record_label mary jane 
Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound and silence , which exist in time . The common elements of music are pitch ( which governs ___MASK74___ and harmony ), rhythm ( and its associated concepts tempo , meter , and articulation ), dynamics ( loudness and softness ), and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ( which are sometimes termed the " color " of a musical sound ). Different styles or types of music may emphasize , de - emphasize or omit some of these elements . Music is performed with a vast range of instruments and vocal techniques ranging from singing to rapping ; there are solely instrumental pieces , solely vocal pieces ( such as songs without instrumental accompaniment ) and pieces that combine singing and instruments . The word derives from Greek  (" mousike "; " art of the Muses "). In its most general form , the activities describing music as an art form include the production of works of music ( songs , tunes , symphonies , and so on ), the criticism of music , the study of the history of music , and the aesthetic examination of music . Ancient Greek and Indian philosophers defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies . Common sayings such as " the harmony of the spheres " and " it is music to my ears " point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to listen to . However , 20th - century composer John Cage thought that any sound can be music , saying , for example , " There is no noise , only sound ." A ___MASK74___ (" singing , chanting "), also tune , voice , or line , is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity . In its most literal sense , a ___MASK74___ is a combination of pitch and rhythm , while more figuratively , the term can include successions of other musical elements such as tonal color . It may be considered the foreground to the background accompaniment . A line or part need not be a foreground ___MASK74___ . Rhythm and blues , often abbreviated as R & B or RnB , is a genre of popular African - American music that originated in the 1940s . The term was originally used by ___MASK80___ companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans , at a time when " urbane , rocking , jazz based music with a heavy , insistent beat " was becoming more popular . In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s , the bands usually consisted of piano , one or two guitars , bass , drums , saxophone , and sometimes background vocalists . R & B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African - American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy . Lyrics focus heavily on the themes of triumphs and failures in terms of relationships , freedom , economics , aspirations , and sex . Soul music ( often referred to simply as soul ) is a popular music genre that originated in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s . It combines elements of African - American gospel music , rhythm and blues and jazz . Soul music became popular for dancing and listening in the United States ; where ___MASK80___ labels such as ___MASK89___ , Atlantic and Stax were influential in the civil rights era . Soul also became popular around the world , directly influencing rock music and the music of Africa . ___MASK14___ is a music genre that originated in the mid - 1960s when African American musicians created a rhythmic , danceable new form of music through a mixture of soul music , jazz , and rhythm and blues ( R & B ). ___MASK14___ de - emphasizes ___MASK74___ and chord progressions used in other related genres and brings a strong rhythmic groove of a bass line played by an electric bassist and a drum part played by a drummer to the foreground . ___MASK14___ songs are often based on an extended vamp on a single chord , distinguishing them from R & B and soul songs , which are built on complex chord progressions . ___MASK14___ uses the same richly - colored extended chords found in bebop jazz , such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths , or dominant seventh chords with altered ninths . ___MASK89___ is an American record company . The record company was founded by Berry Gordy , Jr . as Tamla Records on January 12 , 1958 , and was incorporated as ___MASK89___ Record Corporation on April 14 , 1960 , in Detroit , Michigan . The name , a portmanteau of " motor " and " town ", has also become a nickname for Detroit . ___MASK89___ played an important role in the racial integration of popular music as an African American - owned record label that achieved significant crossover success . In the 1960s , ___MASK89___ and its subsidiary labels ( including Tamla ___MASK89___ , the brand used outside the US ) were the most successful proponents of what came to be known as the ___MASK89___ Sound , a style of soul music with a distinct pop influence . During the 1960s , ___MASK89___ achieved spectacular success for a small record company : 79 records in the Top Ten of the " Billboard " Hot 100 record chart between 1960 and 1969 . `` Mary Jane '' is a song by American ___MASK14___ singer Rick James . It was released in 1978 as the second single from his debut ___MASK95___ Come Get It ! . The song peaked in the top five on the R & B charts in the United States in 1978 . As one of his earliest hits as a solo artist , it is one of his most notable songs . It was composed by James , along with keyboardist Billy Nunn , who was credited for the keyboards , strings , background vocals , helping to compose the song , arranging flute parts , and other instrumentation work . Come Get It ! is Rick James and the Stone City Band ' s debut ___MASK95___ on ___MASK89___ sub - label Gordy Records and was released in April 1978 . The singles , " You and I " and " Mary Jane " pushed " Come Get It !" to 2 × Platinum status . Rhythm ( from Greek , " rhythmos ", " any regular recurring motion , symmetry " ) generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements , or of opposite or different conditions " . This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time can apply to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or frequency of anything from microseconds to several seconds ( as with the riff in a ___MASK60___ song ); to several minutes or hours , or , at the most extreme , even over many years . Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid - 1940s in the United States , which features songs characterized by a fast tempo , complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key , instrumental virtuosity , and improvisation based on a combination of harmonic structure , the use of scales and occasional references to the ___MASK74___ . In music theory , a minor chord is a chord having a root , a minor third , and a ___MASK13___ fifth . When a chord has these three notes alone , it is called a minor triad . Some minor triads with additional notes , such as the minor seventh chord , may also be called minor chords .