The 35 Greatest R&B Artists Of All Time (Billboard Magazine)
- Thread starter Hotlantan
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Mary J biting ass got up there by default of remaking the majority of the people on that list songs
In all fairness, Luther did the same thing.
Who are the music authorities on the board? My question is, are they using R&B as a general term or are they talking about the actual recognized musical genre? From my understanding "black" music wasn't categorized as R&B until the late 60's or 70's.
And for the folks saying they were looking for the token white artist. I would take Teena Marie over Usher or Maxwell any day.
And for the folks saying they were looking for the token white artist. I would take Teena Marie over Usher or Maxwell any day.
Hall & Oates and AWB too!
I just took a good look at this list and it is some bull. No Bobby Womack? No Otis Redding? It looks like that took the 35 R&B acts mainstream white America are familiar with and ranked them.
hall and oates got some R&B joints but i catogorize them more blue eyed soul type shit, similar to the doobie brothers in the Micheal McDonald era
Alicia Keys but no Rick James?
Lost me.
Lost me.
Not really.
Luther reinterpreted and redefined.
Mary regurgitated.
A number of songs that Luther redid, are now considered THE definitive versions.
"If This World Were Mine", "A House is Not A Home", "Superstar" to name a few...
Luther surpassed the original artists.
He was the best male R&B balladeer of close to the last 40 years.
People don't look at "I'm Going Down", "Natural Woman" and "Sweet Thing" and think, Mary J. Blige.
She did not even sing them as well as Rose Royce, Aretha Franklin or Chaka Khan - nor did she do them significantly differently (think Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine vs Gladys Knight and the Pips' version).
She is very average among her peers. You can name a gang of singers during Mary's career, that can murder her on a mic.
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This is a bullshit R&B List right here!!...
Michael did not influence, revolutionize and transform the sound of R&B music to nearly the magnitude the ones I put above him. He was just more popular. James Brown isn't in my personal top 5, but he influenced and transformed the music that followed him way more than Michael did.
Michael influenced music is a whole and was impactful to generations of music fans around the world unlike no other artists.
lol. Just saying it doesn't make it so, bro. I stand by my statement. Those other artists were more influential on the sound of R&B as a whole than Michael was. That fact doesn't subtract from his legendary status though. He still could be a contender for pound for pound the greatest entertainer of the 20th century.
You know what though, Entrepronegro...It's really a fruitless argument we're having. These top 5 artists all did their thing to make the musical landscape beautiful.
They are all in a class to themselves and it's not really fair to compare them. They are all great.
I agree they were all impactful in their own way.
She can't even sing that well. She should thank Her lucky stars that she was born with "marketable" features. India Arie is way more talented but sadly she never got the same push at the same time Alicia Keys blew up.
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Son
I dropped my phone when i saw that...then i picked it up and saw alicia keys ranked ahead of him and threw the shit across the room
Gathered myself and read the rest of the list..the top 10 is cool..my order would be slightly different tho
All kinds of wrong with this list. You all have touched on them.
But Beyonce? Mary? I can't even be mad at Alicia Keys, (still would not have her on the list though), but really?
*sigh*
But Beyonce? Mary? I can't even be mad at Alicia Keys, (still would not have her on the list though), but really?
*sigh*
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