When and why did R&B die?!?

Desire Inspires

Desire Inspires

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There are a billion threads on "the state of hip-hop", "Hip-hop is not the same as rap", "Mainstream rap sucks", "Hip-hop is dead".

We get that. But my questions are when did R&B die and why did it die?

I rarely hear modern R&B on the radio anymore. It certainly is not played on the Urban music stations. Sure, there are R&B stations that play modern R&B, but most of the stuff they play is older artists like Earth, WInd, & Fire, Luther Vandross, Prince, Chaka Khan, Patti Labelle, Stevie Wonder, etc. I just do not hear that much new R&B being released to the mainstream media.

How did it get pushed so far underground? The music is not actually dead, but it is not relevant to many young people today. Any thoughts?
 
Time changes everything. In simplest terms, music is a time capsule, a relic whatever you want to call it. it represents a certain time period. R&B died because the new R&B artists didnt have the same influences as the older R&B acts. R&B acts of the 90's were kids in the 70's. That's one of the most soulful decades in History whereas today's R&B artists are lucky if they know who is Jodeci is. R Kelly is probably as good as it got for them. They had to listen to guys like Bobby Valentino(who wasnt that bad)
 
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The death of R&B was predicted to happen ever since marketing departments decided, as with all genres considered "urban" to whitewash its content and you can blame the Harvard study for facilitating its decline.
 
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It was about the time R Kelly entered the ranks and finished it off. He pushed the genre from being in love with your woman and romancing her to "let's get butt nekkid and f*ck like rabbits" ditching any pretense at romance.
 
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Nightshade said:
It was about the time R Kelly entered the ranks and finished it off. He pushed the genre from being in love with your woman and romancing her to "let's get butt nekkid and f*ck like rabbits" ditching any pretense at romance.
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lol so true. Back in the days they were creative with the sexual references & infatuation whereas R Kelly let you know straight up he wants to f@#!(lol)
 
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yokuzin said:


Yall youngins weren't force fed R&B.....
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My goodness you took me back with that commercial...anytime one of your homies would ask to borrow anything from you the reply was always "no my brother, you gotsa buy your own" lol. That compilation is timeless

The days of going to the house parties/basement jams and the DJ would abruptly chop off all that uptempo shit for some slow jams and that's when you either find yourself a lady to dance close and tight with or play the wall, memories. The movie "The Wood" showed a Hollywood version of what I'm talking about.
 
Desire Inspires said:

There are a billion threads on "the state of hip-hop", "Hip-hop is not the same as rap", "Mainstream rap sucks", "Hip-hop is dead".

We get that. But my questions are when did R&B die and why did it die?

I rarely hear modern R&B on the radio anymore. It certainly is not played on the Urban music stations. Sure, there are R&B stations that play modern R&B, but most of the stuff they play is older artists like Earth, WInd, & Fire, Luther Vandross, Prince, Chaka Khan, Patti Labelle, Stevie Wonder, etc. I just do not hear that much new R&B being released to the mainstream media.

How did it get pushed so far underground? The music is not actually dead, but it is not relevant to many young people today. Any thoughts?
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Because in the Radio matrix they now consider R&B "Adult-Contemporary Music" so the newer R&B (ex - Anthony Hamilton "Best of Me") is in rotation along side classics like George Benson's "Give Me The Night" (1980 classic) segregated from your Rich Gang's "Lifestyle" which will play alongside ILoveMakonnen's "Tuesday" which is what is considered "R&B" for Rhythmic Contemporary format. Of course you have the exceptions like Usher's "Good Kisser" that will get play on both formats and "Happy" which was played on ALL formats...
 
Nightshade said:
It was about the time R Kelly entered the ranks and finished it off. He pushed the genre from being in love with your woman and romancing her to "let's get butt nekkid and f*ck like rabbits" ditching any pretense at romance.
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I remember one R Kelly song where the chorus said

"You remind me of a jeep(a damn jeep lol!!!)


