And as they circulated, they allowed black music to travel in ways that were often forbidden to black musicians in a segregated and racist society. Records became, as never before, the music industry’s coin of the realm. The emergence of R&B coincided with an unprecedented increase both in record sales and in records’ presence on radio (increasingly displacing live broadcast performances). Another common thread running through the encyclopedia is the medium that represents and transmits the music, namely, recordings. Such connections demonstrate the continued presence of a musical ancestry in the work of succeeding musical generations, through which develops a sense of stable and enduring tradition. Furthermore, the origins of rap in the 1970s as a street music requiring no instruments are essentially similar to those of doo-wop in the late 1940s, where groups of kids had only to gather on a neighborhood street, using nothing but their voices to make music that would, eventually, develop worldwide appeal. That range from sound fragments to extended quotations, such as Dr Dre’s chorus for “Let Me Ride” (1992), which is taken from Parliament’s “Mothership Connection (Star Child)” (1976), or Missy Elliott’s revision (in 1997) of Ann Peebles’ “I Can’t Stand the Rain” (1974). And hip-hop culture, with its widespread use of sampling, makes connections with a musical past Prince, in forging an eclectic mix of R&B, pop, and rock elements, demonstrates, in his early work, a clear affinity for Sly Stone while offering up a blend that is all his own. The Orioles, and dozens of subsequent doo-wop groups, built on the sound of the Ink Spots and the Mills Brothers but transformed their elders’ smooth, sophisticated pop, with its perfect Hollywood-movie diction and subtle jazz inflections, into a more youthful, unpolished sound with the lead singer’s voice barely able to contain a sense of emotional transport. As the past is invoked, it informs the present with something familiar, and as traditional elements are transformed, they become fresh. It is the connections to a traditional past and the continual, dynamic reshaping of tradition that gives this music its vitality, its strength, and its wide appeal. And the vocal stylings common to all modern R&B divas are connected intimately to a long-standing tradition of gospel expression. Indeed, the foundations for the style shared by hundreds of doo-wop groups of the 1950s was laid in black churches. And each of these artists came to national prominence in a different decade, from the 1950s to the 1980s, a clear indication of the church’s continuing influence. Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Teddy Pendergrass, and Whitney Houston are but a tiny sample of artists schooled in the musical and expressive traditions of black gospel music. A great many of the artists cataloged in this book, forĮxample, owe their early musical training to the churches they attended as youngsters. Reading through a succession of apparently unrelated topics may feel disorienting at first, but gradually, among the kaleidoscopic wealth of information, common themes emerge, connecting many of the entries to one another in various ways. And Herb Abramson was one of the founders of Atlantic Records, perhaps the premier R&B label, with a history stretching from the late 1940s to today, the home, over the years, to the likes of Ray Charles, The Drifters, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Chic, and Lil’ Kim. Above the Law takes us into the 1990s, when hip-hop became king. Paula Abdul represents the 1980s pop diva for whom the dance was at least as important as the voice. A cappella is the unaccompanied singing style favored by early rock-and-roll vocal groups of the 1950s. Reading the first four entries-“Paula Abdul,” “Above the Law,” “Herb Abramson,” “a cappella”-we cover most of the historical time frame this book represents. But it is also instructive simply to read through a few entries in succession. Encyclopedias are, of course, especially useful in directing us to a particular topic. Because chronological sequence is not a factor, we wander as through a museum, forming our own impressions of the connections among the things we observe. From this leveled landscape, a reader is often led to unlikely observations of affinity and confluence among the encyclopedia’s disparate entries. The only organizing narrative force is the alphabet. Signal feature of any encyclopedia is its presentation of the elements of a historical mosaic unassembled. University at Albany (SUNY)Īppendixes 293 Glossary of Music Terms 305 Further Reading and Research 313 Editorial Board of Advisers 317 Index 319 Rhythm and Blues, Rap, and Hip-Hop Frank Hoffmann Foreword by Albin J.
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