race

…and stylistic barriers between so-called “race music” and the predominantly white pop Top 40 forced singers like Wilson to agonize over their choice of material as they sought to display their talents to the fullest without provoking racially motivated marginalization. This was the challenge songwriter and fellow Detroiter Berry Gordy,…

…use (Harlem Hit Parade, Sepia, Race) to be demeaning. The magazine changed the chart’s name in its June 17, 1949, issue, having used the term rhythm and blues in news articles for the previous two years. Although the records that appeared on Billboard’s rhythm-and-blues chart thereafter were in a variety…