R&B — rhythm and blues — is one of the most enduring formats in radio, and one of the most influential. It is also one of the most misunderstood, because the label covers very different things in different decades.
What R&B means and how it changed
The term “rhythm and blues” was coined by music journalist Jerry Wexler in 1948 as a chart label for music made by and marketed to Black Americans. In the 1950s it meant electric blues and jump blues. In the 1960s it became soul. By the 1980s, soul, funk, and smooth production styles had blended into what radio called “urban contemporary”. By the 1990s, R&B meant a specific melodic, production-heavy style: Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men. Today the genre tag stretches from classic Motown to trap-influenced pop.
Urban contemporary radio
The urban contemporary format was developed in the early 1980s, largely by programmer Frankie Crocker at WBLS in New York. It brought R&B, soul, funk, and later hip-hop together under one format. As hip-hop grew, urban radio incorporated it — today “urban” or “urban contemporary” stations typically play a mix of R&B and hip-hop, mirroring how the two genres are consumed on streaming platforms. See our hip-hop radio guide for the overlap.
Soul, funk, and quiet storm
Older R&B stations frequently play soul and funk alongside contemporary R&B. Soul — the gospel-influenced style of Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Sam Cooke — and funk — the groove-based style of James Brown and Parliament-Funkadelic — are R&B’s roots. “Quiet storm” is a slow-tempo, romantic sub-format popular on urban contemporary stations for evening programming, named after a 1976 Smokey Robinson album and popularised at WHUR in Washington DC.
Where to listen
For contemporary R&B: Capital XTRA and Kiss FM in the UK, urban stations on iHeartRadio in the US. For classic soul and R&B: BBC Radio 2 specialist shows, Soul 45 on BBC Radio 6 Music. See also our guide to blues and soul radio.