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I know. I’m just curious what people may think. It means something different today than it did when it first came into use.
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Just hella rhythm and the genre has its origins in blues music
Half correct. The “blues” part is right
Black secular music was classified as "race music" in the early 20th century. After WWII, that phrase became less acceptable, so industry magazines like Billboard changed it to Rhythm and Blues.
Same reason we have Country charts instead of "Hillbilly."
I’m a professional musician. I know 1000;s of songs. At least a thousand of them are either based on 12 bar blues, the others based on Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” A certain kind of musician (race music as it was called) played 2 types of songs: those based on on blues the other based on “Rhythm”. Thus “Rhythm and Blues”.
Yes, it was a kind of music that usually followed the 12-bar blues pattern, but unlike the depressed delta blues this had an uplifting dance rhythm. This kind of swinging rhythm, often with walking bass, already appeared in piano music in the 1920s, but back then it was called boogie-woogie.
Rhythm 'n' blues was big in the 1940s and early 1950s. Leading artists were John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Louis Jordan, Jimmy Preston and Wynonie Harris. With the improved recording techniques of the 1950s it would soon lead to the birth of rock 'n' roll.
Yes. The “rhythm “ has nothing to do with beat or groove. It is based on the I-VI-II-V harmonic progression of I Got Rhythm. Thousands of songs are structured Ike this.