Table of Contents
2 – Rhythm & Blues
Rhythm and Blues coalesced out of several forms of the blues and boogie-woogie swing jazz, with gospel and folk music in the mix as well. The boogie-woogie craze was revived in 1938 & 1939 and carried over during the war years. Urban Blues, Gospel, rural blues and jump blues were other popular forms of the “race records” categories in the years just after WWII.
A) Early Classic R&B
(1948-1954) – Generally, classic R&B starts when Billboard magazine opened up a chart for R&B hits in 1949. Blues, Gospel, Jump Blues and many other “race” records were then all under the R&B category. It was in Classic R&B that rock & roll grew out of eventually in 1955, but in 1949 rock & roll was just getting started.
1) Jump Blues – 1945-1950 – A conglomerate of country stomp, western swing, and electric blues barrelhouses came “Jump Blues”. At the time jump blues was a fresh danceable shuffle eight to the bar style of dance music. Check out Louis Jordan, Big Mama Thorton, Amos Milburn, Roy Brown, Wynonie Harris, and much more.
2) Classic Early R&B – 1948-1954 – Many names from jump blues were instrumental in the growth of R&B and rock & roll. Many other names in classic R&B are the Treniers, Ike Turner’s “Rocket 88”, the Orioles, the Ravens, Goree Carter, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, the Dominos, the Drifters, Joe Turner, the Crows, Ruth Brown, Lavern Baker, the Coasters and much more.
B) Rock & Roll
(1955-1959) – Rhythm & Blues music of enormous crossover popularity, dubbed rock & roll in 1953 by Alan Freed became a new societal American phenomenon and barometer of American culture. Rock & Roll would become all Americana after this particular period of growth and prosperity after America won the war.
1) Doo-Wop – (1948-1967) – Starting around 1948 I study this vocal form of R&B that was later referred to as doo-wop. There is a lot of beauty here with the Ravens, the Orioles, the Dominos, the Crows, the Coasters, the Penguins, the Wrens, the Drifters, the Dell-Vikings, Danny & the Juniors, Frankie Lymon, the Platters, The Shirelles, the Crystals and so much more.
2) The Golden Age – (1955-1959) – Scholars do not agree as to when rock & roll began, was it 1953 or was 1955, there are many arguments. I chose 1955 for many reasons that i explain. There many articles about R&B, rock & roll and rockabilly. See Ray Charles, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Duane Eddy, Dion, Bud Holly, Sam Cooke, Everly Brothers, the Drifters, and many more.
C) Late R&B
(1960-1964) – This was a transitional phase for R&B (rock & roll) in the early 1960s. At the end of the 50s, there seemed a lull in rock & roll. There was the day the music died early in 1959, and things seemed to change but then things bounced back in the early 60s.
Check out Chubby Checker, “The Twist”, Little Eva, the Ronettes, the Everly Brothers, Ben E. King, Etta James, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, the Beach Boys surf rock, great songs like the Kingsmen “Louie Louie”.
A newer form of R&B called “Soul” had started up and began to dominate, artists like Sam Cooke, Mary Wells, Martha & the Vandellas, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Motown was in its ascendancy.
The purely acoustical genre of folk music was making a resurgence with groups like Kingston Trio, Peter Paul & Mary, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan; as was old time rock & roll. Things would start to change fast as the 60s progressed.
D) Early 60s Rock & Roll
There were many competing forms of music in the early 60s. There was vocal R&B (doo-wop) which dominated the charts and several 50s styled rock & roll phases like surf rock, surf pop, and garage rock.
1) Garage Rock – (1958-1967) – Starting simply as instrumental R&B the genre quickly became music to cruise to and about cars. Link Wray’s 1957 “Rumble, the Ventures, Del Shannon, the Regents, the Revels, the Centurians, the Rivingtons, the Tornados, the Kingsmen.
2) Surf Rock & Pop – (1962-1963) – This sub-genre emulated surfing on the beach specifically Dick Dale, a very fast paced guitarists with lots of ornamentation and foreign music influences. Dick Dale, the Chantays “Pipeline”, the Lively Ones, the Surfaris “Wipe Out”, “Surf City”, the Rivieras, and the Trashmen “Bird Is a Word”. Surf Pop – A pop version of surf rock mostly produced by Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, “Surfin Safari”, “Surfin USA” “Surfer Girl”, Jan & Dean “Surf City” and Dick Dale’s “Miserlou”.
The Beach Boys
3) The British Invasion – (1964-1965) – Then in 1964, the British invaded America, the Beatles, Dave Clarke 5, the Searchers, Jerry & the Pacemakers, Herman’s Hermits, the Zombies, the Rolling Stones, the Animals the Kinks and the Who.
The Beatles