Hit List Rn'B was born less than a year, and my blog has reached almost 12,000 clicks. I believe we should explain what we mean.
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B and RnB, is a genre of popular African-American music that originated in the 1940s.
The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular.
The term has subsequently had a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s, the term rhythm and blues was frequently applied to blues records.[3] Starting in the mid-1950s, after this style of music contributed to the development of rock and roll, the term "R&B" became used to refer to music styles that developed from and incorporated electric blues, as well as gospel and soul music. By the 1970s, rhythm and blues was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. In the 1980s, a newer style of R&B developed, becoming known as "Contemporary R&B".
Contemporary R&B (also known as simply R&B) is a music genre that combines elements of rhythm and blues, pop, funk, soul and hip hop.
Although the abbreviation "R&B" originates from traditional rhythm 'n' blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African-American music originating after the demise of disco in the 1980s. Some sources refer to the style as urban contemporary (the name of the radio format that plays hip hop and contemporary R&B).
Contemporary R&B has a polished record production style, drum machine-backed rhythms, an occasional saxophone-laced beat to give a jazz feel (mostly common in contemporary R&B songs prior to the year 1993), and a smooth, lush style of vocal arrangement. Electronic influences are becoming an increasing trend, and the use of hip hop or dance-inspired beats are typical, although the roughness and grit inherent in hip hop may be reduced and smoothed out. Contemporary R&B vocalists are often known for their use of melisma, popularized by vocalists such as Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder,[1] Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey.
Now there are excellent artists as Ne-Yo, Drake, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Ludacris, Chris Brown, Usher, Rihanna, Beyonce, Keri Hilson, etc.