therevolutionwillnotbe said:

BlaqueKnight said:

I've done enough diatribes on this subject - so many so that I'm exhausted.

therevolutionwillnotbe said:

Who are you trying to convince? Us or yourself?

I get tired of people IGNORING new artists' work just because they are stuck in some nostalgistic time warp and have tunnel vision about an era.

I listen to a lot of new atists' work. Some of it is great some of it is really shitty.

R&B didn't die because of Mary J. Blige or any one artist. R&B is not dead. It has changed and evolved but there have always been R&B albums. No matter how many I (or Graycap for that matter) list, you people are gonna whine and bitch and moan.

Why is someone have different tastes than yours a whiner, bitcher, or moaner?

R&B didn't die in the 70s. What the hell was Luther Vandross and Patti LaBelle doing in the 80s, then?

I wholeheartedly agree with you.

Whaaa, whaa, whaa, boo-hoo hoo.

That's not attractive.

Music changes. It evolves. Eric Benet put out a really good R&B record just a couple of months ago.

I know Eric Benet. I've heard enough of him over the past 15 years to know that he does not move me.

Don't give me that "neo-soul" shit, either.

That's exactly what I said after listening to Rahsaan Patterson's and Bilal's last albums.

Its R&B. If you have a narrow view of the genre, you're going to call it something else. People are dropping records; y'all just too lazy to check them out and when you do, its always compared to a past era's work instead of being taken for what it is.

Whose payroll are you on?

If you don't like any new music, then fine

Who said they didn't like any new music? I like lots of new music.

- stop listening.

Sales indicate many have.

Stick to your casettes and 8-tracks and sip on some Martini and Rossi on the rocks or champale or whatthefuckever.

Why such hostility? What did an 8-track cartridge ever do to you?

Cool, you don't like NOTHING. That's y'all. Just don't try to arrogantly profess that it doesn't exist just because the radio isn't delivering what you ordered. You'll be waiting forever because they will NEVER play what you want them to EVER AGAIN.

AIN'T NOBODY intentionally listening to the radio in 2011.

There are opinions and there are FACTS. The FACTS are that there are still artists making R&B, soul and funk. If you don't want it, step the hell out of the way for those that do.

How is people voicing their opinion about music on an internet message board hindering your ability to enjoy you Eric Benet mp3 collection?

Now, I believe what Dancerella was talking about was how a lot of the recent "R&B" artist are doing songs that are by nature DANCE TRACKS.

That's the current trend. I understand her frustration. I suppose its how the rock crowd feels right about now as well. The rhythm is being flushed out of radio music in general. They are attempting to make everything as generic as possible so that they can have more control over the market. Lady Gaga was a market spark, and stupid music execs who know nothing about music think that there is a sudden interest in dance music rather than there being a sudden interest in Lady Gaga. They are "covering the bases" by pushing their artists to do more "dance friendly" (translation: white sounding) songs in order to have a larger appeal because the overseas market is very open to dance music artists.

Please don't blame white people for the shitty dance tracks all over Billboard's Hip-Hop/R&B chart. Brown-skinned folk are not innocent victims in this game. Everybody needs to take responsibilty the their actions. Nobody put a gun to Jamie Foxx's and T-Pain's heads and forced them to record, release, perform, and promote "Blame It".

Its just a way for them to try to squeeze income from other areas because nobody is really buying new music right now.

The reason nobody is really buying new music right now is because the product is bad.

Whenever the economy collapses, this sort of thing takes place. It will change but for now, this is an attempt to generate income. More and more "R&B" artists will do this because there's untapped money there.

What untapped money? The shit ain't selling. And instead of changing up their stroke they burrow deeper and deeper into the soulless pit they've dug and cast blame to the consumer. Only in the music industry is it the standard business model to fault the customer when the product doesn't sell. That's ingenius!

