[Ads-l] Antedating of "Rhythm and Blues"

Shapiro, Fred fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Thu Sep 29 14:58:23 UTC 2016


It's hard to know what the exact sense was.  Maybe the OED should put this citation in square brackets.  (I emailed the citation to the chief editor of the OED, and he treated it as a legitimate antedating.)


Fred Shapiro



________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2016 8:17 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Rhythm and Blues"

Is this a genre called "rhythm-and-blues" or merely "dance rhythm plus sung
blues"? Is there any way to know?

"Rhythm" was a highly touted virtue in '20s & '30s dance music.

JL



On Wed, Sep 28, 2016 at 10:52 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
wrote:

> rhythm and blues (OED 1933)
>
>
> 1924 _Billboard_ 20 Dec. 61 (ProQuest)  (advertisement)  FAST DANCE
> PIANIST AT LIBERTY AFTER 20th.  Sight reader, fake, improvise, lots of
> rhythm and blues.
>
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
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> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=CwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=sRkhHMQo6W5Ird1lkQFqb23bCfSHAR2XjUSUG53db5M&m=9zYg52XilVt5tdostDRy4jzoWrX-xeBnIM9kfeEFplA&s=RYCeR_eE4Nhb0sCArd1mRpNAjlzDLpuW6d_Ndlj_8as&e=
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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