Discussion: 8 reasons why R&B died in the Black community - Page 5

Chemical X.

i actually agree with a lot of this... i think better platforms for R&B (radio, performance slots, etc.) would also help. beyond that, R&B and pop and R&B and rap have essentially merged, at least among popular artists. there's no middle-ground, you either have bops (even though i love them) without the big voices/harmonies of yesteryear or you have something your aunties would listen to (aka anything on Urban AC)

there are no "cool" artists for young people that are interesting and genuinely R&B.

Truth Teller

When did this thread turn into a Beyonce bragging thread? I love her to death, but if I wanted to see 2 pages of pictures of her holding Grammy's, I'd google it.

Ace Reject

Wow.

Everyone knows I love kisuke and Harry.

This did not need to turn into a Beyoncé vs. Rihanna thread. Deleting those posts!

manwhore

Sadly all of those things can be said about rap music. It's just more destructive to the youth in urban communities as a whole. Ratchet behavior is still unacceptable and immature. 😧 it anything please someone make rap music stop.. Like Eew fade now.

cloudinthesky

Quote:

Originally posted by Ryan

I think some of the biggest problems are the lack of platforms for exposure, programmers shifting to courting specific sub-genres and lack of mainstream quality. It kind of goes hand in hand.

It is sad that white artists, simply by being white, are able to get multi-format play when they "dabble" in R&B music. When I hear Sam Smith's 'Stay With Me' on UC and Pop Radio, I wonder why the likes of say Miguel, Trey Songz, Deangelo, Jazmine Sullivan, Jhene Aiko, Tinashe, Natalie La Rose, Emeli Sande, Leela James and others dont.

Usher's a proven crossover artist but even his 'I Dont Mind' (though catchy is absolute trash) doesn't get pop play. If Justin Timberlake released that same song, it would get play.

Race *is* a part of it, but moreso the pre-defined box that most R&B artists are always held to. In order to get pop/mainstream support, those artists have to completely come out of their box or have something that's just too big to be confined to one format. Pop artists (ie white) don't face that same restriction.

That leads to talented artists like Usher and Chris Brown chasing pop hits by watering down their music and sound in the hopes of getting picked up on main radio. It's sad tbh.

One of the truest posts in this thread yet tbh.

thirdward

JT is white... tf?

Kworb

Quote:

Originally posted by Ryan

I think some of the biggest problems are the lack of platforms for exposure, programmers shifting to courting specific sub-genres and lack of mainstream quality. It kind of goes hand in hand.

It is sad that white artists, simply by being white, are able to get multi-format play when they "dabble" in R&B music. When I hear Sam Smith's 'Stay With Me' on UC and Pop Radio, I wonder why the likes of say Miguel, Trey Songz, Deangelo, Jazmine Sullivan, Jhene Aiko, Tinashe, Natalie La Rose, Emeli Sande, Leela James and others dont.

Usher's a proven crossover artist but even his 'I Dont Mind' (though catchy is absolute trash) doesn't get pop play. If Justin Timberlake released that same song, it would get play.

Race *is* a part of it, but moreso the pre-defined box that most R&B artists are always held to. In order to get pop/mainstream support, those artists have to completely come out of their box or have something that's just too big to be confined to one format. Pop artists (ie white) don't face that same restriction.

That leads to talented artists like Usher and Chris Brown chasing pop hits by watering down their music and sound in the hopes of getting picked up on main radio. It's sad tbh.

Usher and Natalie La Rose are both top 20 on Pop right now and climbing. Tinashe also did okay with 2 On. Usually the problem is that they don't sell enough, and Pop tends to follow iTunes.