For me it died when pop artists started to feature r&b and hip-hop artists on their songs and viceversa. We got stuff like Christina Aguilera ft Alicia Keys ("Impossible"), Britney ft Pharrell ("Boys"), Eminem ft Dido ("Stan"), Eve ft Gwen ("Let me Blow ya Mind") etc, which, don't get me wrong, are amazing, but that's when the line between pop and urban started to blur and then it was just a matter of time before r&b began losing it's flawless status
I really miss the old days when pop and r&b were conceived as 2 different entities and we had artists like Montell Jordan, Next, Dru Hill, Blackstreet, Keith Sweat, TLC, Monica, Ginuwine, Total, 112 among many many others
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