An expansive swath of music with early roots in the post-war jump blues of Roy Brown and Big Joe Turner, R&B--and its offspring, soul--became the preeminent African-American popular music by the late 1950s. While it has undergone a number of stylistic facelifts over the decades, from the classic '60s heyday of Motown/Stax/Atlantic chart domination through '70s funk and the massive crossover inroads of the '80s, '90s, and '00s, R&B/soul has always remained a vibrantly expressive music at its core: the sweaty grit of Otis Redding, the rubbery funk of Sly & the Family Stone, the smooth balladry of Whitney Houston, the inimitable brassiness of Mary J. Blige, and the epochal contemporary R&B of Lauryn Hill.

Notable Artists: Ray Charles; James Brown; Marvin Gaye; Aretha Franklin; Prince; R. Kelly