History of R&B Genre

R&B, traditionally known as rhythm and blues, was created by African Americans from the genres of jazz and blues. R&B has become more mainstream due to the slight change in style towards a heavy beat and a dance tempo.
Between the 1940's and 1970's, racial inequality was still seen in society, which meant that R&B music was isolated to the African-American society. Many songs and artists expressed how hard life was as an African American, an example of this is 'A Change Is Gonna Come' by Sam Cooke produced in 1964. This is a well known R&B song from the period. As many African Americans were brought up around racial abuse and inequality, the song was very popular in the African American community, and is still very popular to this day.

After the 1980's, R&B and Soul music started to become two different genres. The 1980's to early 1990's was when artists such as Luther Vandross bought a much classier style to R&B. Comparing 'A Change is Gonna Come' by Sam Cooke, with 'Never Too Much' by Luther Vandross, you can see the similarities in musical instruments and rhythm used in both time periods. however, the main differences between the two songs is the faster and more recognisable beat in 'Never Too Much'. This is the time when R&B music started to become more modern and change with society, with faster beats and more distinct rhythms.  
These artists above and many others have had a huge influence on the more recent R&B artists such as Boyz 2 Men. This was one of the last groups that had the traditional R&B sound, without involving dance beats, rap and hip hop, which was now becoming popular in all social groups, not just the African American's. Boyz 2 Men also played a part in introducing the R&B genre to music videos. In 1994, the group released the ' I'll Make Love To You' video, which included both narrative and performance elements. Boyz II Men were popular throughout their time all the way up to 2011, and still touring in 2013. Boyz II Men were the foundation of many artists which now class themselves as R&B artists 
in more recent times, artists like NE-YO, Usher, Chris Brown, have used the foundations that previous artists created.  In recent years, artists have collaborated with each other to make music that are cross genres, these are tracks that feature R&B style but also have a dance tempo and style. For example, NeYo took inspiration from Boyz II Men and styled his music around them. By listening to popular NE-YO songs and comparing them against popular Boyz II Men tracks, there are similarities in terms of themes and ideologies which suggest that former artists have an impact on new artists.. Chris Brown has also done this, and his latest album features collaborations with dance artists and producers, one of which being American producer Diplo, who has worked with David Guetta and Tiesto.