The full name of R&B is Rhythm&Blues, which is generally translated as "Rhythm & Blues". In a broad sense, R&B can be regarded as "black pop music". It originated from black blues music and is the basis of today's western pop and rock. Billboard magazine once defined R&B as all black music, except for Jazz and Blues. It can be classified as R&B, which shows how broad the scope of R&B is. HipHop and Rap, which have become very popular in the black music circle in recent years, both originate from R&B and retain many R&B elements.

The birth of rhythm and blues (R&B) can be traced back to the mid-1940s. Early R&B was called jump blues.

JumpBlues absorbs the horn-driven lineup performance of jazz and the rhythm of swing, and also combines the basic overlapping singing method (riff) and string performance of blues music (Blues), becoming a A new form of music. It can also be said that JumpBlues is a combination of RhythmJazz and Blues.

Although JumpBlues largely absorbed the characteristics of Blues, it was rhythm jazz that finally laid its basic structure and formed a new musical style. But Jumpblues has a faster rhythm, rougher singing, and its use of instruments is also different from jazz and blues: the piano playing has a strong rhythm, and the most important SAX performance is sharper. Early JumpBlues was still black music: its singers and listeners were all black.

The singer in JumpBlues is called "Shouter". Many famous JumpBluesShouters are from big bands (Big-Band), such as Big Joe Turner, who is from Kansas City jazzbands. There were also some famous Shouters at that time, such as Wynonie Harris, Roy Brown, Roy Milton and Nappy Brown.

Louis Jordan has a very important influence in the history of JumpBlues. He often plays songs with witty lyrics. Since these songs are particularly suitable for dance music, more and more white teenagers like this song. Kind of music. Other black musicians such as Chuck Berry, Joe Liggins, Tiny Bradshaw, Amos Milburn, Camille Howard, etc. were also famous JumpBlues musicians at that time.

In the 1950s, thanks to the efforts of outstanding musicians, JumpBlues finally broke through racial boundaries and became a new music style accepted by the public. It was also in the 1950s that JumpBlues was renamed "Rhythm and Blues" (R&B)", which appeared on the Billboard chart.