Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of
popular music that originated in African-American communities 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. In the commercial rhythm and blues music
typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of
piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, one or more saxophones, and
sometimes background vocalists. R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the
African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy, as
well as triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, economics, and
aspirations.
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