Rhythm and Blues, or R&B, is a musical marketing term introduced in the late 1940s by Billboard Magazine[?] to replace the term race music[?], which was deemed offensive. Rather than describing a recognizable musical genre, rhythm and blues has come to be used to indicate whatever contemporary music is popular with African-Americans.
In its first manifestation, rhythm and blues was a black version of a predecessor to rock and roll. It was strongly influenced by jazz and jump music[?] as well as black gospel music.
The term fell into disfavor in the 1960s being replaced by soul music and Motown, but has re-emerged in recent years indicating black popular music encompassing pop heavily influenced by hip-hop, funk, and soul music. In this context only the abbreviation R&B is used, not the full expression.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump