New jack swing is the moment R&B and hip-hop properly started living in the same house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Smooth R&B vocals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hard programmed drums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Funk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Synthesizers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Samples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And a distinctive swung rhythm that made the music feel like it was constantly bouncing forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The style exploded in the late 1980s and early 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And modern pop still hasn’t completely escaped it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teddy Riley is the central figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Riley developed a production style that combined R&B singing with the harder rhythmic language of hip-hop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Producer and writer Barry Michael Cooper coined the phrase \u201cnew jack swing\u201d in a 1987 Village Voice profile of Riley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The name stuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Swing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead of every subdivision landing perfectly straight on a grid, the rhythm pushes and pulls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That creates the characteristic bounce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Producers used:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
drum machines<\/p>\n\n\n\n
samplers<\/p>\n\n\n\n
synthesizers<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and increasingly sophisticated studio technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The result sounded digital but physical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You heard machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You still wanted to dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Parts of Janet Jackson’s Control helped establish the conditions from which the genre emerged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis combined R&B, funk, electronic percussion and hip-hop-influenced rhythm in ways that became enormously influential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Rhythm Nation 1814, those connections became even more obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So while Teddy Riley is the producer most closely associated with creating the classic new jack swing sound, Janet, Jam and Lewis belong inside the larger story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Start with Teddy Riley’s own group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The drums immediately explain the genre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Swung.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Electronic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then R&B vocals land on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blueprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the genre’s defining crossover records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brown sounds like an R&B singer with hip-hop attitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That combination was the entire revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another foundational Teddy Riley production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This helped announce the new sound before the genre name became widely understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not always labelled pure new jack swing, but absolutely essential to understanding the rhythmic and cultural bridge between R&B and hip-hop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friday-night music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Possibly one of the most efficient dancefloor records ever made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By 1990 the formula had become harder and even more hip-hop influenced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPoison\u201d remains enormous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soul tradition meets contemporary programmed rhythm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The title is accurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New jack swing leaning heavily toward hip-hop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also contains one of the most recognisable saxophone samples of the era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rap and R&B no longer sound like separate musical industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That shift would reshape the next 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Michael Jackson brought Teddy Riley into the Dangerous era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The result introduced new jack swing to an enormous global audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another lesson in Riley’s drum programming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Smoother and more romantic, demonstrating that the style didn’t need to be aggressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
R&B vocal-group tradition modernised for the late 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The clue is in the song itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Old vocal tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the mid-1990s, Riley’s sound was evolving toward the next phase of R&B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blackstreet became one of his major vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dangerous contains substantial new jack swing influence because Jackson worked extensively with Teddy Riley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Listen to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember the Time<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jam<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Closet<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can’t Let Her Get Away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jackson didn’t suddenly become a new jack swing artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He absorbed the sound into Michael Jackson music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which is generally what he did with genres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It didn’t exactly disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The label faded as hip-hop and R&B became increasingly intertwined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once the fusion became normal, it no longer needed a special name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the mid-to-late 1990s, producers were building new forms of R&B from the same basic relationship between:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
singers<\/p>\n\n\n\n
rappers<\/p>\n\n\n\n
samples<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and programmed drums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Timbaland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Neptunes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bad Boy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rodney Jerkins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bridge had already been built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Absolutely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bruno Mars and Cardi B’s \u201cFinesse\u201d remix is almost a direct revival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the larger influence is everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Modern pop listeners consider it completely normal for a singer to perform over production derived from hip-hop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the early 1980s, that relationship was nowhere near as automatic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New jack swing helped make it normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three records:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guy \u2013 Guy<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bobby Brown \u2013 Don’t Be Cruel<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Michael Jackson \u2013 Dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then move outward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once you recognise the drums, you will start hearing new jack swing everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s usually when a genre rabbit hole becomes dangerous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New jack swing is the moment R&B and hip-hop properly started living in the same house. Smooth R&B vocals. Hard programmed drums. Funk. Rap. Synthesizers. Samples. And a distinctive swung rhythm that made the music feel like it was constantly bouncing forward. The style exploded in the late 1980s and early 1990s. And modern pop still hasn’t completely escaped it. Who invented new jack swing? Teddy Riley is the central figure. Riley developed a production style that combined R&B singing with the harder rhythmic language of hip-hop. Producer and writer Barry Michael Cooper coined the phrase \u201cnew jack swing\u201d in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4784,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1531,2930,2932],"coauthors":[2],"class_list":["post-4783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-genre","tag-new-jack-swing","tag-style"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n