When things get better, they will try to "come black" again

I don't know what that means. Music has no color. My music purchases are not based on the skin color of the peformer.

but the top selling R&B artists - the crossover artists - the pop artists, will do what they feel they have to in order to keep from getting dropped because the bulk of the label's promo budget goes into making them.

So while the top selling artists are giving us the bare minimum in order to keep their jobs, we people should keep our whining, bitching and moaning to ourselves? Or at least not post any of it on the Org?

Damn, diatribed again! [img:$uid]http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s144/joan5075/Smileys/smileyDoh.gif[/img:$uid]

Seriously, who do you work for?

Best rebuttal that I have seen on ANY website EVER!!

RnBAmbassador said:

R&B is too generic of a term to describe some of the urban oriented music of today.

Nowadays Janet Jackson and Rihana are place alongside Jill Scott and Jennifer Hudson.

Robin Thicke and Justin Timberlake are also sometimes called r&b.

When I think r&b, in its purest sense, I think Al Green, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, Millie Jackson, Betty Wright, Don Covay, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett - today they call Ciara, Ashanti, Usher, Ne-Yo and Keisha Cole r&b.

Go figure.

So to answer so question, it has been dead. Disco, and hip-hop hybrid music helped to kill it and the failure of radio to keep playing in heavy rotation artists like the ones I named earlier post the disco era.

You tried the hell out of that!

shorttrini said:

therevolutionwillnotbe said:

Best rebuttal that I have seen on ANY website EVER!!

Yeah there were some good replies there.

Timmy84 said:

Unholyalliance said:

'Plain old r&b' hasn't been existence since the 70s and it definitely died when Janet Jackson and her minions Jam & Lewis came onto the scene.

Doesn't really matter because r&b never really had a set sound from what I remember. I thought that it was just always considered to be music made by 'black people.'

Yeah R&B is a blanket term nowadays. Real R&B was made by ALL COLORS. Not this "R&B", which I don't prefer much anymore.

Time for your nap old man …LOL but I agree R&B now is not the way it used to be, I think more R&B being mainstream is gone , a couple years ago you found “R&B” or Black Pop all on the billboard hot 100.

"Old" R&B is dead as we know it because the community that created, nurtured, and supported it no longer exist. You can't speak of Rhythm & Blues in not speak of the Black community. My mother's generation and mine were surrounded by live music 24 / 7, you really couldn't get away from it. It's was in and on the street corners, empty lots, front stoops, back porches, store front store churches, tent revivals, impromptu talents shows, rent parties, block parties, open air street markets , not to speak of the clubs. Most churches had to have an arts and music programs if they wanted to keep a congregation. :l) I said all of this to remind use, record companies didn't invent R&B, they came through and picked- up their talent literally off the streets and built upon it. All that talent in New York, Philly, Detroit, Chicago, Gary, Cleveland, LA, Oakland, down South and "up South". Mr. Gordy walked out into his neighborhood and started a record company, the majority of his talent was local. All of that was taken for grant and as a given.

=================

[Edited 1/25/11 22:57pm]

TD3 said:

"Old" R&B is dead as we know it because the community the created, nurtured, and supported no longer exist. You can't speak of Rhythm & Blues in not speak of the Black community. My mother's generation and mine were surrounded by live music 24 / 7, you really couldn't get away from it. It's was on the street corners, empty lots, front stoops, back porches, store front store churches, tent revivals, impromptu talents shows, rent parties, block parties, open air street markets , not to speak of the clubs. Most churches had to have an arts and music programs if they wanted to keep a congregation. :l) I said all of this to remind use, record companies didn't invent R&B, they came through and picked- up their talent literally off the streets and built upon it. All that talent in New York, Philly, Detroit, Chicago, Gary, Cleveland, LA, Oakland, down South and "up South". Mr. Gordy walked out into his neighborhood and started a record company, the majority of his talent was local. All of that was taken for grant and as a given.

I think people actually need to REMEMBER where we came from. That's what is wrong. People moving on so forwardly that they forgot to look back. That's where the problem lies and when we get tired of it, we act like it's some dusty shit and refuse to polish it back up again.