You remind me of my jeep, I wanna ride it
Something like my sound, I wanna pump it
Girl you look just like my cars, I wanna wax it
And something like my bank account
I wanna spend it, baby
 
benji2 said:
I remember one R Kelly song where the chorus said

"You remind me of a jeep(a damn jeep lol!!!)


You remind me of my jeep, I wanna ride it
Something like my sound, I wanna pump it
Girl you look just like my cars, I wanna wax it
And something like my bank account
I wanna spend it, baby
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Damn. U bringing me back to my R Kelly critique.

His lyrics were basic, but he was a gifted musician.

Most of his shit bump!

Don't front, he got come classics.

This is that sh__t that yo mama and them like



I'm not even gonna mention "I believe I can fly".
 
I have the same opinion of so-called "R&B" as I do with "hip-hop" ... which is we should stop using that blanket term.
Rhythm & blues is a radio term created as a term to replace "race records", and then white DJs started calling it "rock and roll", which was a sexual reference
which makes it silly to talk about overtly sexual lyrics ruining so-called R&B

but my point has always been why do you hold every Black or "urban" singing artist to the same standard just because they sing?
why is The Weeknd or Ty Dolla $ign supposed to sound like Luther Vandross or 12 Play era R. Kelly? why is that even the standard for R&B
when that was not what it started out as, and more importantly why would it still be the standard all these years later? Its not all the same genre and it shouldn't be
 
mwandishi said:
Damn. U bringing me back to my R Kelly critique.

His lyrics were basic, but he was a gifted musician.

Most of his shit bump!

Don't front, he got come classics.

This is that sh__t that yo mama and them like



I'm not even gonna mention "I believe I can fly".
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R kelly was definitely talented, had a lot of soul. i just didnt like his songwriting abillity at times. I didnt always appreciate them lyrics(lol). Compare the lyrics of a Jodeci ballad to R Kelly's. R Kelly's lyrics were more structured like simple raps than song lyrics. To his defense, he was borderline illiterate. One of his vindicative ex girlfriends said he couldnt read or write that well. She said he couldnt even write down the lyrics to a song.I had read where his songwriting process would begin with a nice melody, then he'd hum along almost adlib the lyrics, His songs were more about feel and soul. Some say he stole Aaaron Hall's style.
 
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Legal Dollaz said:
My goodness you took me back with that commercial...anytime one of your homies would ask to borrow anything from you the reply was always "no my brother, you gotsa buy your own" lol. That compilation is timeless
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Yep! I'm back to saying it. lol!
 
Honestly i have no idea why it died, weren't R&B artists moving units too?

I think it started dying when Timbaland and Timberlake came out with FutureSex/LoveSounds...
if you recall that album was so far left and futuristic sounding for it's time that it made
r&b music sound outdated.

That album opened that synth, euro sounding pop music wave and r&b just fizzled out.

Remember Usher was spearheading r&b with Confessions in 2004, Timberlake came out in 2006,
and then Usher came back in 2008 with an outdated r&b album that flopped (in the middle or
beginning of that pop wave - don't remember exactly) which was when he decided to go full
pop mode... Ne-Yo went the same route as well.
 
Everything went down hill after these dudes.......image wise.



Image became MORE important and foos got smart just grabbin anybody and supplying the "image".

And technology helped that "image" also.
 
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"RnB" & "Soul" music died? You mean, the stereotypical, cliche shyt doesn't work anymore? That might be true.

The problem is, such cheesy sell-outs like R.Kelly are these days still considered "artists"; the man was a star, a legend and he pi$$ed it all away.
Usher? Meh, since teen age girls don't want him anymore, he is out.

Now music & talent wise, I mean, I just have to play two Kwabs tracks and you are all proven wrong. I told you in two years, THAT sound will start to appear on
the radar & here it is. Enjoy. :)



 
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That voice, though:cheers:

Damn, another Brit via Ghana.

I guess the answer to the question is that R&B didn't die it moved to the UK.
 
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