The Isleys illustrate the long history of rhythm and blues in relationship to what Guthrie Ramsey has called Afromodernism: the ideal of reconciling southern agrarian and northern urban black culture, sacred and secular, gutbucket funkiness and Ebony magazine classiness. The Isley Brothers remained successful in this latter phase by connecting themselves to Columbia Records and a corporate version of soul culture, which included alongside black music divisions of major record labels the reinvention of R&B radio as formatted “urban contemporary.” Here, and most specifically in relationship to the ballads subformat of R&B known as “Quiet Storm,” black culture became a mediated ritual that crossed new separations: between African Americans divided by economic class and the exodus by some blacks from inner city struggles celebrated in hip-hop. Yet their career contains two divergent narratives: a period of crossover success, linked to rock and roll and Top 40, followed by a period of success crossing back to a largely African American audience separated from whites by the rock/soul split. From their first hit, “Shout,” in 1959, to their number one album Body Kiss in 2003, the Isley Brothers were a constant presence in pop music.
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