Blues and R&B
As the economy picked up steam in the postwar years, the automobile industry was booming and modern appliances were becoming affordable for more people. Many families had disposable income for the first time since the Great Depression, and teenagers—now freed from needing to help contribute to the family income—were finding they had more free time on their hands.
This situation was true for most Americans, no matter their ethnic background. Many African Americans had left the rural areas of southern states, such as Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, and moved to cities in the north, especially Detroit, Memphis, Cleveland, and Chicago, to work in factories or find other jobs. Musicians followed their audiences and adapted rural styles, namely the blues, to the modern urban context. Icons of blues music, such as Muddy Waters (1913–1983), Howlin' Wolf (1910–1976), and B. B. King (b. 1925), created electrified versions of well-known country blues songs and wrote new music that drew droves of patrons to juke joints and nightclubs in ever-increasing numbers. Some jazz band leaders, such as Louis Jordan (1908–1975), downsized the big bands to play new styles, such as boogie-woogie, stride, and jump blues.
The catchall phrase "rhythm and blues," often shortened to R&B, came into vogue as a way to label all the new music emerging from the African American communities in these urban settings. By the time Cleveland DJ Alan Freed (1921–1965) began describing the rhythm and blues music he played on his late-night radio broadcasts as "rock and roll," the music had already begun to filter to white audiences throughout the country. Independent labels, such as Chess Records in Chicago and Atlantic Records in New York City, signed many young black artists and quickly mounted competition for the larger white-dominated record companies.