With Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguelira and even new comer Kelly Clarkston Why does it seems like most pop acts these dayz, just tries to imitate the R&B sound? Even the queen of pop Madonna is guilty of doing this. When she first came out her sound was mistaken for a black singer and instead of getting played on the white air waves,which was dominated by new wave, ther took a chance to play her distinctive sound in the R&B charts which changed music completely. Even Elvis Prevesly is guilty of this, Blue sueded Shoes was a R&B hit way before Elvis Prevesly got a whole of it, but he introduce it 2 the white audience :Smile:and when will people realize Britney Spears has no talent...

Whatever Happened to Orginality?
[This message was edited Mon Apr 21 7:37:17 PDT 2003 by DigitalLisa]

Originality is out the door in R&B as well as in "pop" music. R&B and pop are both crap.

IceNine said:

True Everybody should just listen to Alternative and Funk with a little bit of rap on the side lines

DigitalLisa said:

Bonnie Raitt sings R&B, Joni does Jazz sometimes, Elton John has soul. These people do it well, and show their appreciation of music which gets labeled as "black music".

Brittney, Justin, Christina, etc. are exploiting it.

DigitalLisa said:

I'll take that back, not all R&B sucks, just what gets played on radio air waves today suck, but that's only a small porpotion of what's really out there for example ... I wouldn't nesscarily claim N*E*R*D*S "in search of" a R&B album, but it was a good album that didn't even get nonimated for a grammy ...
[This message was edited Mon Apr 21 7:59:41 PDT 2003 by DigitalLisa]

I think that they tthink going the R&B route or even the Rock route will somehow gain them credibility points. "Pop" is seen as a dirty word these days.

it ain't nothin but a cookie-cutter world nowadays when it comes 2 music.

This really goes back to the age old question of; Does pop have a sound and if so what is it? I can understand where you are coming from when you say pop is imitating R&B but a song can also be a true R&B song and still make the pop chart. And don't forget, some of these pop acts have had songs written for them by 80's R&B acts (Christina A had Genie in a Bottle written for her by David Frank from the System for example) so it's no surprise when they have an R&B flavor to them. When it comes right down to it, I think what you are calling a pop song is a pasteurized version of whatever type of music the song is based on. So really I don't think there is a true "pop sound" as much as there are songs that are made more "radio friendly" by simplifying R&B, Rock, Country or Hip Hop. So this is a long way of saying I agree with you but I don't think this is limited to just R&B.

DigitalLisa said:

What?! There's Funk still? (Yeah, I know Prince still does Funk and so do soul revue bands...)

But really, new fresh REAL Funk? Where?!?! WHO!?!

Because most pop acts ARE just imitating R&B (& I use that term VERY LOOSELY..)

& most of them lack either the ability, courage &/or CREATIVITY to do something different.

well I think that some people just have a little soul in them, thats all. Soul see's no color. Elvis was soulful, people said he sounded black i.e., soulful. Christina Agulera and Timberlake have a little bit of soul, they're just victims of record execs-they had good voices and a style of their own, they were just packaged as pop, when they are really more R&B. Since they ain't black though, they weren't given early access to the R&B scene. Kelly Clarkson, umm thats not gonna work out. It's not a style, that is duplicating a sound, its like a wierd talent, to be able to dublicate a sound like that. It's interesting, but not very worthy. Anyway, I like Justin Timberlake new cd and I like Christina Aguilera's song, I am Beautiful, it's nice, worth listening to.

***

IceNine said:

To call R&B music "crap" is to invariably label hip hop, rap, rock 'n' roll, rock, alternative, neo-soul, disco, house, techno, funk, soul music "crap" because they are all descendants of R&B. "Rock 'N' Roll" was a term coined by a DJ in the '50s to describe the R&B that was being played on his station.
[This message was edited Tue Apr 22 18:20:28 PDT 2003 by JANFAN4L]

JANFAN4L said:

he means today's r&b

JANFAN4L said:

Actually, "rock and roll" was slang in the Black community for sex long before this new music came into being. Alan Freed knew it, and was the first to attach it to the music, he didn't literally coin it. But your point is understood.

DigitalLisa said:

Girl, this aint's nothing new. This has been going on for a while. Pop is watered-down R&B now. There's some crappy r&b now too, like Sisqo!