Rhythm And Blues (R&B)-starting with Michael Jackson

Hello everyone.

Here is the place to discuss Rhythm and Blues, also know as: R & B. R&B origanates from the african american folk music know as the Blues. Rhythm and Blues (or R&B) was coined as a musical marketing term introduced in the United States in the late 1940s by Jerry Wexler at Billboard magazine, used to designate upbeat popular music performed by African American artists that combined jazz and blues. It replaced the term race music. By the 1970s, rhythm and blues was being used as a blanket term to describe soul and funk as well. Today, the acronym "R&B" is almost always used instead of "rhythm and blues", and defines the modern version of the soul and funk influenced African-American pop music that originated with the demise of disco in 1980.

There were countless R&B artist through out the days. Some of the modren day ones being Micheal Jackson, Usher, Beyonce, Alica Keys and many more. And this leads to where I'm going to start with the man who got me interested in R&B as much as I am. I'm still a rocker at heart but Micheal Jackson's - Thriller.Jackson began his musical career at the age of five as lead singer of The Jackson 5 and made his first solo recordings in 1971 while remaining a member of the group.[1] He began a full-fledged solo career in 1979 and formally parted with his siblings in 1984. In his solo career, Jackson recorded and co-produced the best-selling album of all-time (Thriller with approximate worldwide sales of 60 million), received thirteen Grammy awards and charted thirteen number-one singles in the U.S. Michael Jackson has been awarded numerous honors, including the World Music Award's "Best-selling pop male artist of the Millennium" and he is a double-inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1997 and in 2001 as a solo artist.

n 1982, Jackson released his Sophomore album with the Epic record label. The album, Thriller became the best-selling album in music history with 60 million copies sold worldwide. The album spawned seven hit singles, including "Billie Jean" (which was the first music video by an African American artist to receive regular airplay on MTV), "Beat It" and the album's title track which was accompanied by a revolutionary music video. The thirteen-minute "Thriller" was critically acclaimed, and massive airplay lead to it being packaged with the featurette "Making Michael Jackson's "Thriller" on VHS, where it became the best-selling music home video ever. Thriller spent 37 weeks at number one and remained on the Billboard album chart for 122 weeks. It was eventually certified 26x Platinum in the United States.

In 1983, whilst performing "Billie Jean" at the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever concert Jackson debuted what could now be construed as his signature move - the moonwalk. It was at this point that Jackson's stardom exploded. The media began paying more attention to this new, publicity-courting Jackson. Jackson used his new superstar status and wealth to reap financial rewards. In 1983 Jackson started a sponsorship deal with Pepsi-Cola, as part of the deal Jackson agreed to star in a Commercial. While filming the commercial in 1984, Jackson burnt his scalp, requiring skin grafts.

In 1987, after starring in the George Lucas/Francis Ford Coppola 3-D film Captain EO, Jackson released Bad, his third and final album with producer Quincy Jones.[18] Bad sold 29 million copies[19] and spawned seven hit singles [20] including the number ones "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana". The album was supported by a world tour which lasted for over a year visiting 15 countries[21]

With high expectations after the success of Thriller, Jackson had some big ideas for the album. He initially wanted to make the album 30 tracks long, which Quincy Jones cut down to 10.He wanted the title track to be a duet with fellow pop superstar Prince, but that fell through after the two had creative differences and Prince le

 

Jackson just so damn strange, you tend to forget that he is also uber-talented. Despite that, huge record sales, and the fact that he owns the Beatles song catalogue, he's nearly bankrupt. Financially.

I would have given a lot to hear a collaboration between him and Prince...

 

I hate the term "R&B." As you said, it was originally coined to replace the term "race music," and sadly race still seems to be a factor in the way "R&B" is popularly used... It is an unfortunate remnant of a time when music was knowingly segregated...

In the early 50s, the White American mainstream still knew that "R&B" referred to "race music," which they didn't want anything to do with, and so Alan Freed used a different term when he marketed the music on the R&B charts to that White audience... That term was "Rock & Roll" of course...

Today we seem to have forgotten that... But in the 50s and 60s, (before the rise of FM radio and its stylistically restrictive playlists) Rock and R&B were essentially synonymous terms. The Who were an R&B group as much as the Supremes were, and James Brown was a rock artist as much as the Stones were- and no one would have debated that. But today we insist on calling Coldplay a rock artist, Kanye West a rap artist, and Alicia Keys an R&B artist. In fact, all of that music has the same ultimate stylistic root in the jump blues which was popular on the R&B charts in the late 40s and early 50s (though they no longer bear any resemblence to it), and all of it is still marketed to the same unique audience of young people. IMO, there's no need to slice it and dice it more than that.
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Michael Jackson was such an amazing talent, its sad to see the shell of a man left today, especially after leaving so little truly great music behind. Thriller is no doubt a great album, and its best tracks (Beat It and Billie Jean) are among the best of the 80s (and both Jackson compositions.) It set the tone for the entire decade and beyond, with Madonna and Prince and Whitney and Janet and Lionel all trying to one-up Michael. Today Britney and Usher and Justin Timberlake are still trying to one-up Michael. Its no Sgt Peppers, but its certainly one of the 10 most important rock albums ever recorded, and a helluva listen to boot. Though there are some definite standouts, theres really nothing weak or "filler"ish here either, not even the ridiculous "The Girl Is Mine" with Paul McCartney. Which brings up another point- if you really don't like "R&B" as opposed to "Rock", the appearences from Macca and Eddie Van Halen should sell you on the idea that this is an essential album...

 

MJ is weirdd and creepy yes. And that is what my friends cant see past. I just bring up his name and the joke abouth the emeniem video.

Jackson, is truely one of the root guys thats why I picked him first.

But R&B is still alive in Rock today, for example U2's biggest album has R&B roots. Its is like African music with a rock feel. That is why it succeded, they combined best of both worlds.

 

Thriller is a terrific album. Probably one of the best ever made. Michael Jackson is supremely talented, and has written and performed some of the very best pop to come out of the last twenty years.

Malcolm, will we be discussing some older R&B, such as Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, etc? That's where my R&B love lies.

 

Oh ya! Look for a chnge in a day or two. I just wanted to start with someone everyone knows(good and/or bad)

 

Guess I forgot to post.

Jackson is crazy, but he was definitely talented in his younger years. It's obvious even during his time with the Jackson 5 that he was just mindblowingly good at what he did.

Off the Wall is a great album, manages to make disco cool, something not many people could do and his performance of She's Out of My Life is beyond essential.

Thriller is equally great, even more so really.

Sadly, the CD of new material on HIStory proved that he had lost utterly whatever genius he ever had.

 

I've really got to get my hands on "Off the Wall"