New Jack Swing

New jack swing on vinyl: R&B meets hip-hop

In short: New jack swing emerged in the US in the late eighties: soul vocals over hard, swinging drum-machine beats, with elements of hip-hop and funk. Teddy Riley was a defining producer of the style, along with the teams Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and L.A. Reid & Babyface. The Vinyl Room currently has 19 new jack swing records.

What is new jack swing?

A groove with bounce: Teddy Riley shaped the sound with his group Guy – here with “Guy III”. Janet Jackson is represented with “Rhythm Nation 1814”, produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

Plus Bell Biv DeVoe with “Poison”, Johnny Gill and Quincy Jones’s “Back On The Block”. The two “New Jack Swing Mastercuts” compilations give an overview.

What to look for

Many new jack swing hits came out as 12-inches with several mixes; label, format and country of release help you tell which edition you have – it’s noted with each copy.

From our stock

First pressings

New in

→ Janet Jackson · Contemporary R&B · Soul · Soul & funk on vinyl · How to spot a first pressing · Grading explained

FAQ

What is new jack swing? R&B vocals over hip-hop beats with a swinging groove, born in the US in the late eighties.

Who shaped new jack swing? Above all producer Teddy Riley, plus Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and L.A. Reid & Babyface.

Where does the name come from? Journalist Barry Michael Cooper coined it in 1987.

Which record is regarded as a classic? Here, for example, Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation 1814”.