The New Blue Music: Changes in Rhythm & Blues 19501999 (American Made Music Series)

About this book

Rhythm & blues emerged from the African American community in the late 1940s to become the driving force in American popular music over the next half-century. Although sometimes called doo-wop soul funk urban contemporary or hip-hop R&B is actually an umbrella category that includes all of these styles and genres. It is in fact a modern-day incarnation of a musical tradition that stretches back to nineteenth-century America and even further to African beginnings. The New Blue Music: Changes in Rhythm & Blues 1950-1999 traces the development of R&B from 1950 to 1999 by closely analyzing the top twenty-five songs of each decade. The music of artists as wide-ranging as Louis Jordan; John Lee Hooker; Ray Charles; James Brown; Earth Wind & Fire; Michael Jackson; Public Enemy; Mariah Carey; and Usher takes center stage as the author illustrates how R&B has not only retained its traditional core style but has also experienced a re-Africanization over time. By investigating musical elements of form style and content in R&Band offering numerous musical examplesthe book shows the connection between R&B and other forms of American popular and religious music such as spirituals ragtime blues jazz country gospel and rock n roll. With this evidence in hand the author hypothesizes the existence of an even larger musical super-genre which he labels The New Blue Music.