TD3 said:

"Old" R&B is dead as we know it because the community the created, nurtured, and supported no longer exist. You can't speak of Rhythm & Blues in not speak of the Black community. My mother's generation and mine were surrounded by live music 24 / 7, you really couldn't get away from it. It's was on the street corners, empty lots, front stoops, back porches, store front store churches, tent revivals, impromptu talents shows, rent parties, block parties, open air street markets , not to speak of the clubs. Most churches had to have an arts and music programs if they wanted to keep a congregation. :l) I said all of this to remind use, record companies didn't invent R&B, they came through and picked- up their talent literally off the streets and built upon it. All that talent in New York, Philly, Detroit, Chicago, Gary, Cleveland, LA, Oakland, down South and "up South". Mr. Gordy walked out into his neighborhood and started a record company, the majority of his talent was local. All of that was taken for grant and as a given.

Timmy84 said:

I think people actually need to REMEMBER where we came from. That's what is wrong. People moving on so forwardly that they forgot to look back. That's where the problem lies and when we get tired of it, we act like it's some dusty shit and refuse to polish it back up again.

Timmy84 said:

TD3 said:

"Old" R&B is dead as we know it because the community the created, nurtured, and supported no longer exist. You can't speak of Rhythm & Blues in not speak of the Black community. My mother's generation and mine were surrounded by live music 24 / 7, you really couldn't get away from it. It's was on the street corners, empty lots, front stoops, back porches, store front store churches, tent revivals, impromptu talents shows, rent parties, block parties, open air street markets , not to speak of the clubs. Most churches had to have an arts and music programs if they wanted to keep a congregation. :l) I said all of this to remind use, record companies didn't invent R&B, they came through and picked- up their talent literally off the streets and built upon it. All that talent in New York, Philly, Detroit, Chicago, Gary, Cleveland, LA, Oakland, down South and "up South". Mr. Gordy walked out into his neighborhood and started a record company, the majority of his talent was local. All of that was taken for granted and as a given.

I think people actually need to REMEMBER where we came from. That's what is wrong. People moving on so forwardly that they forgot to look back. That's where the problem lies and when we get tired of it, we act like it's some dusty shit and refuse to polish it back up again.

Ain't that the truth or fix it.

How do we keep the things of merit of value, while embracing incorporating change that's beneficial to the majority and not a few? It's not easy. I'm sure you've noticed that lil' stopwatch counting down the seconds on these internet commercials; they know if they didn't tell use how many seconds we'd click off.

I read an interview Mary Wilson gave years ago. She was reflective of the time when R&B / the Motown Sound was emerging . . . which bumped jazz musicians / singers to the crub. She said, she hoped they hadn't been dismmissive or smug to those artist because she could relate when Disco and then Rap emerged.

trueiopian said:

No genre of music has a set sound. That's impossible. 'Plain R&B' ended in the 70's then the birth of Contemporary R&B happened in the 80's. You can thank MJ and Prince for that. But it was really Janet and Jam & Lewis who took Contemporary R&B to a whole different level. The early 90's is when R&B started having Hip-Hop influences with a little Gospel. Now we have "R&B" artists trying to replicate the Hip-Hop aspect of R&B the 90's had. See the gutter trash that is: Keyshia Cole, Trey Songz and Ciara.

At this point there are few R&B artists sticking to the genre and keeping it alive.

BTW, Rihanna, Usher and Beyonce aren't R&B. They're more Dance-Pop than R&B. I'd say Usher and Beyonce were contemporary R&B artists earlier in their career.

[Edited 1/25/11 11:13am]

This is the best and most accurate explanation of this topic, well said.

TD3 said:

Timmy84 said:

I think people actually need to REMEMBER where we came from. That's what is wrong. People moving on so forwardly that they forgot to look back. That's where the problem lies and when we get tired of it, we act like it's some dusty shit and refuse to polish it back up again.

