Hard Bop

A subgenre of Bebop that emerged in the mid-1950s and remained popular through the '60s. Hard bop was pioneered by Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers who brought in influences from Rhythm & Blues and Gospel. Thus the music tends to have blues-inflected melodies, and its development was in part an attempt to produce a more danceable form of bebop. The style was adopted and expanded in the mid-'50s to early '60s by artists such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins.