In the 1970s and into the early 1980s, Black popular music evolved in so many different directions that it prompted yet another label change. The Black Music Association, established in 1978, campaigned for the use of the term “Black music.” Record companies and the music trade press adopted the label in 1982, which became the umbrella term for all styles of Black popular music for the next ten years. Simultaneously, MTV became an important media outlet for broadening the consumer base for Black popular music.

In the late 1990s and into the new millennium and with few exceptions, hip-hop and technology became the musical framework for R&B productions. The merger of R&B, hip-hop and older genres, and the use of new technologies appealed to a new generation of African American music consumers. They came of age during the rise of hip-hop and their appreciation for 1970s and 1980s Black music came from their parents, who played the music at home. From this group came songwriter-producer-performers such as Sean Combs (a.k.a. Puff Daddy, P. Diddy), Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, Swizz Beatz, and Rich Harrison among others, who established themselves in the 1990s. They continued to explore myriad musical possibilities, including extending, adapting, and realigning past traditions to a changing musical scene. Puff Daddy, for example, taps into Diana Ross’s hit, “I’m Coming Out” (1980) for the groove and refrain sampled in Notorious B.I.G.’s “Mo Money Mo Problems” (1997); Harrison borrows from 1970s funk for Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” (2003); and the groove for Williams’s “Happy” (2013), although it employs a faster tempo, is similar to “Monkey Time” (1963) by Major Lance.

Collaborations between producers and artists from both hip-hop and R&B blurred the lines between these genres and became common. R&B productions incorporated hip-hop’s beats and rapping style illustrated in the recordings of TLC’s “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” (1992) and Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name” (1999), Usher’s “Confessions Part II” (2004) and Trey Songz’s “Say Aah” featuring Fabolous (2010). Retaining the production concepts of older styled ballads (string arrangements, gospel styled vocals and harmonies, and electric and acoustic instruments), artists added their own signature to the tradition as did singer-songwriter Alicia Keys’s “Fallin’” (2001) and “You Don’t Know My Name” (2003) and Aaliyah’s “Miss You” (2002).

A new generation of singer-songwriters added a contemporary ballad style to the eclectic mix of R&B in the second decade of the 21st century. Some fused creative vocal stylings, harmonies and arrangements with sparse instrumentations and the use of live instruments evident in Ledisi’s “Pieces of Me” (2011), Sevyn Streeter’s “Before I Do” (2017), H.E.R.’s “Focus,” and “Best Part” (2019); others delivered their unique vocals over sparsely constructed synthesized tracks such as Khalid’s “Talk” (2019). Technological collaborative experimentations with European producers of electronic dance music added yet another layer to the eclectic R&B sound. Scottish DJ Calvin Harris, for example, produced and is featured on Rihanna’s “We Found Love” (2011), and Italian DJ Benny Benassi produced and is featured on Chris Brown’s “Beautiful People” (2011).

R&B radio stations also programmed African popular music alongside American and British R&B artists. This music combines elements from hip-hop, R&B, Jamaican dancehall, Afrobeat and other African traditions that resonate with North American consumers of African and African Diasporic traditions. The Afro-fusion style of Nigerian singer Burna Boy’s “Ye” (2017) and “On the Low” (2019), American-born Nigerian singer Davido’s “Fall” (2017), and British-born Ivorian singer Afro B’s “Drogba (Joanna)” (2018) illustrate the on-going cyclical exchanges between African and African American musical traditions. Both are characterized by quasi-sung/spoken vocals, varying vocal timbers, vocal distortion using auto-tune, sparse instrumentation, and polyrhythmic structures.