Ain't that the truth or fix it.

How do we keep the things of merit of value, while embracing incorporating change that's beneficial to the majority and not a few? It's not easy. I'm sure you've noticed that lil' stopwatch counting down the seconds on these internet commercials; they know if they didn't tell use how many seconds we'd click off.

I read an interview Mary Wilson gave years ago. She was reflective of the time when R&B / the Motown Sound was emerging . . . which bumped jazz musicians / singers to the crub. She said, she hoped they hadn't been dismmissive or smug to those artist because she could relate when Disco and then Rap emerged.

Yeah and it's interesting to note this, it's like those who set other music aside are now the ones complaining when there's no more good music. But sure they claim they had nothing to do with it. I don't get why we never fully embrace everything that came in our way until it was too late. We've been playing the same sob story for 100 years now.

There are still some true R&B or soul artist out here, there just not mainstream.

See:

Laura Izibor (I hope she doesnt go pop- she already changed her hair from a curly fro to the more accepatable straight hair perm look)

http://www.youtube.com/wa...re=related

http://www.youtube.com/wa...re=related

Laura has to be the most current underrated artist out here...

Chrisette Mitchelle (she is already starting to dumb down her voice for a more pop sound)

http://www.youtube.com/wa...ature=fvsr

http://www.youtube.com/wa...re=related

Sy Smith (R&B & funk)

http://www.youtube.com/wa...re=related

http://www.youtube.com/wa...re=related

Laura... I TRIIIIIIIIIIED... I don't know what it was but I was like "that's it???" lol guess she's "acquired". She has like a good song or two though.

Chrisette... she's selling out so whatever.

Sy Smith (I MIGHT check Sy out like later)

As long as Ledisi keeps doing what she did with the last album (where the funk outweighed that other shit on it lol), then I'm down with her but if not, whatever with her too.

A real cool dude (rebelenterprise) posted some great music... I'm sure he'll be back this week bumping the thread and I like his shit.

shorttrini said:

therevolutionwillnotbe said:

Best rebuttal that I have seen on ANY website EVER!!

[img:$uid]http://i54.tinypic.com/33ldqgw.jpg[/img:$uid]

One other thing, if you are limiting your "R&B experience" to artists like Rihanna andUsher, you deserve what you get.

Example of gross misdirection and a strawman argument:

So while the top selling artists are giving us the bare minimum in order to keep their jobs, we people should keep our whining, bitching and moaning to ourselves? Or at least not post any of it on the Org?

Brush up on your comprehension. "Top-selling" does not equal good. Don't try to twist my posts into something else. Nobody likes a liar.

You know, if you put as much of an effort into finding new music as you do into trying to respond to my posts, maybe your ass could find some music you like.

[Edited 1/26/11 5:43am]

BlaqueKnight said:

shorttrini said:

Best rebuttal that I have seen on ANY website EVER!!

[img:$uid]http://i54.tinypic.com/33ldqgw.jpg[/img:$uid]

No BlaqueKnight. He took every one of your points and broke them down very well. I think, your a little bent out of shape, because he actually had valid arguments. To some, me included, R&B as we know it, is dead. Those days of live instruments, good lyrics and melodies, equaling good music are virtually few and far between. If so many people on this board and in the listening public in general, are of the opinion that the days of good music are few and far between, then that does give validity that something is wrong. Yes, technology is always evolving, but that does not mean that it should be used as a crutch, in music making. In others words, don't make the fact that you can just push a button and out comes a beat, the reason that you like or want to make music. One should be able to use their imagination and come up with something that does not sound like it came from, "Garage Band", even if it did. You say that there is still good R&B out there. Okay. For argument sake, let's say there is. After listening to what has been played for so long, do you really think that one can listen to this "good R&B", with a clear mind and not be skeptical? As for your argument about "Top selling" not equaling good...While your right it one sense, (because even though, "Thriller", was a top selling album, I personally think that it was MJ's worst and that "Off The Wall", was better.) This cannot be said for today's artist because, their material is not as good and as solid as the music from 20 years ago. It is more about "The Name", than it is about the music. When it comes down to those two, guess which one will suffer?

