8.1. Segregation and Ray Charles

One of the most popular R&B performers of the 50s and early 60s was Ray Charles. During his years with Atlantic Records, he scored a number of hits including “Mess Around”, “I Got A Woman”, “Georgia On My Mind” and "What'd I Say". His unique integration of multiple genres, both “black” and “white-perceived” (country and pop) music made him a crossover star. But this success, during a period of racial upheaval in the US, often left him in conflicts between both the black and white communities. Turkish-born businessman Ahmet Ertegün signed Ray Charles to his label Atlantic Records in 1953. Ertegün had started the label with his friend Herb Abramson in 1947, looking to showcase jazz and R&B. It wasn’t until the 50s that they began to achieve success, much of it owed to Charles himself. Charles’ secularisation of his gospel roots provided R&B with a new flavour. His reworking of “This Little Light Of Mine” into “This Little Girl Of Mine” retained the repetitive eight-bar structure, moving R&B’s borrowed twelve-tone structure and expanding its repertoire (Maultsby, 1999). However, he wasn’t alone in this secularisation. Artists like Sam Cooke, Bobby Womack and Curtis Mayfield had also started out as gospel singers (Ward, 1998) and soon a new name had been coined for this religious infusion – soul. The sexual undertones mixed with his vibrant gospel music were a treat for the music industry but Ray Charles’ soul was seen as blasphemous amongst the religious communities of America. But his intentions were far from blasphemous. The incorporation of gospel in to his bluesy work was his way of coming out of the shadows of his mentors and predecessors, people he had previously tried to emulate (Ward, 1998). Jim Crow was in full effect during the 50s and 60s, which meant black and white audiences were separated during performances, much to the dismay of black performers. Charles was one of the first to reject gigs under these laws and in 1962, he was fined for not performing at a date in Augusta, Georgia (Ward, 1998) and he was later banned from performing in the state, until the ban was lifted after the passing of the Civil Rights Act. Charles was joined by the likes of The Beatles, who also refused to play in front of segregated audiences during the mid 60s (BBC, 2011)

There had been moments of commercialism in jazz but they never reached the heights of rhythm and blues. One of the fundamental differences was purveyors of R&B wanted to alleviate racial issues; Chuck Berry didn’t want his music to be purely for blacks and aimed to blur the segregated lines by incorporating country into his sound, whilst still retaining the African roots. Ray Charles did the same but took it a step further by also secularising the religious content. This only angered the black congregation and the whites that campaigned for segregation but the blockades didn’t stand for long. Nowadays, R&B is far removed from its historical origins. Having been tarred with the “urban contemporary” brush during the 80s and 90s, R&B embraced more of the modern technology at its disposal, mixing styles with hip hop and electronic music. Guitars no longer play an integral part to the encompassing sound and most of the live acoustic rhythm has been replaced with drum machines or software-powered percussion