The Chicago Defender Invented the Term Slow Jam
SUMMARY: The term “Slow Jam” was invented by The Chicago Defender , back in 1961. At least, that’s the term’s earliest recorded use. This debunks the myth that R&B Midnight Starr coined the phrase. We thank our hundreds of affiliates around the world for helping R Dub! bring the term Slow Jam to mainstream radio, as Sunday Night Slow Jams ™ and Slow Jams ™ air on over 250 radio stations in over 10 musical formats. *** Our historians went full deep-dive mode—think less Indiana Jones, more crate-digging in the back alleys of music history—and what they unearthed? The term “ Slow Jam” wasn’t birthed in some glossy '80s R&B studio. Nope. It first showed up in The Chicago Defender in 1961. That’s the real origin story. Sorry, Midnight Starr —myth busted. And now, thanks to an army of radio affiliates across the globe, R Dub! has taken that once-obscure phrase and turned it into a nightly ritual—broadcast in over 250 cities , cutting across more formats than a late-night din...