Of course addressing someone point by point in that manner doesn't happen when people are speaking each other face to face. You should be able to interrupt the other at anytime you feel the need and you should do that. That's one aspect of having a conversation with someone. No one is obliged to listen to long monologues and then simply say "I think you're wrong".

On the other hand, when you isolate each point like that it's a bit unfair to expect that the other person has the time and energy to get into the debate in a similar manner. Just pick the most important points you feel the need to criticize and don't expect the other person to answer to each and every ironic remark you've made yourself.

I think R&B took a nosedive when they started blending hip-hop elements into it This trend began in the late 80s and it has led us to where we are now.These days,we have so-called "R&B singers" like Mary J.Blige and Mariah Carey working with hip-hop producers,creating music that doesn't even sound like genuine R&B.

SoulAlive said:

I think R&B took a nosedive when they started blending hip-hop elements into it This trend began in the late 80s and it has led us to where we are now.These days,we have so-called "R&B singers" like Mary J.Blige and Mariah Carey working with hip-hop producers,creating music that doesn't even sound like genuine R&B.

A major part of the downfall 4 sure.

BlaqueKnight said:

They are "covering the bases" by pushing their artists to do more "dance friendly" (translation: white sounding) songs in order to have a larger appeal because the overseas market is very open to dance music artists. Its just a way for them to try to squeeze income from other areas because nobody is really buying new music right now. Whenever the economy collapses, this sort of thing takes place. It will change but for now, this is an attempt to generate income. More and more "R&B" artists will do this because there's untapped money there. When things get better, they will try to "come black" again but the top selling R&B artists - the crossover artists - the pop artists, will do what they feel they have to in order to keep from getting dropped because the bulk of the label's promo budget goes into making them.

You got that right about dance music being "white sounding" these days. Dance music has been predominately black sounding with black artists since the disco days. It was those hard pounding drums and rhythmic basslines in the disco era that made so many white people furious to see other whites listening to so they bitched, moaned, blew up disco records, and started the "Disco Sucks" era. They hated that rhythmic music. They said it sounded like it came from Africa and called it "jungle music".

When disco died, radio became segregated and the funk that dominated R&B stations had those same hard drums and rhythmic basslines that so many whites hated during the disco era and still hated during the funk era that continued after it. Two things crossed over to white radio during those days. It was usually something that had a rock edge to it or on the other hand, it was something soooooo damn watered down and stripped of all those rhythmic "jungle music" elements that they had hated during the disco era prior to it. In other words, the elements they considered "black". Folks like Shitney Houston became major stars during that era.

Continueing on with "dance music", then came the underground house music era of the late 1980s. This became an alternative for people who still wanted to party and were bored with all the rhythmless Shitney Houston type artists that were started to take over R&B radio. House music was predominately black, hispanic, and gay just like disco was prior to it. Just like disco and funk, it still had those hard rhythmic "jungle music" elements that sooooo many white people hated. Well, it came above ground for a few years in the extreme early 1990s. It was all fine and well but once the mainstream white world discovered it, they gradually had to start making it themselves. They were doing a good job for a while but then they had to alter it and transform it into acid, trance, techno, or whatever the hell you want to call it. They took those funky basslines out that house music had, just like disco and funk had prior to it, and then speeded the damn tempo up soooooooo fast that you'd have to hop around like a rabbit to dance to it. Now that I come to think of it, when I see white people dancing to trance, they almost look like white people used to look when they would dance to heavy metal. It's just not a genre of music that's danceable, well at least for those people who actually have some rhythm. Black people started abandoning house music once it evolved and most of the black house artists just stopped making it because the genre had lost it's rhythm altogether and also because the black stations were only going to play shit hop sounding songs.

