{
  "slug": "rhythm-and-blues",
  "name": "Rhythm and Blues",
  "aliases": [
    "r&b",
    "jump blues",
    "race records",
    "rhythm & blues"
  ],
  "description": "Blues played by a small band with a shuffle, a honking saxophone and somewhere to be. The post-war music that turned twelve bars into a dance floor, and the common ancestor of rock and roll, soul and Jamaican ska.",
  "origin": {
    "place": "Los Angeles and Chicago",
    "year": 1945
  },
  "lineage": [
    {
      "genre": "blues",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/blues/",
      "inherited": "The form, moved to the city and given a band. Rhythm and blues is twelve-bar music with a rhythm section, an amplifier and a shuffle — the Delta repertoire rearranged for a room that wants to dance rather than listen."
    },
    {
      "genre": "jazz",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/jazz/",
      "inherited": "The horns and the reading musicians. Jump blues is what happened when the swing bands became too expensive to tour: the same arrangers and players, cut down to six pieces and pointed at a smaller, louder room."
    }
  ],
  "bpm": {
    "min": 120,
    "max": 180
  },
  "updated": "2026-08-30",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/rhythm-and-blues/",
  "trackCount": 9,
  "curatedBy": [],
  "playlists": {},
  "tracks": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "trackKey": "jackie-brenston-and-his-delta-cats--rocket-88",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/jackie-brenston-and-his-delta-cats--rocket-88/",
      "title": "Rocket 88",
      "artist": "Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/jackie-brenston-and-his-delta-cats/",
      "year": 1951,
      "label": "Chess",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Regularly called the first rock and roll record, which it is not — it is the best jump blues record, with a guitar amp that fell off a car roof and was recorded broken anyway.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Jackie%20Brenston%20and%20his%20Delta%20Cats%20Rocket%2088",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbfnh1oVTk0",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "trackKey": "louis-jordan--choo-choo-chboogie",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/louis-jordan--choo-choo-chboogie/",
      "title": "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie",
      "artist": "Louis Jordan",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/louis-jordan/",
      "year": 1946,
      "label": "Decca",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Jordan's small band outsold the big bands by being funnier, tighter and cheaper to book. The template for every self-contained rhythm section that followed.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Louis%20Jordan%20Choo%20Choo%20Ch'Boogie",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=_A2pRVyBmOY",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "trackKey": "big-mama-thornton--hound-dog",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/big-mama-thornton--hound-dog/",
      "title": "Hound Dog",
      "artist": "Big Mama Thornton",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/big-mama-thornton/",
      "year": 1952,
      "label": "Peacock",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Three years before Elvis, and considerably more menacing. Thornton is talking to a specific person and you would not want to be him.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Big%20Mama%20Thornton%20Hound%20Dog",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=oBf6oKouOGc",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "trackKey": "wynonie-harris--good-rockin-tonight",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/wynonie-harris--good-rockin-tonight/",
      "title": "Good Rockin' Tonight",
      "artist": "Wynonie Harris",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/wynonie-harris/",
      "year": 1948,
      "label": "King",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A shouted invitation over a band that will not let up. The word rocking is doing exactly what everyone thinks it is doing, six years early.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Wynonie%20Harris%20Good%20Rockin'%20Tonight",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=cgdzS4OSQ1M",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "trackKey": "big-joe-turner--shake-rattle-and-roll",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/big-joe-turner--shake-rattle-and-roll/",
      "title": "Shake, Rattle and Roll",
      "artist": "Big Joe Turner",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/big-joe-turner/",
      "year": 1954,
      "label": "Atlantic",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The original, before the lyric was laundered for white radio. Turner's version swings where the cover marches, which is the difference the whole decade turned on.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Big%20Joe%20Turner%20Shake%2C%20Rattle%20and%20Roll",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=rJoTiZ0tHYc",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 6,
      "trackKey": "fats-domino--the-fat-man",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/fats-domino--the-fat-man/",
      "title": "The Fat Man",
      "artist": "Fats Domino",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/fats-domino/",
      "year": 1949,
      "label": "Imperial",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "New Orleans piano, a rolling triplet figure and a million copies sold. Domino was doing this before the phrase rock and roll existed and simply never stopped.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Fats%20Domino%20The%20Fat%20Man",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=aIz1cPfTRW4",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 7,
      "trackKey": "lloyd-price--lawdy-miss-clawdy",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/lloyd-price--lawdy-miss-clawdy/",
      "title": "Lawdy Miss Clawdy",
      "artist": "Lloyd Price",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/lloyd-price/",
      "year": 1952,
      "label": "Specialty",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Price singing, Domino on piano, and a record that crossed to white audiences without anybody planning it. The commercial accident the next decade was built on.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "sung-to-someone",
          "name": "Sung to Someone",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/sung-to-someone/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Lloyd%20Price%20Lawdy%20Miss%20Clawdy",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=nYO263wui1w",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 8,
      "trackKey": "the-drifters--money-honey",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/the-drifters--money-honey/",
      "title": "Money Honey",
      "artist": "The Drifters",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-drifters/",
      "year": 1953,
      "label": "Atlantic",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Clyde McPhatter's gospel-trained tenor applied to a song about rent. The exact point where the quartet tradition walks out of the church and into the charts.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/The%20Drifters%20Money%20Honey",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=8bdX6uD3HkA",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 9,
      "trackKey": "the-midnighters--work-with-me-annie",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/the-midnighters--work-with-me-annie/",
      "title": "Work with Me, Annie",
      "artist": "The Midnighters",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-midnighters/",
      "year": 1954,
      "label": "Federal",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Banned by broadcasters, a million-seller regardless, and answered by half a dozen other records within the year. Rhythm and blues as a running conversation nobody could police.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/The%20Midnighters%20Work%20with%20Me%2C%20Annie",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=bvzSlCH9AsM",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}