Codes and conventions of R&B

Rhythm and blues, also known as R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular. British rhythm and blues developed in the early 1960s, largely as a response to the recordings of American artists, often brought over by African American servicemen stationed in Britain during the Cold War, or merchant seamen visiting ports such as London, Liverpool, Newcastle on Tyne and Belfast. Many bands, particularly in the developing London club scene, tried to emulate black rhythm and blues performers, resulting in a "rawer" or "grittier" sound than the more popular "beat groups". In the early 1980’s a newer style of R&B developed, known as contemporary R&B. This is the type of R&B style that I am going to be incorporating into my idea for my chosen medium, which is a music video. Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, R&B, and soul music. R&B originated in the 1940’s as a popular African American music, and the term R&B was often used as an abbreviation for rhythm & blues. A style of music developed by African Americans that combines blues and jazz, characterized by a strong backbeat and repeated variations on syncopated instrumental phrases. R&B has elements from funk, soul, pop, blues and hip-hop. Most R&B videos are narrative and performance based. They tend to represent wealth by showing off expensive possessions such as cars, designer clothing and lavish homes etc. A lot of the focus in a R&B music video is generally on the artists physical appearance and on the others in the video. There are many famous R&B artists in today’s society such as Beyonce, Kanye West, Rihanna, Usher etc… all of these artists have a similar look that lets the audience understand that R&B is their genre of music. All these are artists are mainly African American, and this is where this genre was founded, this to most people is a stereotype of this genre. In most R&B videos there is a great amount of dancing and performance. This can include anything from hip hop, break dancing and contemporary dance. The video's conventions are often focused on the physical looks of the artist or the extras, in most R&B music videos the men are usually dressed in either designer clothes or smart clothes and usually wearing lots of big gold jewellery, this is to symbolise their wealth and show their importance. Women in this genre of video are usually dressed in very little clothing as they tend to like showing of their body’s but they do usually have their hair and make-up quite extravagant looking to make them stand out as they try to have the main focus on them throughout the music video. In most R&B music videos they regularly use tracking shots, close-ups and mid-shots to show the emotions and body language of the artist and for the viewer to see the setting as R&B videos are usually located in pretty wealthy places and settings. One of the main themes in R&B music videos is romance. The artist tends to try and portray either a theme of love, fighting or breaking-up in their video. This is one of the codes and conventions that help make the genre of the video recognizable to the audience.