Well, after going alllllll around the word with my post first (I had to give a little history so you would understand where I'm coming from), I guess I'll get to the point. What is considered "dance music" today, whether it's made by white or black artists, sounds like a continuation of trance which is whitened up house music and a some of it is combined with elements of shit hop which is whitened up rap. Hell, just look at rap when only black folks listened to it....Soul Sonic Force, Twilight 22, Egyptian Lover, Pretty Tony & Freestyle....it was that hard throbbing "jungle music" that soooooo many white folks hated. When the shit hop era came out with all that gansta rap and simply "talking over a slow beat", white folks loooooved it because it was as slow and dull as a fucking opera record. But I see now they've finally sped the tempo up in today's "dance music" but they had to continue on with that trance type shit. Remember, gotta leave those "jungle music" elements out because they may sound "too black".

.

.

.

[Edited 1/26/11 7:30am]

SoulAlive said:

I think R&B took a nosedive when they started blending hip-hop elements into it This trend began in the late 80s and it has led us to where we are now.These days,we have so-called "R&B singers" like Mary J.Blige and Mariah Carey working with hip-hop producers,creating music that doesn't even sound like genuine R&B.

It definately began in the late 1980s but it was mixing it with pop that ruined it. Shitney was one of the major ones doing it that had a lot of influence on other artists and she was probably the worst because she not only influenced them to make pop but she influenced them to make adult contemporary as well which eventually became what it is known as today which is "Urban Contemporary".

You're right about shit hop too. Remember, rap of the 1990s and today didn't sound like it did in the early 1980s when only black people were listening to it. There was hip hop back then and there was shit hop and shit hop was underground in those days. Those little white boys looooooved that slow ass shit and it came above ground and took over everything. So it still boils down to pop killing R&B because shit hop was the pop of the 1990s and the 2000s.

I think I want to retract what I said about Janet Jackson's Control. I think there's no set precedent for what r&b is supposed to sound like. Since the 1950s it has been evolving and adapting to the changes in technology, historical events, & evolution of culture which all affected consumer tastes back then and even now. So is the nature of r&b and of music. In the end, r&b is and forever will be considered popular music. It's a reflection of musical tastes over time. Just look at the grand difference between r&b on the Billboard top 100 over the years:

1942:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._1942_(USA)

1949:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...1949_(USA)

1955:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_rhythm_and_blues_hits_(United_States)#1955

(no charts between 1963-65 due to r&b and pop considered being one in the same due to so many crossovers, that was until the 'rock separatist movement,' as I call it.)

1965:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._1965_(USA)

1970:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._1970_(USA)

1978:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._1978_(USA)

1983:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._1983_(USA)

1989:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._1989_(USA)

1992:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._1992_(USA)

1997:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._1997_(USA)

2003:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...003_(U.S.)

2010:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._2010_(U.S.)

In the course of 50+ years we've went from crossovers, traditional pop, swing, jazz, doo wop, rock and roll, blues, country, soul, funk, bubblegum pop, psychedelic soul, disco, rock, neo-soul, industrial, hip-hop, new jack swing, synthpop, electro, and etc. I mean...shit is always changing. What more do you guys want? You can't live in the past forever. If nothing moves forward, then it will die out.

shorttrini said:

No BlaqueKnight. He took every one of your points and broke them down very well. I think, your a little bent out of shape, because he actually had valid arguments.

[img:$uid]http://i54.tinypic.com/j8k6jt.jpg[/img:$uid]

Graycap23 said:

R&B:

Ledisi

Frank MccComb

Eric Roberson

Darien Brockington

Donnie

N'Dambi

Hal Linton

Mint Condition

Prince

Meshell

Kelly Price (sometimes)

Tonex

Miguel

Usher

Maxwell

Badu

Raheem Devaugh

Raheim

Rashaan Patterson

...................and many more

Keyshia Cole

Monica

Lyfe Jennings

Jaheim

Kandi Burruss

BlaqueKnight said:

shorttrini said:

No BlaqueKnight. He took every one of your points and broke them down very well. I think, your a little bent out of shape, because he actually had valid arguments.

