WTF happened to good R&B artists? They must have said fuck making CDs because of bootleggers!

I tried to give that 24K shit a chance, but man, I just really don't like Bruno Mars. He's not a good singer, I do not like his voice.

I only like PARTS of his songs. I can't recall an artist where I just liked PARTS of their songs, usually I either like it or I don't. And more than likely, PARTS he probably stole from somewhere else.

I just be like "Oh I like that fake ass Teddy Riley synth right there..." "Then they threw the Roger Troutman talkbox on there, too. Cool..." "Ok, is he trying to be Morris Day, Bobby Brown or Michael Jackson?"

I don't know. Maybe I'd feel different if the songs were sung by somebody like Usher or Chris Brown, or even Ne-Yo, but they're all trying to be halfway rappers and shit instead of stealing shit from the 80s like all the people getting all the awards.
 
i dont even listen to the damn radio anymore.....unless its sports radio.
cant remember the last time i did.
I stopped listening to American R&B on a regular basis about 9 months ago.....(unless its Dave Hollister, Donell Jones, Brian McKnight, Joe.....etc)
its hard for me to even listen to these new muthafuckas......u cant even call that shit r&b anymore.
i dont know what the fuck that shit is.
 
just a few that stay on repeat

Black radio was sold, stolen and resold as the new crack music. The only hope is what we search for and PAY FOR.
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THERES TONS OF GREAT GREAT R&B OUT THERE.


Those that frequent the Music board.. know I'm an expert in this subject.


I dropped a list of about 100 new artists in one of the music threads on the main board.
 
The music industry slowly removed the platform for Black R&b singers on a mainstream level, and forced them to make microwaveable shit if they wanna stay relevant......Meanwhile, they let the White artists keep major platforms for that type of music (i.e. Sam Smith).

The real shit is still out there, but its not popularized like it once was. For example, Eric Robeson wont get the same level of exposure as a Justin Timberlake.

The degradation of Black culture in general played a part as well. We used to take pride in looking sharp, being clean, and having a relationship.....Nowadays its the opposite. Being dusty, being a side dude/chick, and being a hoodrat is all celebrated. Unfortunately, the popular music is indicative of the current state of the culture....Even in parties back in the day, it was very common for the DJ to slow the music down for a quick set. Everybody grabbed a girl and did their thing for those small handful of songs. Nowadays, if a DJ tried that he would be clowned and the youngins would probably label it some "simp shit". Sad days we are in...
 
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The music industry slowly removed the platform for Black R&b singers on a mainstream level, and forced them to make microwaveable shit if they wanna stay relevant......Meanwhile, they let the White artists keep major platforms for that type of music (i.e. Sam Smith).

The real shit is still out there, but its not popularized like it once was. For example, Eric Robeson wont get the same level of exposure as a Justin Timberlake.

The degradation of Black culture in general played a part as well. We used to take pride in looking sharp, being clean, and having a relationship.....Nowadays its the opposite. Being dusty, being a side dude/chick, and being a hoodrat is all celebrated. Unfortunately, the popular music is indicative of the current state of the culture....Even in parties back in the day, it was very common for the DJ to slow the music down for a quick set. Everybody grabbed a girl and did their thing for those small handful of songs. Nowadays, if a DJ tried that he would be clowned and the youngins would probably label it some "simp shit". Sad days we are in...


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Great thread!
I was never an RnB fan or listener but as age creeps in I find myself enjoying the music in this thread.
So......
Where can I find a mix set or do I have to create one myself???
 
I agree there is good R&B being made still they just aren't pushing it anyone you not gonna see it in TV you not gonna hear it on the radio times have changed from when we were growing up. I'm an 80s baby growing up jammin 90s R&B and coming into my own with the late 90s to early to mid 2000s R&B not to mention my parents blasting the 70s and 80s classics it's certainly different now cuz that's the type of shit that was praised at that time and rightfully so. You can still find some shit as Bills has shown but you gotta seek it out. I listen to the old shit all the time and those 90s and 2000s acts are starting to just tour with the old music that's good enough for me. Good chance for a nice night out with ya lady.
 
I agree there is good R&B being made still they just aren't pushing it anyone you not gonna see it in TV you not gonna hear it on the radio times have changed from when we were growing up. I'm an 80s baby growing up jammin 90s R&B and coming into my own with the late 90s to early to mid 2000s R&B not to mention my parents blasting the 70s and 80s classics it's certainly different now cuz that's the type of shit that was praised at that time and rightfully so. You can still find some shit as Bills has shown but you gotta seek it out. I listen to the old shit all the time and those 90s and 2000s acts are starting to just tour with the old music that's good enough for me. Good chance for a nice night out with ya lady.

thing is we gotta evolve with r&b too as long as it has that soul and feel it's good r&b people be chasing the exact sound of whatever time it was
90s r&b didn't sound like the 80s which didn't sound like the 70s which didn't sound like the 60s which didn't sound like the 50s
so i don't get when some people expect it to sound like the 70s in 2017 when it didn't sound like the 70s in the 80s or 90s
 
Or if you want something more... Pure.. I would recommend Omar. Omar has been dropping Fiyah for years.






To be on the real... If you really want to find Really good R&B.. You are going to need to either focus on the Indie scene, expand to the international scene, or except Blue eyed Soul. I never find these artists on the radio. I relentless seek out new music.
 
Here is an example of the international scene...

Rinni Wulandari... Is one of my new favorites right now. Young Asian chick from Malaysia.




or One of my All time Asian favorites..

Nao Yoshioka

 
And if you like this Style... then you can't overlook my boy from St. Louis.. Brian Owens.




To be honest.. I think R&B is in better hands then it has been in years. The problem is that it is fucking hidden from the rest of the world. Trapsoul get's airplay while real music gets pushed to the background.
 
The below article is from Atlanta Black Star, not me

8 Reasons Why R&B Has Died in the Black Community

http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/01/20/8-reasons-why-rb-has-died-in-the-black-community/8/



One of the Black community’s greatest gifts to the world is an astounding list of genres and artists who have changed the way we all listen to music. Without genres like the blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, rhythm and blues, Afrobeat, calypso, reggae, roots music, rap and hip-hop, The western world might still be doing the waltz. But there has been a significant drop in the popularity and influence of R&B over the last several decades. Where R&B artists used to be chart-toppers, now they are virtually invisible on the charts as their record sales have plunged. They no longer even have much of a presence on Black radio. So what happened to this previously dominant musical genre?












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The Whitewash

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. It forces us to question whether Timberlake, if he was Black, would be given the latitude to explore pop, funk, rock, soul and R&B, all while blending retro elements with futuristic sounds, or if he would be pressured by label bosses to conform to the same watered-down, generic pop standard so many one-time R&B artists now call home because “that’s what listeners want.” By comparison, consider that in the Billboard issue dated Nov. 23, 1963, when Black artists were still struggling to break out of being viewed as “race” music, just under half of the Top 10 on the Hot R&B Singles chart were white acts.







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Too Much Focus on Physical Attributes, Not Enough on Talent

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. Today, there are too many R&B artists who are eye candy with not much talent or average talent, and the truly talented artists are not signed or promoted because of the way they look. The record-buying public notices such superficiality — and stops feeling compelled to buy the music.








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Producer-Focused

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. No matter who was singing, songs could be quickly identified because of the producer’s sound. Earth, Wind and Fire songs sound like Earth, Wind and Fire songs. They did not sound like the Gap Band. They each had their inimitable styles that could not be duplicated by others. But the genre has been taken over by an overwhelming sameness.






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Too Much Sex

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. While there was sexual content in R&B music between the ’60s and ’80s, it was much more clever, more disguised, less explicit. There were love songs, but they spoke on the many aspects of love. Today’s R&B music is so overladen with sexual themes, adults are embarrassed to listen with even teenagers in the car. In such an environment, a plunge in sales was inevitable.​







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Artists Too Limited

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. It’s hard not to conclude that this shift in style, one that minimized music of positivity and substance, was orchestrated by record label and radio executives in an effort to reshape the sound of Black music, and perhaps the perception of Black people.





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Nobody Is Buying Music Anymore


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.​

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R&B and Hip-Hop Have Coalesced Into a Single Genre


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. The once romantic, sentimental ballads of yesteryear’s R&B have been replaced by club-styled tracks that are nearly indistinguishable from hip-hop.​



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Computerized Production

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. In fact, there are probably more pop acts using live instruments today than there are R&B acts. There are also more pop bands these days than R&B bands, which have disappeared from mainstream music. How can the genre even call itself R&B without real bands?​




Damn!!! There it is!!
 
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