A popular music genre combining jazz, gospel and blues influences, first performed by African American artists.

The term was coined as a musical marketing term in the US in 1947 and was initially used to identify the rocking style of music that combined the 12-bar blues format and boogie-woogie with a back beat, which later became a fundamental element of rock and roll. Atlantic Records was the leading label in the R&B field in the early years.

The 1950s was the premier decade for classic rhythm and blues. Overlapping with other genres such as jazz and rock and roll, R&B developed regional variations. A strong, distinct style straddling the border with blues came out of New Orleans, and was based on a rolling piano style first made famous by Professor Longhair and later by Fats Domino. Other artists who popularised this Louisiana flavor of R&B included Clarence 'Frogman' Henry, Irma Thomas, the Neville Brothers and Dr. John.

The first rock and roll hits consisted of rhythm and blues songs such as Shake, Rattle and Roll and Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On, the first hit by Jerry Lee Lewis, which appeared on popular music charts as well as R&B charts.

By the early 1960s, rhythm and blues had taken on more gospel-influenced elements, as pioneered by artists such as Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, James Brown and Aretha Franklin and was given the name soul music. There were also some young white bands whose music was labelled rhythm and blues (and sometimes blue-eyed soul), such as the Yardbirds, the Rolling Stones, the Pretty Things, the Small Faces, the Animals and the Spencer Davis Group.

By the 1970s, rhythm and blues was being used as a blanket term to describe soul and funk. Today the acronym R&B is almost always used instead of the full 'rhythm and blues' and mainstream use of the term refers to a modern version of soul and funk-influenced pop music that originated as disco became less favourable.