The White man killed it.



































Nah, but for real, I'd say Hip-Hop to an extent. Back in the days when New Edition and UTFO were incorporating Hip-Hop into their R&B sound, it was a new thing. And then New Jack Swing came along and then Rap became the standard. And now it seems that you HAVE to have rapper cameos on R&B records. But you gotta remember, R&B and Hip Hop at some point were 2 seperate genres and entities. Sure, they're both Black Urban art forms but they were 2 different ones in the beginning.

namepeace said:

I always thought Anthony sorta looked like JD. Is SoSo Def their only relation?

JANFAN4L said:

Hey I liked Jagged Edges 1st 2 albums they were nice....


I do miss the days of Freddie Jackson,Luther Vandross,Glen Jones,Alexander O'neal,Meli'sa Morgan,Miki Howard,Vesta...etc...and even before them with EWF,SOS Band,Midnight Star,Gap Band,O Jay's,Stylistics,Isley Brothers,Rufus & Chaka,Emotions,Jones Girls,Alicia Meyers....R&B just had that smooth silky feeling and flow to it...now it's a bunch of (C)rap...unless you are one of those few unsung heros/heroinesses that goes unnoticed by the masses like Kinderd The Family Soul,Meshell N'degeocello,Amel Larrieaux,Jill Scott,Jaguar Wright,Remy Shand,Van Hunt,Bilal...etc.....

okaypimpn said:

subhuman09 said:

Co-

Shiny Suit Man aka P. Diddy.

okaypimpn said:

NO, HE DIDN'T!

JANFAN4L said:

Raijuan said:

Bigger than that. Clear Channel killed R&B!

DavidEye said:

That's a real good answer. Bring back instrutments!

VinnyM27 said:

clear channel killed everything.

VinnyM27 said:

Agreed, but we'll also have to bring back instruments in the schools and programs to help support them.

okaypimpn said:

I've been saying that for a while in various threads.

Mazerati said:

VERY TRUE!

[quote]

NWF said:

I know you're joking but there is actually some truth in your statement. Midtempo hip hop and gangsta rap was always underground, even on black R&B stations, until white teenagers started getting into it and buying it. The music industry then saw they could make a major profit off of a form of music that is very cheap to make. The next thing you know, the R&B singers are stripped of their musical instruments and using this sound.

I think if white kids had never gotten into hip hop and it stayed strictly as an underground form of black music, it would have been able to grow and progress, rather than being stripped down more and more each year and I don't think it ever would have invaded R&B to the point that no one does it anymore...the way it is now.

This has gone on for so many years that now...a new generation, both white and black, has grown up only knowing stripped down music. I don't think there's any hope for R&B now. I guess it will continue to get stripped down more and more each year until it eventually becomes acapella. The record companies will really be making money then.
[Edited 12/18/04 9:07am]

I think soul music..(thats what I call it)
had been on a downward spiral for a while..now there was many soulful artists making good soul music in the 80's...Freddie, Luther, Alexander O Neal..but I think soul got too slick, over produced and glossy in the 80's..late 80's especially.....honestly, can anyone take "Gotta Get You Home With Me Tonight" seriously in 2004..that song sounds as old as it is(20 yrs old)...I think the overuse of electronic equipment made a lot of soul music sound disposable and actually took the soul out of the music..see soul music was not just the singing but the sound too...the O Jays could croon on "Let Me Make Love To You" all they wanted to but had that music not be as soul ful as their singing , it would not have had the same effect...listen to Aretha's output in the mid to late 80's..she was the Queen Of Soul putting out glossy, over produced drek...."Freeway Of Love", "Jimmy Lee", "Another Night", etc...

then once the male group became popular again in the early 90's, soul music was no more...Jodeci, HTown and the like just made "sex" music not "soul" music...they played "Lick U Up" by H Town on the radio the other day and that song sounded like it was made 20 yrs ago..it sounded so outdated and that song is only maybe 11 yrs old....

like someone said, there are True soul artists out but they are the ones that u will never hear on mainstream radio..radio dictates whats hot..this is not the 60's-70's anymore..talent is of ZERO importance now

DigitalGardin said:

I disagree. Post-Run-DMC and Beastie Boys, Hip-hop wasn't charting on a regular basis, other than novelty acts, until NWA went to No. 1 with Niggaz4Life and Ice Cube hit the charts with his solo LPs. They proved that a faithful audience can put an act over without radio. The dynamic has changed, but I use hip-hop as an example of a fanbase that didn't care whether their music was charting and bought the albums anyway.

Why should radio tell us what to buy or form our opinion of the status of a genre? Fans who want real R&B have more opportunities than ever to find the good stuff (internet radio, iTunes, Amazon.com, fansites, etc.) If you know the "True soul artists" are out there, buy their records. Forget what the radio does. I haven't listened to the radio in over a decade, and I've found more great artists than I ever did listening to the radio. If we don't support the good artists, then we have killed R&B. We have no one to blame but us.

DigitalGardin said:

I totally agree.As the 80s wore on,soul music actually became "less soulful-sounding".The excessive electronic equipment made the music sound cold and mechanical.It was hard watching legendary soul artists like Stevie Wonder and Earth Wind and Fire trying to adapt to the changing times.

Rhondab said:

None of that stuff on the charts is hip-hop.

I think funk killed R&B.....
Especially when P-Funk hit the scene.....
But then disco killed funk.....

okaypimpn said:

Soul music is doing fine.

Hip-hop comes from a DJ culture so expect that old songs are used in the beats.

The problem is now R&B is recycling alot of old songs too, which never used to be part of the genre.

All of US killed R&B.

I was watching WATTSSTAX last night and I was amazed at how old, and how regular the musicians looked. Plus every last one of them played instruments. Think about it. To be an SOul star in the 70's you needed "TALENT". People didn't care about looks, age, size, hair color, whatever. Just the music.

Now to be a star you have to be under 25, a sex symbol, six pack abs, and be able to dance. You basically have to be a model that can sing ,, a litlle.

Sure there are exceptions but this is true in general.

Music has gotten worse in every generation.

My mother's music generation included stars like
James Brown
Aretha Franklin
AL Green
Curtis Mayfield
The Staple Singers
Earth Wind and Fire
The Commodores
Stevie Wonder
Issac Hayes
Barry White

Mine included
Prince
Micheal Jackson
Madonna
Janet Jackson
George Micheals
U2
Sting


90's to now.

Bobby Brown
R-kelly
Mary J. Blige
USher
Alicia Keys


Well you get my point,,,

Compare the newest with the oldest and they couldn't be anymore different, from music style, to looks, to the age when they were popular..

jamaulredmond said:

Exactly.

jamaulredmond said:

Point taken.....

R&B was first.

Funk came along, R&B still existed.

Disco came and died, R&B and funk still existed.

Whitney Houston came along and got everyone to singing damned ballads, ballads, and more damned ballads, funk died and only R&B existed.

House and hip hop came above ground, R&B still existed.

House became too repetitive and went back underground, hip hop started invading R&B, real R&B became an endangered species.
[Edited 12/21/04 20:09pm]