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A little before the second World War, the first commercial records were available. The records were seperated by skin color. Records by black artists were marked seperately from whate artists, known as "Race Records"
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Louis Jordan was really big in this era, third most popular African American.
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Brown recorded for the newly formed Atlantic Records, which became known, in a play on Yankee Stadium's slogan, as "The House That Ruth Built." Atlantic was founded in 1947 by Ahmet Ertegün and Herb Abrahamson, who were later joined by famed producer Jerry Wexler. The label became home to the industry's top R&B and soul artists, including Solomon Burke, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and the Drifters
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These two groups had the distinction of being produced by the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, two early Brill Building songwriters and producers who brought "uptown" sophistication to "downtown" R&B.
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sprang from the creative efforts of two men: Berry Gordy, a one-time boxing promoter and would-be songwriter, and Smokey Robinson, a songwriter, singer, and Gordy's righthand man through most of the 1960s. Together, they helped create a legacy of music that appealed to both black and white audiences around the world. Thanks to a talented staff of studio musicians (dubbed the Funk Brothers), Motown's recordings had a distinctive sound that set them apart from other 1960s productions
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In the early to mid-1970s, the soul ballad style was given a funkier edge by Philadelphia-based songwriter/producers Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, with artists such as Billy Paul, the O'Jays, the Intruders, and Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. The so-called Philadelphia sound was viewed by many as the rightful inheritor of the Motown crown, as Gamble and Huff incorporated sophisticated orchestral "sweetening" over a tight rhythm section and group vocals.
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provided a black perspective on current events, and Stevie Wonder (Steveland Hardaway Judkins), who had a string of critically acclaimed early 1970s albums, culminating in the multi-disc set, Songs in the Key of Life (1976).
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Rock With You1982 album Thriller became the biggest-selling album of all time, and he was the first black artist to find stardom on MTV.Jackson's most important solo recordings include "Rock with You" (1979), "Thriller" (1982), " Billie Jean" (1982), "Beat It" (1982), and "Bad" (1987).
