really, it's become unimaginative and boring with the accpetions of a few artists like.....

Alicia Keys
Mary J. Blige
Van Hunt
Destiny's Child
and a few more that i'm sure i'm leaving out.

What are your thoughts?

It's nice to see the uber-Divas (Destiny's Child) getting some props! They are the most fun out there.

No, it isn't. You just have to look for it. To me, Destiny's Child and Mary J. Blige are pretty tired and completely boring. Alicia Keys has talent but is very unoriginal. Someone like Jill Scott should be on that list of exceptions.

They sure are! I don't know, R&B to me seems so redundant these days. Timbaland and Missy kind of breathed new life into in the late 90's but now it seems to be stagnant again.

[quote]No, it isn't. You just have to look for it. To me, Destiny's Child and Mary J. Blige are pretty tired and completely boring. Alicia Keys has talent but is very unoriginal. Someone like Jill Scott should be on that list of exceptions.

I'm not much of a fan of Beyonce's because i think the stuff she does with Destiny's child is better but you think mary J. is tired? That woman pours her heart and soul into every song she sings. I don't know enough about Jill Scott to comment but i'll tak your word for it.

I'm a sometimes fan of Mary's blow-the-roof-off style. I attribute Mary's success to production more then craft. I mean sure she can sometimes find emotion in a by-the-numbers lick, but c'mon, pitch has never been a friend of hers.

dancerella said:

SORRY TO SAY, BUT THE ONES YOU LISTED ARE BORING TO ME( VAN HUNT NEVER HEARD OF, OR NEVER PAID ANY ATTENTION) MAYBE SOMEONE CAN REFRESH MY MEMORY

dancerella said:[quote]

She may do that, but she just doesn't do it for me. I liked her earlier work, and I thought the Mary album was absolutely superb. But the past two records just have not appealed to me. I feel she's getting too mainstream (ie. common) and diluting her work with contemporary R&B clichées.

And Mary tries, but I don't think she's as good a vocalist as you think she is. She really has trouble sometimes.
[Edited 10/5/04 16:05pm]

As for Beyonce, I had high hopes for her solo debut but something happened on the way to its release. Yep, she fell in love, and bogged the proceedings down with romantic notions Destiny's Child would roll their eyes at. I was looking forward to something fierce from her. Maybe that was her point, to seperate her style from the no-you-didn't style of my girls. Whatever the case may be it looks like we'll have to look forward to "Destiny Fulfilled" to get what I was looking for.

No, it's not.

JANFAN4L said:

Please! You know you got a bigger mouth then that. Elaborate!

[quote]And Mary tries, but I don't think she's as good a vocalist as you think she is. She really has trouble sometimes.


I hear what you're saying about mary as far as her vocal skills go but sometimes passion means more to me than the voice alone. To each his own, it's all good. I also feel the same way about hip hop too, though. It has become boring, uncreative and cliched to the highest degree. did anyone see the VH1 hip hop show last night? Now that is real hip hop! Back when they were actually saying something. Now it's all about bling, hoochies and "i have this, that and the other thing". It's so played out. Bring back grandmaster flash!

dancerella said:[quote]

I agree. I think hip hop is pretty much completely screwed. It showed such promise but was promptly flushed down the shitter with hoochies, gangs, getting shot 9 times = cool, drugs, bitches, etc.

[quote]I agree. I think hip hop is pretty much completely screwed. It showed such promise but was promptly flushed down the shitter with hoochies, gangs, getting shot 9 times = cool, drugs, bitches, etc.





Tell me about it. How many times can you possibly rap about the same tired old shit.

Rap and r&b are tired with afew exceptions. It's gonna take some rebels to push it all back again.Cash is the only goal these days so it all goes with proven topics ,instruments,and styles.The companies make this so.

[Don't you think R&B is tired?[/quote]
No more so than rock. With, of course, those almighty "exceptions." I don't get threads like these. Music will never be like it was in the "good 'ol days," but there were some crappy artists back then, too. However, there were those "exceptions." There will always be crappy music and "exceptions." I like Jill Scott, Monica, Kem, Alicia, Tweet...

CynicKill said:

Well, succinctly put, that's how I feel on the subject.

There have been some great R&B records out this year (especially Damita Jo), so I'm pretty much set.

dancerella said:

Read my thoughts on Nelly's last shit, I mean "hit" with Tim McGraw. Terrible! Both their careers should be ruined by this God awful song.

where you been
R&B been tired!!!!!

I dont even listen to that "noise"

gimme soul ANYDAY over the lame r&b out now!

JANFAN4L said:

Problem is, that's not what the radio is playing non-stop, so I'm not surprised that anyone is bored and upset with R&B.

VinnyM27 said:

R&B isn't the first love to most of the folks who hate on it, so I'm not surprised. Even though soul, rock and countless other genres are derivatives of it.

If you wanna talk about ClearChann... I mean, commercial radio's fixation with Ursher then, yeah, that's a valid discussion. I can see how some kids would think R&B sucks. Ursher isn't the crux of R&B and what's playing on radio isn't the consummate representation of it.

