Meshell Ndegeocello - Aquarium

Vocal harmony groups performed in the 1930s and ’40s with jazz bands and as independent groups... featured smooth harmonies based on barbershop, jazz, and sacred music. These groups, as well as the Ravens, Old Man River, 1947, established the model for the 1950s teenage a cappella groups that popularized the vocal harmony style on inner city street corners and the stoops of crowded apartment buildings as well as in parks and school gyms. Many of these bird groups... sang in a romantic style emulating the Orioles... who began recording in the late 1940s. Although they primarily sang a cappella, producers added sparse instrumentation, including guitar and drums played with brushes, to their commercial recordings... The addition of orchestral arrangements, sing along choruses, and Latin rhythms to rhythm and blues made this sound more compatible with the musical tastes of mainstream American adults. The producers for Motown added these pop production elements over a rhythm and blues foundation and incorporated the lyrics of young professional songwriters to produce the crossover Motown’s Sound of Young America.

In the mid 1950s, record labels began producing rhythm and blues music for consumption beyond African American communities, referred to as Uptown R&B. Targeting mainstream audiences, producers applied crossover formulas to the productions of vocal harmony groups. They, for example, replaced rhythm and blues elements with familiar pop production formulas, sing along refrains replaced call and response structures, pop vocal harmonies substituted for those associated with the blues and gospel traditions, orchestral arrangements, strings, marimba, tympani, and percussion, replaced rhythm and blues combos, and Latin flavored rhythms, especially the chacha beat, substituted for swing rhythms and heavy backbeats on 2 and 4... Artists also recorded pop standards known as Tin Pan Alley songs written by professional songwriters hired by music publishers beginning in the early 20th century. They wrote ballads, novelty songs, vaudeville and dance songs, among other styles. Some of the most frequently recorded pop standards include Over the Rainbow, Stormy Weather, Summertime, Georgia On My Mind, and At Last.

Source: Rhythm & Blues by Portia K. Maultsby, Ph.D. 

Meshell Ndegeocello - Aquarium feat. Ron Blake Sabina

• Released on: The Spirit Music Jamia: Dance of the Infidel album
• Written by: Meshell Ndegeocello
• Genre: R&B, Soul

"Meshell Ndegeocello is a German born American singer/songwriter, rapper, and bassist. Her music has been featured in a number of film soundtracksand with the debut release of her 13th studio album, Ndegeocello joined the Blue Note label."

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