Is R&B Music Dead?

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Is it just me or has R&B music taken a serious back seat to hip-hop over the last few years. It seemed like in the 90's R&B music was at an all time high with artist like Toni Braxton, Mariah Carey, Babyface, Boyz II Men, Blackstreet, Whitney Houston and Many others dominating the charts. Now with the exception of a few artists like Alica Keys it seems like true R&B has taken a back seat to hip-hop. Don't get me wrong I love rap... but where is the love for R&B especially on the radio and in video! What do you guys think?

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well I hope that 'thing' is dead..

- Written by a person whos definetly not a fan of some crap like R&B.

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O god I hope it's dead. Rap I like but R&B i hate more than anything. I'd rather listen to random clicking than R&B.

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I still haven't quite even figured out what they mean by R&B anymore.

I thought R&B was people like Al Green, Aretha Franklin, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. Once upon a time R&B was synonomous with soul music - and that's great music.

I'm really not some old coot but I agree that current R&B is crap.

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there is a lot of R&B trash out there right now. Alicia Keys and Usher are the only good ones I can think of. To me garbage are groups that leach of of rappers. They sing the hook on a rappers big hit and then come out with a garbage album. Groups and artists like Beyonce, Ashanti, jagged edge, all the American Idol singers, B2K, all give R&B a bad name.

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o good god i hope its dead for me its always been 'dead' but i hope others start to realise that rnb is absolute CRAP rock, punk and emo is my thing i hate all pop, rap and rnb it sucks man.

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boomerang wrote:

I still haven't quite even figured out what they mean by R&B anymore.

I thought R&B was people like Al Green, Aretha Franklin, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. Once upon a time R&B was synonomous with soul music - and that's great music.

I'm really not some old coot but I agree that current R&B is crap.

That current crap listed above (Babyface, Toni Braxton, Mariah Carey, Babyface, Boyz II Men, etc) is NOT R & B. R&B stands for Rhythm and Blues, not the stuff these groups/artists put out.
Boomerang is right...R& B is soul music.

R&B is dead in the sence that no one is making it anymore. It's revolved to hip hop. Alicia Keys and Usher are not true R&B artists.

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This is a site dedicated to the preservation of R&B. Unfortunately, it is not up and running completely yet.

R&B

R&B has it's roots in Jazz, Blues and Gospel. Not "sex me up, rub it on me" slow rap.

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I think R&B is on the rise. There are really decent singers out there now. Mary J.Blige,Eryca Bybu, Angie Stone, Pink, Cristine Aguerilla, Macy Grey, Jill Scott..... Wow, I, But therjust noticed those are all women, but there are some talented guys too. Alexander Hamilton is my favorite new artist, annd Princes "Musicology"had no fillers. There's also Dave Thomas, Ke-Ci, and JoJo, Johnny Gill, Along with R Kelly, have some the finest "old school type voices.And yes, Virginia, Ron Eisley of the Eisley Brothers is still on the charts!
Seek and ye shall find. Not to mention, acts like The Dells, Main Ingriedient, Bobby Womack, and Al Green are still touring.

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Modern R&B has nothing to do with the original 50s-60s R&B. The original R&B was the music of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin etc. The modern R&B is just a showcase for those who have taken some vocal training to show off their vocal gymnastics of going up and down the octave... Even Alicia Keys who is otherwise a talented musician, gives too much importance to this warbling, making her music is unlistenable.

And Usher was mentioned.. Oh.. come on... that guy is just a show man and a great live performer but a serious musician? not really...

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Curious999.
You sound like a real R&B fan. Check out some the names I listed. There are some honest* singers out there.

*No tricks, are distractions via vocal gymnastics.

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i like R&B

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R&B used to stand for Rhythm and Blues. It now stands for Rhymes and Beats.

A typically day for Usher: Go to the studio, press record, tap two sticks together, loop, sing, press stop.
Next.

