R&B
Avant is an American R&B singer born on April 26th 1978.
On May 9th of 2000, he released his first debut album titled (My Thoughts) which gave him two top ten hits (Separated) and (My First Love) with Keke Wyatt, a cover of the original Rene & Angela hit, both of which went Platinum as well as the album itself.
Next came the 2002 release of (Ecstasy) which became his biggest selling album ever, eventually selling 1.7 million copies in the US alone and just over 5 million worldwide. The album launched two major hits (Makin’ Good Love) and (Don’t Say No,Just Say Yes) and featured Charlie Wilson on the song (One Way Street).
Then the year 2003 saw the release of (Private Room) which peaked at number 4 on Billboard magazines Top R&B/Hip Hop albums chart and number 18 on the Billboard 200 chart and featured guest rapper Snoop Dogg on the hit R&B Mixtapes single (Read Your Mind), along with guest star Olivia appearing on the song (Seems to Be) and another hit Mixtapes song (Don’t Take Your Love Away).
There are many people in the world who will tell you that for soul tingling music you should listen to the songs of R&B performers. This style of music is catchy and has the ability of soothing you at the same time that it energizes your soul. You will find this popular form of music is the shortened form of rhythm and blues. It originated during the 1940s from a number of popular African American musical styles. The roots of R&B can be traced to gospel music, traditional pop music, Jazz music, and the blues music genre. In this final style you will find that jump and electric blues music more than the others had a huge influence on the development of the R&B music scene.
With the passage of time you can see how R&B has changed. During the early days the term rhythm and blues was used as the name given to all blues records. Then in the 1950s you could find that R&B included musical styles which incorporated rock and roll, soul music, electric blues and gospel music as well. As the 1970s rolled around the term R&B became the blanket name for all styles and forms of soul and funk music. In the 1980s with the emergence of a new style of R&B, the title of contemporary R&B was born.
Some say that the only difference between the rhythm and blues (R&B) and gospel is with gospel you sing “Oh Lord,” while with Rhythm and Blues soul music you sing “Oh Baby.” Gospel music was the root beginnings of soul music however it is not merely the root that make R&B what it is today.
R& B soul music came to life as its own genre during the 50′s. While its origins may have began around the northern cities of America like Chicago it wasn’t long before other cities followed suit like Memphis, Detroit, New York, Florence, and Philadelphia.
Many artists throughout the years helped develop what is known as R&B soul music such as artist like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Barry White, Luther Vandrose, James Brown, and Issac Hayes to mention just a few.
Soul music origin’s came from the influence of gospel music and the more traditional R&B sounds. The R&B soul sound of Memphis was more influenced by the gospel mix in cities like Memphis, than was the rhythm and blues soul of Detroit, which came up to become the smooth, polished sounds of Motown by artist such as Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, and Marvin Gaye.
In the early 1970s, the cultural movement of hip hop music was born. Hip hop’s fast paced music style is made of two parts; the rhythmic delivery of rap and the use ofinstrumentation by a DJ. Hip hop music also brought with it a fashion of its own, the fashion helped to represent this newly created music.
Hip hop music has its roots from West African music and African-American music. The first rap song to be put onto a vinyl record was, “Rapper’s Delight”, a song by the Sugarhill Gang back in the 1970s. This is when block parties started becoming the norm in New York City, which gave hip hop and rap the chance to explode in popularity. Hip hop’s instrumentation came from funk, R&B, and disco, when combined together make this dynamic type of music. When the DJs at these block parties learned what the people liked, they began mixing these vinyl records and created music that played continuously with amazing transitions between
songs. Hip hop was actually created by a DJ named Kool Herc, a Jamaican that had moved to the United States with a style that consisted of mixing music by using two copies of the same record. Many of the poor Jamaican’s in the town could not afford vinyl records, so huge stereo systems were set up so that many could here the rhythmic beats. These stereo systems were the kick-off for the beginning of the
evolution of block parties. So with the musical talent of these amazing DJs, with the use of vinyl record mixing, the culture of hip hop and rap music was born.