Then again, it's pretty myopic to berate a 50+ year genre based solely on what's being overplayed in the commercial market.
[Edited 10/5/04 19:51pm]

I hate to say this,but I totally agree that today's R&B is tired.There's very little creativity in this genre.Too many of today's R&B artists are simply jumping on the hip-hop bandwagon to the point where there's very little distinction between the two styles.These days,you got real R&B singers like Mary J.Blige being produced by non-musicians like P.Diddy...you got Mariah Carey working with every rapper and hip-hop producer under the sun...every other R&B song that comes out seems to be based on a sample...and many of today's R&B songs simply sound too glossy,too overproduced,and surprisingly soul-less.Some of the neo-soul artists are making impressive music,but as a whole,R&B just ain't what it used to be.

R&B started going downhill in 1985. Ballads quickly were taking over and more and more electronic drum machines were starting to take over. These were not the same sounding drum machines with a strong beat like Prince used to use....I don't know, they just sounded weaker.

By 1990, the way the drum machines sounded was totally different than they did in the early 1980s. I'm not a musician so I don't know if they were different types of drum machines or if they were set on a different setting. They just barely tapped and they started to sound weak and hip hopish. Also in the 1990s, the rest of the instruments started to disappear from the songs and they started sounding "stripped down". Samples of old records became the basic structure for the majority of the songs. No new grooves were being created any more. The whole tempo of the majority of the "fast" songs never got faster than midtempo. The only songs that remained were ballads and midtempo....unless you went underground and got into house music, which after a while starts to all sound alike.

R&B has been totally dead since 1990 and rock is on its way to becoming dead. Everyone jumped on the accoustic bandwagon with it. Rock started sounding like folk music. I honestly cannot think of ONE R&B artist that has come out since 1990 with anything worth listening to. Even the older artists from the 1980s like Janet Jackson that still remain, have sold out to this dead ass sound. Prince is the only one left that can still jam and rock and even he sells out to these new styles sometimes.
[Edited 10/6/04 2:45am]

dancerella said:

-----
Some of the neo-soul artist are pretty good but rap is tired. I think Destiny's child is one of the worst groups so I can't understand why you made them an exception.

I understand if u r inspired by someone like Stevie Wonder, but Alicia keys just straight out copies him.....heck I don't mind that but that does not make her this mega talented star some people think she is.....she just chose to copy a very respected artist and so of course her music's gonna get good reviews.....



Next bob Dylan will be copied maybe?

Alicia Keys


I don't know about Van Hunt, but Alicia Keys is tired. MJB is boring and Destiny child -- yech!

I grew up listening to R&B, but I grew out of it at an early age. I was more intrigued and excited by Aerosmith, Led Zep, and Buddy Guy and Lynyrd Skynyrd. My father had more interesting music in his record collection, then what was being played on the radio.

Alicia Keys is saying nothing new! Her piano skills do not compare to Fiona Apple's piano skills (now that girl is a pianist!)
[Edited 10/6/04 7:28am]

I think that what's considered R&B nowadays
is overcommercialized , emotionless , repetitive,
unoriginal shite .





(apart from Alicia Keys who's music i don't really like either)
[Edited 10/6/04 8:05am]

Lauryn Hill was the same way, too. She copied (lyrically) Stevie Wonder and copied (lyrically and the way the song was sang) Donny Hathaway, too. It doesn't make you a genius just because you copy. I was saying something like this in the other post about Dre3000.

Maybe that is why Lauryn Hill had a "breakdown" -- because she realized that she wasn't as genius as people were making her out to be. My friend (she analyzes situations as much as I do) even said, waaaay before Lauryn Hill did her unplug album, it's all going to come out in the open that Lauryn Hill isn't as talented as people make her out to be and when she realizes that she isn't as talented as, say, the people she is copying, then she'll be seen as a fraud and she'll be ashamed. And she was "ashamed." She went and tried to do her "own thing" with that unplugged album and it went nowhere. So she has to be sitting somewhere thinking, "Am I really a genius?"

VoicesCarry said:[quote]

dancerella said:

I love the Mary album. A lot of my friends didn't.

I think that's when she got her Grown Woman on this disc.

TheDreamingPeasant said:

I so agree with you Peasant. A. Keys is tired. MJB is dull and that beyonce, yech! A. Keys is basically MJB and BEYONCE, but to have her stand out from the pack, she and her record company decided to use the piano angle! please! She isn't a pianist (vanessa carlton, fiona, ray charles, and all the classical pianists from many moons ago-- those are pianists). A. Keys just has a knowlegde of some keys, but anyone can learn what she knows. Ach! What a fraud she is! How can she go to bed at night knowing she is not a genius; and having people think she is! SHAME! The B.E.T audience buys anything, so to them A. Keys is a genius, but to everyone else, we know, she is just a fraud!
[Edited 10/6/04 9:02am]