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Please, don't say Usher as a prime example of R&B. He couldn't carry Josh Stones microphone. Rolling Eyes

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I'm a guy. I don't care what usher looks like. His latests stuff sounds good to me, plain and simple. No rappers or anything like that. His voice is not all that, but his music sounds good.

I've listened to josh stone. And I don't like her. The only songs I've heard are older cover songs. I'd rather listen to Alicia keys anyday. You can really get lost in some of her vocals.

And as far as R&B not being what it used to be. I wouln't know. I'm 25 so I don't know what it used to be. And trying to argue who is a true musician is tricky. Do you judge the end prodcut (the music) or the process. I respect an artist who writes and produces their own stuff (like babyface) but if it doesn't sound good it doesn't matter.

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Tenoch wrote:

And as far as R&B not being what it used to be. I wouln't know. I'm 25 so I don't know what it used to be.
Do you judge the end prodcut (the music) or the process.
I respect an artist who writes and produces their own stuff but if it doesn't sound good it doesn't matter.

Firstly, I'm 21 and I know what R&B used to be, how can you not? It's such a big influence on music as a whole. Being 25 is no excuse, if you're a fan of music, you can easily research it.
Do you judge the product or the process? Surely the end product as, very rarely, we never see a band creating a song, so why should it matter to Joe Public?
You respect artists that write their own stuff and it doesn't matter whether it sounds good or not? So you'd gladly listen to a three year old playing a nose flute while someone bangs two sticks together for an hour, just so long as the three year old was working autonomously and it wasn't written by a mogul?
I'm sorry, it may seem like I'm having a go at you, but really opinion is down to opinion and I respect that. I don't mind if people like R&B and nothing else, but to blame your age on not knowing the origins of what seems like your main musical taste? That seems more like the work of a scene lover than a music lover.

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SlyEnemy wrote:

Tenoch wrote:
And as far as R&B not being what it used to be. I wouln't know. I'm 25 so I don't know what it used to be.
Do you judge the end prodcut (the music) or the process.
I respect an artist who writes and produces their own stuff but if it doesn't sound good it doesn't matter.

Firstly, I'm 21 and I know what R&B used to be, how can you not? It's such a big influence on music as a whole. Being 25 is no excuse, if you're a fan of music, you can easily research it.
Do you judge the product or the process? Surely the end product as, very rarely, we never see a band creating a song, so why should it matter to Joe Public?
You respect artists that write their own stuff and it doesn't matter whether it sounds good or not? So you'd gladly listen to a three year old playing a nose flute while someone bangs two sticks together for an hour, just so long as the three year old was working autonomously and it wasn't written by a mogul?
I'm sorry, it may seem like I'm having a go at you, but really opinion is down to opinion and I respect that. I don't mind if people like R&B and nothing else, but to blame your age on not knowing the origins of what seems like your main musical taste? That seems more like the work of a scene lover than a music lover.

Actually I can see how you misinterped my post , " I respect peole who write and produce their own stuff." then i followed with, " If it doesn't sound good, it doesn't matter." I meant to say that if it doesn't sound good, it doesn't matter to me that you wrote and produced it yourself, I still think it SUCKS. I was trying to emphisize the fact that the end product should matter more. However if the end product is good then I will give extra respect and credit to the artist.

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Quote:

Actually I can see how you misinterped my post , " I respect peole who write and produce their own stuff." then i followed with, " If it doesn't sound good, it doesn't matter." I meant to say that if it doesn't sound good, it doesn't matter to me that you wrote and produced it yourself, I still think it SUCKS. I was trying to emphisize the fact that the end product should matter more. However if the end product is good then I will give extra respect and credit to the artist.

Okay, that's fair enough.

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Actually I love HipHop and I like R&B. I can't stand the mixing of the two. Mayb one or two here and there, but EVERY SINGLE GOOD R&B (or whatever you want to call it) song has a remix with a rapper. I can't stand those.

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Tenoch,
It's that money thing. The smarter one's enlist a popular Hip-hop star for asong to air on radio, then you buy the CD, and get the Pure efforts.

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Is R&B Music Dead?

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