"Rhythm and blues" - upbeat, funky music that started in the 60s with the Motown era. Has really gone downhill since then.

To start off, most of what you consider "r&b" today is not r&b, but hip-hop, there's a difference. R&B originated in the 60s, and still exists today, despite what people say, in good form. However in the 70's, much R&B took a funk-style twist to it.

It usually has mellow or laid back beats and rhytms to it, and quality vocals for the most part.

Rhythm & Blues, a music genre originating in the late 40's.

Today's popular music, like Destiny's Child and Mariah Carey, is actually NOT R&B. It's hip-hop and some nuthead decided to call it R&B. The real R&B artists are very annoyed by this.

Rythmn and Blues. Played by good old time bands for a knees up and sing song. A wide variety of styles encompasing many singable hits.

In broad terms, the R&B genre, as with any genre of music, is a set of elemental ideas pertaining to culture, instrumentation, melody and groove, that show it to be an expression in its own right. R&B could be basically described as soulful. However, artists of a particular genre have their own unique style or way of expressing these ideas, and contemporary R&B artists incorporate elements or collaborate with artists from different genres such as Hip Hop. And why not? Genres such as pop, urban, R&B, Hip Hop or Funk are all related by that superordinate element... popular!

R&B is the genre for music that combined elements of blues with jazz or soul. Abbr. for "Rhythm & Blues".

Before R&B was commercialized and mixed with hip-hop, it was music of the likes of Marvin Gaye, The Isley Brothers, Phyllis Hyman, Minnie Rippington, and more current examples India Arie, Jill Scott, Maxwell, etc. Modern R&B like Jill Scott and Maxwell is usually called "Neo-Soul" which is considered a bastardized term for R&B. Honestly, many artists considered neo-soul (i.e. Dwele, Musiq Soulchild) are actually real modern R&B.

While authentic R&B contains deep lyrics, especially Afrocentric experiences of love, relationships, cultures, politics, etc, mainstream "R&B" tends to focus on sappy love themes, sex, and hip-hop lifestyles.

Like all genres of music, it used to be a pretty decent genre of music. It actually have some heart and soul into it and it was about problems you can relate to. And it also had an actually blues influence in it with the improvisation on the piano and some jazz and gospel influences as well.

Now R&B is this over saturated stuff that only have about 3 artists that matter - t pain, akon, and the dream and they sing about the same thing.