Graham Reid | | 4 min read
Big Joe Williams: Baby Please Don't Go (1947)
Here follows a broad outline of the growth and development of rhythm and blues, courtesy of Rhythm and Blues Records in the UK, a company which specialises in this music.
PRE 1910
1877 Invention of the Phonograph
1883 Racist coon songs introduced into vaudeville and burlesque
1896 Jim Crow Segregation laws
1897 World’s first radio station on the Isle of Wight
1890s Popularization of the cake walk dance
1908 Introduction of double-sided gramophone records
1910 -1920
Black Diaspora from the south
1912 1st blues song published - W.C. Handy’s Memphis Blues
1914 The foxtrot - danced with ragtime accompaniment
1917 Closure of Storyville - musicians move from New Orleans to Chicago & New York
1919 Prohibition Act
1919 Victor & Columbia monopoly on record production broken
THE TWENTIES
1920 1st American Radio Station
1921 Crazy Blues by Mamie Smith
1922-7 Boom in sales of radios
1923 Charleston dance premiered
1925 Introduction of the electrical recording process
1925 Standardisation of speed of disc recording to 78rpm
1925-30 Standardization of form of the Blues into 8 or 12 bar chorus
1926-32 Okeh Records Race Series
1927 Lindy-hop introduced leading to the jitterbug and jive
THE THIRTIES
1931 Invention of the Microphone
1932-42 Bluebird Records
1933 Electrification of Tennessee Valley
1933 Repeal of Prohibition Act
1935 Rockola mass-production of Jukeboxes
1938 First recording of the electric guitar
1938 From Spirituals To Swing Concerts
THE FORTIES
1940-5 Decca Sepia series
1941 First Bebop Sessions
1942 AFM Musicians strike
1942 Billboard Harlem Hit Parade
1942 Savoy Records
1942 US entry into Second World War
1944 Louis Jordan G.I.Jive #1 in pop charts
1944 King Records
1945 End of Second World War
1946 First mass-produced television sets
1948 WDIA Memphis - first black radio station
1948 Columbia unveils 33rpm microgroove album
1949 Billboard Rhythm & Blues Chart
1949 RCA introduces 45rpm vinyl record
THE FIFTIES
1950 Introduction of 45rpm Jukebox.
1950 Sun Records
1952 Whites start picking up transmissions from black radio
1954 Mambo craze in America
1954 July Chords Sh-boom #5 in pop charts
1954 August Bill Haley Shake Rattle & Roll # 7 in pop charts
1954 December Alan Freed’s Rock’n’Roll Show
1955 Rosa Parks & birth of civil rights movement
1955 1st hits for Bo Diddley & Chuck Berry
1956 1st hits for James Brown & Elvis Presley
1958 1st stereo record release
THE SIXTIES
1963 Martin Luther King’s March on Washington
1963 Billboard suspends R&B chart
1963 1st hit for Otis Redding
1963 1st hit for Motown writers Holland/Dozier/Holland
1964 Civil Rights Act
1964 Beatles 1st hit in USA
1965 Rolling Stones force Shindig to include Howlin’ Wolf on their TV special
This handsome poster below is available in A1 size from Rhythm and Blues Records here. Other posters on this page come from here.
Tans - Feb 13, 2010
Hello, really enjoyed article, very informative plus definitely into Louise Jordan & Tympany...excellent! Rgds Tans x
SaveGavin Hancock - Dec 20, 2011
Hey G
SaveI'm on a bit of a rhythm & blues buzz at the moment (Louis Jordan, etc not Beyoncé, etc). Can you please suggest a various artists compilation or two that cover the era? (i.e. '40s and early '50s). I don't have the money or the time for box sets so double disc collections or smaller please!
Cheers
Gav.
post a comment