Call-and-Response R&B
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Call-and-Response R&B is built around musical conversation: lead singer and backing group, soloist and choir, men and women, preacher and congregation, band and audience. The response can be a shouted phrase, harmony answer, horn riff, handclap or crowd hook. It comes from African diasporic, gospel and blues practice, and it gives R&B one of its deepest social forms: the song becomes a room talking back.
History
Gospel quartets, work songs, blues, jump bands and doo-wop all fed call-and-response into R&B. Ray Charles, The Coasters, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, The Staple Singers, Sly and the Family Stone, Parliament-Funkadelic, Boyz II Men and Destiny's Child used the device in different eras. It survives because it makes records participatory: even a listener alone can hear where their voice belongs.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- R&B and gospel performance histories
- African American music scholarship
- AllMusic soul/R&B overviews
- artist discographies