About Soul/R&B
R&B, short for Rhythm and Blues, is an influential genre of popular music that emerged from African-American communities in the 1940s, blending Blues, Jazz, and Gospel with a strong backbeat. Early R&B often featured a raw, danceable energy and suggestive lyrics. Soul music developed as a subgenre of R&B in the late 1950s and 1960s, distilling the emotional intensity and vocal improvisations of Gospel music into secular songs about love, heartbreak, and social commentary, usually delivered with passionate vocals.