I'm gonna duck right now but I am a fan of Ashanti. I guess it's the ghetto princess thing. She's like the pretty good girl in the hood that's just a touch enough streetwise to know what she's talking about. I admit it, I've fallen for it. Her last cd was my summer album. Heavily sampled but by that time I was already a fan. Songs from her first album like "Rescue Me" and "It's Over" really won me over. That i borrowed from my friend, who ironically doesn't care for Ashanti anymore.


You know, it's all good. Everyone has their different tastes. I pesonally don't like her, especially after seeing her on Punk'd. Did anyone else see that, what a bitch! Anyway, when she first came out everyone tried to compare her to Mary J. but for me there is no comparison between the 2. Mary Rules!

CinisterCee said:

you mean with the fact that people are hard to please/never satisfied?

he's somewhat right i guess.

i never heard people were anxious at hearing live instrumentation again though. does the
popconsumer really care about that? i wouldn't think so. the average popconsumer wouldn't
even be able to seperate a piano sound from a guitar sound if you'd ask him; they're just
sounds to them. why would they care if something is played live or not? they're just looking for
some form of entertainment.

and that soul music namepeace was refering to, with live instrumentation, DID appeal to the
masses at first. only later that genre got tiring, because of overkill and a soft image. AND
because of the fact that it's popular to diss something when others are doing it too (same as
with saying "i'm tired of the state of today's music").

I don't think all R&B (Rhythm & Blues) is tired...the Ashanti's, Beyonce's are all surface R&B acts, I don't base my belief off what I hear on the radio...Because you don't hear
Musiq
Rafeal Saadiq
Will Downing

and R&B in general will never be tired or dead for us Old School R&B fans, we still have the
Ready For The World
Surface
Renee and Angela
Tony Terry
Freddie Jackson
Troop (Spread My Wings)
Alexander O'Neil
Micki Howard
The list could go on!!!

I don't think all R&B (Rhythm & Blues) is tired...the Ashanti's, Beyonce's are all surface R&B acts, I don't base my belief off what I hear on the radio...Because you don't hear
Musiq
Rafeal Saadiq
Will Downing

and R&B in general will never be tired or dead for us Old School R&B fans, we still have the
Ready For The World
Surface
Renee and Angela
Tony Terry
Freddie Jackson
Troop (Spread My Wings)
Alexander O'Neil
Micki Howard
The list could go on!!!

I saw that Punk'd. I thought she handled herself somewhat well given the circumstances. (LOL) They push a bit sometimes on that show. But yeah I have to agree, the bitch did seep out.


Are you kidding me? she was a bitch before the prank even started, by saying to the driver "can't you see i'm talking to my mother"? i thought she was incredibly rude.

Most modern R&B artists today are as processed and formulaic (sp?) as 'pop' acts are. Not only is it tired, it's slipped into a coma.

Marrk said:

Somebody need to cut off the life support.

[color=blue]I think its ridiculous to state that an entire genre of music is tired. My answer: NO, it is not. Its changing. R&B is always changing; it always has. I think that for certain age groups, it is the change that is bothersome.

BlaqueKnight said:

I would gladly welcome a change in R&B right now with open arms. As for R&B always changing, it USED to. Funk was in the 70s, disco in the late 70s, funk returns in the early 80s with a new wave edge, electro funk from the early to late 80s, house in the very late 80s and early, early 90s, mid tempo hip hop (dominating) in the early 90s to the present.

R&B used to change every 5 or so years. R&B has not changed since the early 90s, that's almost 15 years now that midtempo rap and ballads have dominated. Hip hop is more than rap, it is a "sound". All the R&B singers have that hip hop "sound" in the music they are singing over....the sound of the drum machines, etc.

Y'all are some hard people to please. I hope you weren't in the crowd in the early 90's who were crying for "real" musicians playing "real" music to come back. Let me talk about that "crowd" for a minute.

When Brand New Heavies came along, that crowd didn't buy their records, and The Crowd called them gimmicky for copping a 70's sound.

Jamiroquai drops their first 2 albums, and The Crowd called them Stevie Wonder/EWF wannabes notwithstanding the nice, listenable grooves they were churning out.

D'Angelo, Maxwell, Badu and Jill Scott come along, and The Crowd digs them all right, but criticizes them for not being prolific enough.

namepeace said:

Brand New Heavies and Jamiroquai.....too jazz sounding for me.

D'Angelo, Maxwell, and Erica Badu (never heard of Jill Scott).....not a fast song from any of them.

R&B is short for "rhythm" and blues. Ain't no rhythm if you never get past midtempo.

As for older artists putting out albums and no one buying them, I definately buy them if they stay true to their form of music. I bought Cameo's "In The Face Of Funk", The Barkays' "48 Hours", and War's " peace sign....all released in the 1990s. All three of these were decent albums but never received any airplay because they were not hip hop, midtempo, ballads, or funk with a jazz flavor. They were straight out hardcore funk, which is a form of R&B. Now, the albums that Cameo and The Barkays have released since then have a hip hop feel to them so I will not buy them. I guess the two groups said, hell if they can't beat them, they might as well join them. That is a damned shame.

House music is the only form of new R&B I can deal with these days and it is underground.
[Edited 10/6/04 15:40pm]

"Yeah"


Single of the Year?

VoicesCarry said

VoicesCarry said

I love plenty of slow stuff.