[img:$uid]http://i54.tinypic.com/j8k6jt.jpg[/img:$uid]

Blaque,

I have nothing to gain by agreeing or disagree with you or your posts. The world still continues to turn either way. That being said, I do think there are times when you believe that your word is end all and be all and that god forbid, someone should disagree with you. Like I said, either way, the world still turns.

Unholyalliance said:

I think I want to retract what I said about Janet Jackson's Control. I think there's no set precedent for what r&b is supposed to sound like. Since the 1950s it has been evolving and adapting to the changes in technology, historical events, & evolution of culture which all affected consumer tastes back then and even now. So is the nature of r&b and of music. In the end, r&b is and forever will be considered popular music. It's a reflection of musical tastes over time. Just look at the grand difference between r&b on the Billboard top 100 over the years:

1942:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._1942_(USA)

1949:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...1949_(USA)

1955:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_rhythm_and_blues_hits_(United_States)#1955

(no charts between 1963-65 due to r&b and pop considered being one in the same due to so many crossovers, that was until the 'rock separatist movement,' as I call it.)

1965:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._1965_(USA)

1970:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._1970_(USA)

1978:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._1978_(USA)

1983:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._1983_(USA)

1989:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._1989_(USA)

1992:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._1992_(USA)

1997:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._1997_(USA)

2003:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...003_(U.S.)

2010:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._2010_(U.S.)

In the course of 50+ years we've went from crossovers, traditional pop, swing, jazz, doo wop, rock and roll, blues, country, soul, funk, bubblegum pop, psychedelic soul, disco, rock, neo-soul, industrial, hip-hop, new jack swing, synthpop, electro, and etc. I mean...shit is always changing. What more do you guys want? You can't live in the past forever. If nothing moves forward, then it will die out.

It's either evolution or devolution.

HotGritz said:

Graycap23 said:

R&B:

Ledisi

Frank MccComb

Eric Roberson

Darien Brockington

Donnie

N'Dambi

Hal Linton

Mint Condition

Prince

Meshell

Kelly Price (sometimes)

Tonex

Miguel

Usher

Maxwell

Badu

Raheem Devaugh

Rashaan Patterson

...................and many more

Keyshia Cole

Monica

Lyfe Jennings

Jaheim

Kandi Burruss

Eric Benet

Anthony Hamilton

In the mainstream, most definitely. What is labelled as RnB these days, doesn't have the sophisitication of what the genre did back in the 60's 70's and 80's. To me, RnB needs to have a groove with some kind of blues feel to it. I think most RnB from the earlier generations had that in some form. Nowadays we are hearing RnB artists embracing dance and trance music wholly, instead using elements in their music, like 80's rnb used. For example, I would say "Break My Stride" by Matthew Wilder is more RnB than "Love in This Club" by Usher- despite the fact they both have eletronic elements in it.

That being said, I get my RnB fix from artist like John Legend, Mint Condition, Prince, Alicia Keys, Rahasaan Patterson, Van Hunt, Ledisi. Its just harder to find artists sticking to the basics of the genre, cause it doesn't sell like the sellout stuff does...

Graycap23 said:

SoulAlive said:

I think R&B took a nosedive when they started blending hip-hop elements into it This trend began in the late 80s and it has led us to where we are now.These days,we have so-called "R&B singers" like Mary J.Blige and Mariah Carey working with hip-hop producers,creating music that doesn't even sound like genuine R&B.

A major part of the downfall 4 sure.

it's ridiculous,isn't it? You look at the tracklist of their CD and every other song features a guest rapper on it That's not MY idea of R&B.If I wanted to hear hip-hop sounds,I would just buy a hip-hop CD.Don't mix the two!!

Just dump the techno and add some Zydeco to it and call it R&Z.