospelAbyssinian Baptist Gospel Choir, Rance Allen, Margaret Allison, Amazing Zion Travelers

Abyssinian Baptist Gospel Choir

R&B has a mainstream appeal. Rhythm and Blues in 1948 was a term used in the United States, used to replace the term “race music”, which originally came from within the black community but was deemed offensive. Robert Palmer defined rhythm & blues as "a catchall term referring to any music that was made by and for black Americans“. 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.

Background Records is a famous American Record Label owned by artist manager Barry Hankerson and his son Jomo. The label is home to Alliyah, Jojo, Timbaland & Magoo, Tank , Kali Girls, Jak and HardNox.

Jive Records was formed by Clive Calder in 1977 in London but was launched in the United States. The word “Jive was inspired by Township Jive, a form of South African music and dance.

Atlantic records is best known for it’s many recording of R&B. It is one of the most important American independent labels The label was founded in 1947 by Ahmet Ertegün and Herb Abramson. Upon its creation, Atlantic was principally a jazz and R&B label

Blues and Soul Magazine , is a magazine that covers R&B, hip-hop, house, garage and jazz.

Vibe was launched in 1993 by Quincy Jones and funded by Tim e Inc. It features R&B and Hip-hop artists, actors and other entertainers. The magazines target audience is young

Rap-Up is a magazine found by Devin Lazerin and was launched in 2001. It was originally a website devoted to Hip-hop but then Lazerine decided to pitch the possiblity of a magazine to publishers. The magazine focuses on Hip-hop and R&B

Blues and Soul comes out every fortnight, it covers all the latest UK and US urban music information including news, charts, reviews, events and clubs, interviews and editorials on influential artists in the past and present

Vibe comes out every month it is based on urban culture, influencing global music, life and style for more then 8 million readers around the world. It includes fashion, politics and culture features for a multicultural audience.

Rap-Up comes out 4 times a year, it features some of R&B’s biggest stars 50 Cent, Beyoncé, T.I., Ciara, Rihanna, Eve, Nelly, Pharrell, Mary J. Blige, The Game, and Nicole Scherzinger

MTV base is a digital television channel which began in the United Kingdom, it plays all genre of music appealing to the youth audience rap, hip-hop, R&B, Rock, Alternative, Afrobeat, Kwaito, Reggae and many other genres from the African continent, USA and other urban hotspots.

Kiss 100 is a radio station that specializes in Hip-hop, R&B , urban and dance music. It began as a pirate station in October 1985, it attracted a huge following before getting its licence in 1990. It was said to have 500,000 listeners as a pirate radio station

For years and years critics of R&B have been predicting the death of R&B, saying that the form of music is slowly fading. In the last year an R&B singer Kev Samples released a mixtape called ‘The Death of R&B’ where he dissed R&B singers Neyo, Jamie Foxx, T-pain and Ray J. But despite these predictions R&B is still loved by many audiences. For the many artists that are criticised for being ‘weak R&B singers’ there is also an inoovative and creative one, and these artists will survive long after the weak ones. Artists such as Jennifer Hudson and J.Holiday are defining the future of R&B.

Jennifer Hudson J.Holiday