Quiet Storm
Quiet storm is a smooth, slow and romantic style of R&B, and the late-night radio format that plays it.
It began in 1976 as a late-night show on WHUR, the Howard University station in Washington, D.C., hosted by Melvin Lindsey and named after Smokey Robinson's 1975 album A Quiet Storm. The music is mellow and polished: soft vocals, gentle grooves, electric piano, saxophone and jazz touches. It is calmer and more adult than funk or dance-oriented R&B, and stations still use the name for evening slow-jam shows.
Artists it is known for: Smokey Robinson, Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, Sade.
- Family
- R&B & Soul
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- Washington, D.C., 1976
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 5%
About 4,300 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have quiet storm among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Quiet Storm artists
Marvin Gaye
Stevie Wonder
Earth, Wind & Fire
The Jacksons
Boyz II Men
SWV
Al Green
Kool & The Gang
Jodeci
Bill Withers
The quiet storm artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.