When do you all think R&b went on a huge decline ?

Harold Johnson

New member
For me personally. I'm easily going with the 1990s without a doubt. Sampling, no instruments, hip hop becoming mixed with R&B, every artist just sang about 1 topic which was sex and fucking and nothing else, the vocal talent then was at an all time low. It lacked very very little originality back in the 1990s.
 
I think it was somewhere in the early 2000s, when it started to decline. By the mid 00s early 10s it was a wrap. I can see how the 90s can be thought of as a decline, when it comes to the things you mentioned, compared to how things were in the 80s and before. But R&B was going strong in the 90s. We still had Stevie Wonder, Prince, Aretha Franklin, and other greats, making hits in the 90s, along with the artists they influenced. But when people started excepting autotune and rappers singing in place of real singers , real R&B was dying. The whole HipHop / R&B and Autotune era genre really did it. There was still good R&B being made, but it wasn't the main driver for a lot of the labels. The labels didn't start bringing in new R&B acts until somewhere around the mid 10s.
 
I think it was somewhere in the early 2000s, when it started to decline. By the mid 00s early 10s it was a wrap. I can see how the 90s can be thought of as a decline, when it comes to the things you mentioned, compared to how things were in the 80s and before. But R&B was going strong in the 90s. We still had Stevie Wonder, Prince, Aretha Franklin, and other greats, making hits in the 90s, along with the artists they influenced. But when people started excepting autotune and rappers singing in place of real singers , real R&B was dying. The whole HipHop / R&B and Autotune era genre really did it. There was still good R&B being made, but it wasn't the main driver for a lot of the labels. The labels didn't start bringing in new R&B acts until somewhere around the mid 10s.
Are you kidding me? Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin are from the 60s and 70s. Prince's career was on a huge decline because of his feud with Warner Bros, "slave" and creating trend chasing albums that weren't successful with the critics and commercially.

Stevie Wonder didn't have any hits in the 90s, neither did Aretha Franklin. You spoke like some 80s baby twat who probably grew up in the 90s

Bunch of millennials claiming artists from their parents generation
 
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I think it was somewhere in the early 2000s, when it started to decline. By the mid 00s early 10s it was a wrap. I can see how the 90s can be thought of as a decline, when it comes to the things you mentioned, compared to how things were in the 80s and before. But R&B was going strong in the 90s. We still had Stevie Wonder, Prince, Aretha Franklin, and other greats, making hits in the 90s, along with the artists they influenced. But when people started excepting autotune and rappers singing in place of real singers , real R&B was dying. The whole HipHop / R&B and Autotune era genre really did it. There was still good R&B being made, but it wasn't the main driver for a lot of the labels. The labels didn't start bringing in new R&B acts until somewhere around the mid 10s.

Never mind, found you were born in the 80s. Makes sense with the revisionist history now.
 
Are you kidding me? Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin are from the 60s and 70s. Prince's career was on a huge decline because of his feud with Warner Bros, "slave" and creating trend chasing albums that weren't successful with the critics and commercially.

Stevie Wonder didn't have any hits in the 90s, neither did Aretha Franklin. You spoke like some 80s baby twat who probably grew up in the 90s

Bunch of fucking millennials claiming artists from their parents generation
They were already legends before the 90s. But they had songs on the radio in the 90s. Aretha Franklin - A Rose is still a Rose came out in 98. Stevie Wonder For Your Love - 95 - he won two Grammys for it., Prince had several top 10 billboard songs alone, not including R&B charts. Obviously their greatest work was before the 90s. They might have been past their peaks ( but they still had decent song that didn't chart well) but R&B wasn't necessary on a decline in the 90s, because of that. But its personal preference. I listen to 70s , 80s, and 90s all together, each era had a different style of R&B. Some music was more soulful, some had live instruments, some used DAWs ( even Stevie Wonder used them) , but the feeling was still there throughout the 90s, Imo. The 90s had some hiphop influence, but it wasn't as obvious as it was in the 2000s.
 
They were already legends before the 90s. But they had songs on the radio in the 90s. Aretha Franklin - A Rose is still a Rose came out in 98. Stevie Wonder For Your Love - 95 - he won two Grammys for it., Prince had several top 10 billboard songs alone, not including R&B charts. Obviously their greatest work was before the 90s. They might have been past their peaks ( but they still had decent song that didn't chart well) but R&B wasn't necessary on a decline in the 90s, because of that. But its personal preference. I listen to 70s , 80s, and 90s all together, each era had a different style of R&B. Some music was more soulful, some had live instruments, some used DAWs ( even Stevie Wonder used them) , but the feeling was still there throughout the 90s, Imo. The 90s had some hiphop influence, but it wasn't as obvious as it was in the 2000s.
Lol stop it, I understand that you were born in the 80s but your post doesn't make any sense.

Stevie Wonder was winning Grammy's in the 00s too. Does that mean R&B was still amazing by this logic? That Aretha Franklin song wasn't even a hit to begin with. Prince's last hit happened in 1994 and you were barely in your teens then (meaning you missed out on Prince during his prime in the 80s). Aretha's last hit was with George Michael.

The hip hop influence was very obvious in the 90s, sampling became a huge thing which pretty much killed creativity for R&B, artists were no longer using instruments to create new sound's for black music, the lyrics were basically about bedroom music, hip hop collaborations were becoming common thanks to P Diddy and Mary J Blige who's dubbed as the queen of hip hop and soul.

Once again, I have to remember, you didn't live through the 70s and 80s so you're too young to understand why people who were older than you feel different. Clearly rewriting history.
 
Lol stop it, I understand that you were born in the 80s but your post doesn't make any sense.

Stevie Wonder was winning Grammy's in the 00s too. Does that mean R&B was still amazing by this logic? That Aretha Franklin song wasn't even a hit to begin with. Prince's last hit happened in 1994 and you were barely in your teens then (meaning you missed out on Prince during his prime in the 80s). Aretha's last hit was with George Michael.

The hip hop influence was very obvious in the 90s, sampling became a huge thing which pretty much killed creativity for R&B, artists were no longer using instruments to create new sound's for black music, the lyrics were basically about bedroom music, hip hop collaborations were becoming common thanks to P Diddy and Mary J Blige who's dubbed as the queen of hip hop and soul.

Once again, I have to remember, you didn't live through the 70s and 80s so you're too young to understand why people who were older than you feel different. Clearly rewriting history.
Im just saying R&B was still pretty good back then, compared to the early 00s. I was born in 81, I had a lot of time with R&B. I use to listen to Alexander Oneal , Freddie Jackson, Levert, Billy Ocean, Luther, Sade, etc, etc at an early age. It doesnt even have to be a "hit record" to be great music, and you would agree. There were so many songs that didn't become hits, that are still great records.
 
Im just saying R&B was still pretty good back then, compared to the early 00s. I was born in 81, I had a lot of time with R&B. I use to listen to Alexander Oneal , Freddie Jackson, Levert, Billy Ocean, Luther, Sade, etc, etc at an early age. It doesnt even have to be a "hit record" to be great music, and you would agree. There were so many songs that didn't become hits, that are still great records.

Sorry but if you were born in 1981 then you're too young for this topic, by the time I was listening to Prince, Luther, Sade etc you were an infant in pampers. That's your parents music.

Not your generation.
 
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