# Articles

UK R n B Music

Soon after the second world war an influx of immigrants from all over the globe entered these shores for economic reasons .....

Whilst arriving here, they also brought with them their own cultures, including clothing, religion, food and music.

RnB, referred to as Rhythm and Blues was only found in underground venues such as town halls, churches etc. and specialist nights to cater for an increasing demand mostly in inner city areas. Most bands played at these venues and specialist nights as a hobby to entertain there own culture and people, none had record deals or any airplay simply because of lack of exposer and understanding of immigrants culture.

It wasnt until the 50s and 60s that immigrants whom brought their own cultures actually started to be recognised as main stream. Their brand of music was influenced by their own cultures and record companies started to see the potential in their sounds.

Towards the 70s their own brand of music started to enter the national charts frequently, some of those artist include, Imagination reaching the national charts with a track called Illusion, amongst other hits. Other bands in the 70s included Light of the world and Begger and Co. The early 80s saw Phil Fearon and Galaxy gain chart success with Dancing Tight and What Do I Do. The Real Thing - You To Me Are Everything, also saw a re-release in the 90s.

Towards the late 80s and early 90s saw several UK RnB bands popping up, and without doubt the most succesful at that time would have been Soul ll Soul with their debut release called Fairplay (Virgin Records) which I still think is their best release to date. Soul ll Soul had a retail outlet in London Called The African Centre which sold Rare Groove Vinyl Records and other music related material, I often used to pop into their store in search of the next killa break (before they became famous).

Towards the mid 90s awhole host of new artist entered the UK RnB market, listed below are some promos I have in my collection....

Mark Morrison - Return of the Mack (WEA).

Gabrielle - Dreams (Go Beat).

Lisa Stansfield - All Around The World - (Produced by Coldcut, Mat Black and Jonathan Moore, whom had chart success with Yazz and the plastic population and have released several dj tools albums).

Simply Red (Carlin Music), Craig David and Artful Dodger(Whom also pioneered the UK Garage scene), Jamelia, Incognito (Phonogram), Desree (Sony), Beverley Knight.

Shara Nelson - Down that Road (Chrysalis).

Omar - Theres Nothing Llike This (Polygram).

Ideal - Whatever.

Shola Ama - Need Somebody (Warner Bros).

Young Disciples - Apparently Nothing (Mercury).

Brand New Heavies - Dream on Dreamer (FFRR).

Mica Paris - Temptation

Massive Attack from Bristol releasing - Safe From Harm

And awhole load of others....

The above are all national chart hits from afew years ago and well worth a listen, there are of course 1000s of others out there, but cant name them all here.... but I would say the above are some of the pioneers in a form of music which has seen growth both in popularity and record sales.....

I await the next new sound from the UK RnB scene.....

Date Added : 2009-08-15 15:06:53


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