In the 70s, I was listening to slow stuff like:

Always and Forever - Heatwave
There'll Never Be - Switch
Reasons - Earth, Wind, and Fire
I Do Love You - GQ

In the 80s, I was listening to slow stuff like:

Feel Me - Cameo
Slow Jam - Midnight Star
Yearning For Your Love - Gap Band
Say Yes - Lakeside
Spend My Whole Life - Zapp

Those are just a VERY few of the slow jams I was listening to in the 70s and 80s. The majority of the slow songs from the 90s to the present have a hip hop feel to them and have not changed in 15 years.

Also, groups back then did fast and slow songs. Look back up at the list, all those slow songs I listed are from groups that did fast and slow songs. Everyone was not stuck on SLOW back then.

As for the blues side of R&B, I do not like blues but LORD KNOWS it has not died. I am from Mississippi and that's ALL you hear is blues. Hardly anyone else over 35 down here is complaining because they are all listening to blues.

CinisterCee said

AHA! but the sound of hiphop has changed, so as long as that sound kept changing, that half of R&B did.

Y'all are some hard people to please. I hope you weren't in the crowd in the early 90's who were crying for "real" musicians playing "real" music to come back. Let me talk about that "crowd" for a minute.

When Brand New Heavies came along, that crowd didn't buy their records, and The Crowd called them gimmicky for copping a 70's sound.

Jamiroquai drops their first 2 albums, and The Crowd called them Stevie Wonder/EWF wannabes notwithstanding the nice, listenable grooves they were churning out.

D'Angelo, Maxwell, Badu and Jill Scott come along, and The Crowd digs them all right, but criticizes them for not being prolific enough.

In the interim, Remy Shand, Res, Donnie, Dwele, Rashaan Patterson, Lewis Taylor and others come along and The Crowd doesn't pay attention, doesn't buy their records or take any initiative to support these artists. Or The Crowd dismisses them as wannabe Marvins, Stevies, Princes, etc.

Artists like india.arie (whom I don't really dig personally) win handfuls of Grammys, but don't sell in large proportions a la Beyonce. The Crowd doesn't buy the records.

Artists like Ledisi burble under the surface and The Crowd doesn't pay attention.

Legends like Ray Charles and Al Green release records and many in The Crowd don't buy them.

But listen to the radio and watch video channels, and on the basis of Mary J. Blige, Beyonce, Mariah, Usher et al., The Crowd proclaims R&B dead and tired.

I'm not calling out anyone on this board, I am criticizing a mindset. We all whined about real music coming back to R&B. and real musicians come along to give us what we claim we want, and we don't buy their records because we don't take time to find out about them or dismiss them as copycats.

But we can say R&B is dead, right?

Guess who killed it?

OK
Here we go
Take it back
Let's get it funky
I'm a R&B junkie

Y'all are some hard people to please. I hope you weren't in the crowd in the early 90's who were crying for "real" musicians playing "real" music to come back. Let me talk about that "crowd" for a minute.

When Brand New Heavies came along, that crowd didn't buy their records, and The Crowd called them gimmicky for copping a 70's sound.

Jamiroquai drops their first 2 albums, and The Crowd called them Stevie Wonder/EWF wannabes notwithstanding the nice, listenable grooves they were churning out.

D'Angelo, Maxwell, Badu and Jill Scott come along, and The Crowd digs them all right, but criticizes them for not being prolific enough.

In the interim, Remy Shand, Res, Donnie, Dwele, Rashaan Patterson, Lewis Taylor and others come along and The Crowd doesn't pay attention, doesn't buy their records or take any initiative to support these artists. Or The Crowd dismisses them as wannabe Marvins, Stevies, Princes, etc.

Artists like india.arie (whom I don't really dig personally) win handfuls of Grammys, but don't sell in large proportions a la Beyonce. The Crowd doesn't buy the records.

Artists like Ledisi burble under the surface and The Crowd doesn't pay attention.

Legends like Ray Charles and Al Green release records and many in The Crowd don't buy them.

But listen to the radio and watch video channels, and on the basis of Mary J. Blige, Beyonce, Mariah, Usher et al., The Crowd proclaims R&B dead and tired.

I'm not calling out anyone on this board, I am criticizing a mindset. We all whined about real music coming back to R&B. and real musicians come along to give us what we claim we want, and we don't buy their records because we don't take time to find out about them or dismiss them as copycats.

But we can say R&B is dead, right?

Guess who killed it?

Brand New Heavies and Jamiroquai.....too jazz sounding for me.

D'Angelo, Maxwell, and Erica Badu (never heard of Jill Scott).....not a fast song from any of them.

R&B is short for "rhythm" and blues. Ain't no rhythm if you never get past midtempo.

As for older artists putting out albums and no one buying them, I definately buy them if they stay true to their form of music. I bought Cameo's "In The Face Of Funk", The Barkays' "48 Hours", and War's " peace sign....all released in the 1990s. All three of these were decent albums but never received any airplay because they were not hip hop, midtempo, ballads, or funk with a jazz flavor. They were straight out hardcore funk, which is a form of R&B. Now, the albums that Cameo and The Barkays have released since then have a hip hop feel to them so I will not buy them. I guess the two groups said, hell if they can't beat them, they might as well join them. That is a damned shame.

House music is the only form of new R&B I can deal with these days and it is underground.
[Edited 10/6/04 15:40pm]