The reason why Rock still has bands is because they didn't have another music genre rise up that resembles it like R&B did and then it completely took over. Hip Hop killed R&B bands.

Just a question, but why is it that rock music still have bands that play real music. while good ole R&B has, well let me think for aminute let
None. How could this have happened

Have u heard of Mint Condition? rapheal Saddiq? Frank MccComb? Meshell N'degeocello?.....u tripping.

Besides Mint Condition, everyone that you mention are solo acts. you just proved my point where are the R&B bands. Cuz where i am from, i have not heard any new groups popping up or heard anything new fom any of the old groups like mint condition., and i stay in Detriot

Your point is well taken. The business these days seems 2 be about the QUICK buck. That's why sampling is so "popular".

The answer to your question is as easy as two little words: Shit Hop.

Whatever happened to the R&B bands ?

lets see said tha blind man

S & S... Samplers and Sequencers
...Minute Rice & Microwave Popcorn generation
Quanity,not Quality!

This lil cheap mofo is the shit starter

Greedy record labels.... "Where's tha Beef"! They kept feeding us Bull
Unnecessary Syncopated Dancin' Acks ...Mad Music Disease

...But it all comes out in the end.

Date: Thursday, May 26, 2005
By: Wayne Dawkins, BlackAmericaWeb.com

Editorial writer and former music critic Eric Deggans wonders this:
Could Prince get a recording contract in 2005? Yeah, him, Grammy Award winner this year for “Musicology” and the star of “Purple Rain” two decades ago.

[b]Prince Rogers Nelson is a skilled musician in addition to singer, songwriter and producer. He honed his instrumental chops in clubs and at concerts, and of course in solitude at practice. Today, there are fewer places to play live music, explained Deggans, and fewer places to learn to play instruments.
Heck, the music industry has computer technology, so producers may not see a need for musicians.



Are we witnessing a talent drain just days before the month-long celebration of Black Music Month, recognition in June of a multibillion dollar phenomenon that Philadelphian Dyana Williams calls “one of America’s greatest exports?"

“Recording with instruments came from the ranks of people who played live,” said Deggans, a staffer of the St. Petersburg Times. “There was an economic incentive to play instruments. Now, we’ve reached a point where that’s not happening.”

Many public schools, financially stressed for decades, cut music instruction programs. That’s a travesty, said Williams, president of the International Association of African-American Music. “In this country we’ve abandoned music programs. Music is a healing force. Children are less prone to act up,” she said, when they receive music instruction.

Williams acknowledged that the numbers of musicians are shrinking, yet she said “there are still pockets” of young people learning the craft.

So where is this talent being cultivated?

“When I hear about drummers,” said Deggans, who happens to be one, “they’re out of church, the only place where there seems to be live music.”

Mark Anthony Neal, author of several books on black popular music, seconded that emotion.

“The black church has always been a training ground for black musicians of all genres,” he said. “With the attacks on music programs in public schools and the lack of venues in close proximity to black communities, the church is even more important in that regard, not just for musicianship, but access to the intricate harmonies featured in much of our vocals.” Neal is an associate professor of black popular culture at Duke University.

“Drummers, keyboard, guitar and bass players are learning to play and perfect their skills in the black church,” added Portia Maultsby, professor of Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. “Church musicians are also giving music lessons to the youth of the church and providing opportunities to perform.”

Yet, Neal acknowledged, “Not everybody who is singing and playing come from church, so it’s been interesting to see young cats learn how to program music on drum machines and the like.”

“This generation has become accustomed to Pro Tools,” Williams explained, referring to the computer program that can convert sounds into digital information, simulate instruments and can correct a singer’s pitch or a drummer’s timing.

Deggans noted that the computer program has also freed producers who can play a keyboard to create music and do sequencing, then call in musicians if there is a compelling need for them.

“Everything is specialized now,” he said. “That does not leave a lot of room for musicians to play.”

If that statement is true, what a doggone shame. For every new recording that has synthesized instruments and even vocals, they are nowhere near as moving as the organic sounds of drums, organs, tambourines and other instruments played creatively with human hands that produce sounds that tingle the spine and nourish the soul.

Williams, who said she co-wrote legislation that eventually got Black Music Month recognized with a presidential proclamation, sounds like a clear-eyed realist not smothered in nostalgia. “Of course [the decline in musicians] is cause for alarm,” she said, “but it’s not going to change any time soon. The pendulum must swing back.”

That means parents must step and provide music lessons for their children and battle with school districts to keep music programs as they fight to raise reading, writing and ‘rithmetic standards. And churches can be continued to be mined as places producing sacred and secular music.

Just don’t sacrifice of Black music heritage to technology and neglect. Creativity and time spent sharpening musical skill with an instrument matters.

Just ask that true funk soldier, Prince.[/i]