Return of the Backbeat
The backbeat originally referred to the backing off of the drumstick away from the drum “on even beats in Classical music,” according to allexperts.com in the article Back Beat.
As we discussed before, the backbeat is also implored in popular music such as rock and roll and rhythm and blues, though in these genres the terminology refers to the accenting of the second and fourth beats.
A mixing of the blues style with boogie woogie rhythm, done by Louis Jordan in, which he used humerous lyrics is a well known and primal example of this urbanization of the blues, which began in the 1930’s. Though RnB drew influence from gospel and jazz also.
Wikipedia states that Jerry Wexler of Billboard Magazine coined the term rhythm and blues and that it was deemed a more proper terminology after WWII, as it wasn’t considered offensive, like the term race music in the new era, but the original lingo had been coined by the black community.
References:
http://en.allexperts.com/e/b/ba/back_beat.htm
http://www.rhythmandtheblues.org.uk/pdhist2.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R&B
Interesting site: