Some of the most successful R&B artists now are white — names like Justin Timberlake, Adele, Robin Thicke. In 2013, Billboard‘s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart was topped by a white artist 44 out of 52 weeks — including 37 straight weeks, January to October, where it was topped by either hip-hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis or Thicke. These artists are allowed to explore actual R&B music, producing lush tracks filled with musicality that evoke a previous era of R&B music. So Timberlake’s enormous success, while perhaps well-deserved, inherently speaks to the limitations and pressures placed on Black artists in comparison to the artistic freedom granted to white artists.
2. Too Much Focus on Physical Attributes, Not Enough on Talent
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There was a time when R&B singers were elevated and celebrated because of their talent and not their looks. It would be disrespectful to name fabulous singers of the past as examples, but one who has been called the “Queen of Soul” might be a prime example. The quality of the music, of the voices, was paramount back then. But those days are long gone.
3. Producer-Focused
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The talented, powerful R&B producers of yesteryear would identify talent, hone it, enhance it. Names like Norman Whitfield, Quincy Jones, Leon Sylvers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, LA Reid and Babyface, and Teddy Riley reigned supreme. But somewhere in the late ’80s and early ’90s, R&B began to focus the bulk of its attention on the producers, to the detriment of the artists. Artists wanted to work with the “in” producer at the time. As a result, R&B music started to sound the same.
4. Too Much Sex
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A five-minute trip through the radio dial — if you can actually find Black R&B artists on the radio — shows just how incredibly hypersexual the music and lyrics have become. Usher, Trey Songz, Chris Brown — they seem to spend nearly all their time singing about how hard and how often they’re going to hit it. And little else.
5. Artists Too Limited
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One has to wonder why mainstream Black music, once rich with R&B that promoted love, tenderness and substance, now includes one of two types of songs: vapid pop numbers by artists who sound more like robots than real people and commercial rap tracks that glorify violence, materialism and misogyny.
6. Nobody Is Buying Music Anymore
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As most people know, there has been a startling plunge in the number of albums sold compared to previous years. This phenomenon has pulled down every genre; R&B has been hit especially hard, as has hip-hop. Hip-hop albums sold 24.1 percent less in 2014 than they did in 2013, and CD sales saw a 29.6 percent decline. Digital sales also took a serious hit and dropped more than 20 percent since 2013.
7. R&B and Hip-Hop Have Coalesced Into a Single Genre
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While the two genres were long independent styles, each with their own unique sound and melody that explored and discussed different subject matters, today’s hip-hop and R&B are practically the same genre. Almost every R&B track has a rap verse and many rappers have incorporated singing into their style.
8. Computerized Production
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Between the 1960s and ’80s, the R&B genre had a plethora of bands like Earth, Wind and Fire, Sly and the Family Stone, Rose Royce, Parliament, Funkadelic and the Gap Band, just to name a few. All of these acts made their own music with live instruments. The last true band in R&B history was the ’90s band Mint Condition. Since then, virtually all instruments played on albums now are digitized.
Disagree for the most part. R&B has always had songs about sex...
Even songs by Innocent teenagers like Aaliyah, Destiny's Child, Usher & Brandy had songs with strong sexual undertones back in the 90's (I Wanna Be Down, If Your Girl Only Knew... etc.).
R&B is dying because mainstream music is focusing on Pop. Even in the 90's, R&B songs all followed a similar formula. It's not just a brand new thing... IDK.
I do agree with the focus on sex appeal than vocals though, but that's not why it's dying.
I agree with a lot of this, a lot of R&B artists are all doing the same ****. Everything sounds so similar both lyrically and musically. The artists are faceless.
Most definitely too much sex. I can never stress enough how much i used to **** with Trey Songz so hard during Just Gotta Make It when he was so authentic...then he turned into some sex slave. Like, mess. What a wreck
How about radio put a damper on it? Every other song on urban mainstream radio is a Drake, Lil Wayne or Nicki song with Chris, Usher and Trey Songz being the main R&B acts given love in an otherwise very heavy ratchet Hip Hop playlist.
i feel like top 40 radio supporting more r&b artists could help
also they don't get as much promo on big platforms.
a bit ridiculous to say it's because the artists are more focused on appearance rather than talent and singing about sex considering who some of the biggest artists in the world are. but i totally agree about it being too producer focused and somewhat about the r&b and hip-hop thing
Agree with some of these, especially about it all sounding the same. I don't think white artists ruined R&B either, people like Adele, Justin Timberlake and early Robin Thicke have made great contributions.. and a lot more white artists do R&B but are labeled as pop and vice versa. A lot of r&b artists fuse with hip hop or try to cater to pop fans like Usher and Omarion which butchers the sound imo.
I always wonder why r&b doesn't get love it's music for the soul. Where are the Luther Vandross, Boys II Men, Brian McKnight, Brandy, Ginuwine, Monica, early Usher and Alicia Keys music today? We're in a pop-dance era right now
The quality of the music, of the voices, was paramount back then. But those days are long gone.
That's just flat out wrong. Stop waiting for the radio to feed you quality music and you won't have this opinion. There's actually been a surplus of amazing R&B in the last 4 years alone.
As far as voices go, the R&B genre still flourishes with vocal talent... it's just that these days people are more flexible with what they consider talent. Singers who have big ranges often sound the same or rely on their voice and the actual music takes a bake seat. Every singer doesn't need to be a Whitney Houston. For me, a singers job is to sing with persuasiveness. They have to sell their music based on their true intentions. It's not to outdo their vocal delivery on their previous album or their peers' vocals. That's so disingenuous and obnoxious. Also, if a singer only has an average voice but makes amazing music, they get a pass and they should. Frank Ocean is an average singer. He has a good voice but it's not spectacular by any means. However, he makes amazing music and he sells that music with his voice because it's the only voice that could and should sell his music.
It's weird cause 10 years ago R&B and hip hop were still dominating. At some point the tastes of top 40 and urban audiences drifted apart. Probably has a lot to do with reason 5. Urban production has also trended towards a focus on the beat (and little else), forgoing the hooks that top 40 audiences love.
Trey put out a ballad and it flopped; they started playing Foreign instead
It's also Urban radio FAVORING the sex songs. Every R&B artist has sexual songs, that's not a problem. They just seem to be favored in general
True. Usher also released Papers back in the RvR era and Chris had Fine China, which has a more soulful sound, and they both underperformed. It's not just about the artists and the labels. Let's not even mention artists like Tank, Ginuwine, Lyfe Jennings, Raheem DeVaughn, Avant etc who usually release soulful music with non-explicit lyrics and go nowhere with it. It's about what people want. REAL music has now been restricted to urban AC radio, where it's labelled as "old people music"
I agree with a lot of this, a lot of R&B artists are all doing the same ****. Everything sounds so similar both lyrically and musically. The artists are faceless.
This.
Same beats, same themes, sames vocals.
And feel like some male artists are more like strippers than singers.
