In music genealogy it is often difficult to identify where or when a specific music culture developed. Cladistics can often help trace the source of a music culture based on different connections, relationships, and traits shared from group to group. Cladistics using this method can draw from anything such as specific technology or new instruments used, to the producer, to friends sharing ideas from band to band. When analyzing all of these different ways that a group may somehow be related, we can start to map out exactly how a specific music culture comes together. This is relevant to all genres of music once proper identification of specific connections, relationships, and traits are discovered between groups.
The British R&B Boom follows this connections, relationships, and traits model through years of music and different R&B groups that developed over time. For example, saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith, bass player Jack Bruce, and drummer Ginger Baker all came from a similar background in jazz music first but switched to playing rhythm and blues in effort to commercialize. This jazz connection was strong when they began to mix with traditional blues musicians and shaped the music their newly formed band came to play. Their jazz backgrounds also surely affected the different musical traits they brought forth to the band. (Rock Family Trees: The British R&B Boom Part 1)
Other connections can arise from anywhere such as shared interest in other bands, and this shared interest can result in personal friendships that will affect how musical culture is shared within a genre. For example, well-known guitarist Eric Clapton met Tom McGuinness at a Rolling Stones concert and they formed a band called The Roosters. The Roosters only stayed together for about half of a year but after Clapton started The Yardbirds. Coincidentally, The Rolling Stones often played at the Crawdaddy Club, owned by Giorgio Gomelsky, who later picked up The Yardbirds after The Rolling Stones became too big for the small venue. All of these influential bands in the R&B Boom share interesting connections as from where and how they got started, that affected the culture they created. (Rock Family Trees: The British R&B Boom Part 1)
Musical traits are often definitive factors to certain cultures and easily tracked. We can once again follow Eric Clapton and his time in The Yardbirds in the British R&B Boom. When Clapton released a Yardbird guitar solo that contained traits of “pure Chicago blues,” John Mayall immediately sought out his purist traits and recruited him to play more of a blues style. This desired set of traits Clapton shared with Mayall drastically changed Clapton’s career; a career that left such an imprint in the R&B Boom. (Rock Family Trees: The British R&B Boom Part 2)
The connections, relationships, and traits model can be easily exemplified with just a small piece of the British R&B Boom, and can be used for many other genres when recognizing formation of popular music.
The British R&B Boom follows this connections, relationships, and traits model through years of music and different R&B groups that developed over time. For example, saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith, bass player Jack Bruce, and drummer Ginger Baker all came from a similar background in jazz music first but switched to playing rhythm and blues in effort to commercialize. This jazz connection was strong when they began to mix with traditional blues musicians and shaped the music their newly formed band came to play. Their jazz backgrounds also surely affected the different musical traits they brought forth to the band. (Rock Family Trees: The British R&B Boom Part 1)
Other connections can arise from anywhere such as shared interest in other bands, and this shared interest can result in personal friendships that will affect how musical culture is shared within a genre. For example, well-known guitarist Eric Clapton met Tom McGuinness at a Rolling Stones concert and they formed a band called The Roosters. The Roosters only stayed together for about half of a year but after Clapton started The Yardbirds. Coincidentally, The Rolling Stones often played at the Crawdaddy Club, owned by Giorgio Gomelsky, who later picked up The Yardbirds after The Rolling Stones became too big for the small venue. All of these influential bands in the R&B Boom share interesting connections as from where and how they got started, that affected the culture they created. (Rock Family Trees: The British R&B Boom Part 1)
Musical traits are often definitive factors to certain cultures and easily tracked. We can once again follow Eric Clapton and his time in The Yardbirds in the British R&B Boom. When Clapton released a Yardbird guitar solo that contained traits of “pure Chicago blues,” John Mayall immediately sought out his purist traits and recruited him to play more of a blues style. This desired set of traits Clapton shared with Mayall drastically changed Clapton’s career; a career that left such an imprint in the R&B Boom. (Rock Family Trees: The British R&B Boom Part 2)
The connections, relationships, and traits model can be easily exemplified with just a small piece of the British R&B Boom, and can be used for many other genres when recognizing formation of popular music.