What happened to R&B MUSIC?

What happened to R&B MUSIC?

For most of those that will be taking the time out to read this post, when I say R&B it will stir up a myriad of emotions: Negative, indifferent and positive. What I want to delve into is how a genre that has stretched over several generations manages divide opinions so extraordinarily.

To understand the dichotomy we have to grasp that the terminology, R&B means something completely different to somebody in their 60’s than it would to somebody in their 30’s. During its inception during the 1940’s Rhythm & Blues borrowed heavily from Jazz music which was the popular music of the era amongst urban America. Contrastingly in the last decade we’ve seen most R&B acts influenced by the more prominent genre of Hip Hop.

With the emergence of Hip Hop in the last 30 years and it simultaneously becoming an integral part of popular culture, traditional forms of R&B have taken a back seat to Rap music. Hip Hop seemingly speaks more to the struggles of urban America, police brutally and the crack epidemics in the late 80’s are topics that have been prevalent in the artistry that is Hip Hop.

If you look closely at the music in the 1960’s with civil right movement and the use of heroin in urban cities across America, parallels can be drawn in regards to both genres musically being the backdrop and reflecting what was happening socially. The likes of Bobby Womack and in particular Curtis Mayfield are artists who used R&B as a means of conveying the views of many that lived during the era.  You can compare this to how the likes of Public Enemy and NWA reflected the anger and frustration of black males in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

The cultural similarities and how both have impacted the community lead me to believe that R&B and Hip Hop could be like ying and yang. They should co-exist! Unfortunately there is a clear disparity, where Hip Hop is thriving R&B is suffering, dying a cold and miserable death, and if R&B is dying a miserable death then we have to discover what the overwhelming factors behind it are.

I feel nostalgia plays a part, and every genre has its golden era, a period where the music dominates the charts and everyone outside of that form wants to borrow and use it as an influence, or more recently feature on song with the popular artists.

Rhythm and Blues in the 60s-70s had an amazing variety, the transition from the sound of more up tempo Lil Richard styled blues, to more smooth and refined vocal styling that was packaged so brilliantly by Berry Gordy and his Motown dynasty.

The Motown Era is a seminal part of the genres history, with the Michigan based label churning out an assembly line of hit after hit from the legendary studio appropriately named Hitsville USA. The formula was pretty unique but it worked. There was an emphasis on vocal groups with the lead singers then going on to be stars in their own rights. The Jackson 5, The Supremes, and The Miracles were all great examples of this model.

Another idea Berry Gordy championed was artist development, something that the modern day label doesn’t invest in at all. Sometimes artists need to be allowed the time to hone their craft before releasing any music. Learning varying factors of making music allows artists to have longevity in relation to developing other aspects such as writing and composing music which is a useful asset when making R&B.

It can be argued that separating itself from the core values of what made R&B so popular in the first place has contributed majorly to its downfall. An alternative case could be made that the genres hugest stars are seen as marketing tools that can promoted to a much larger audience and will eventually “crossover”. If you look at the career trajectory of say a Michael Jackson for instance it is clear this does take place. For example my  personal favourite “Blues Away” a song the casual MJ fan would never heard of, but they can quote the lyrics to “Bad” and “Black or White” without difficulty.

Label bosses can place pressure on an artist to stray away from a particular type of music, to make a more watered down a commercial Pop. Money in this case is the root of evil, the potential endorsement money that companies are willing to throw at top artist is ridiculous. Pepsi in 1983 signed a deal with Michael Jackson for a staggering $5m, which was unparalleled at the time. We all know how the music business works; can artists afford to turn down those types of cheques? Bearing in mind that was nearly 30 years ago can you fathom the sums that Beyoncé and Usher have been offered over the years?

We have established that making R&B music isn’t as lucrative therefore labels aren’t as willing to invest in the artist and developing their talents. The appeal of crossing over into other genres means R&B loses its shining stars. I would like to question the notion of why R&B can no longer make money.

Music generally has been affected by the transition of music formats to digital platforms such as MP3. Piracy and illegal downloading has seen a huge decline in sales, however the likes of R. Kelly, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Mary J. Blige, Usher and Janet Jackson have all sold multi million copies of album throughout the 90’s and early 00’s. These artists’ core fan bases alone should allow them to chart reasonably well and bring in ticket sales when touring.

Usher in 2004 released his Confessions album which went 10 times platinum in the USA his next album Here I Stand tailed off considerably only selling only 1 million copies. Time is a contributing factor. Making a quality R&B album consume way more time compared to a making a quality Hip Hop album. Live instrumentation, vocal arrangements and the writing process in general means that the artist occasionally have to wait on songwriters before they can get back into the studio after a smash hit album. In a world that is evolving constantly can consumers of music wait years for new product when somebody else in the meantime can give them new music to listen to?

Social Media and visuals again affects R&B, we can agree your run of the mill R&B musician is not like Chris Brown; they’re probably are a little bit older, more mature and live a more unassuming lifestyle out of the limelight. The younger artists move around with rappers and are regularly on the blogs, often for the wrong reasons. You look at the likes of Donell Jones and Jon B who still regularly release music; unfortunately their projects don’t get the same media attention as say a Trey Songz. Add into the equation that the polished look and feel of an R&B video can’t be achieved on smaller budgets. You are not going to appreciate a World Star Hip Hop quality of video from your favourite R&B act as much as you would say for example Ty Dollar Sign.

We can highlight the reasons why R&B is dying, but what can be done to keep it going and perhaps get it back to the days of Jodeci, Joe and Boyz II Men pioneering and showing their peers the way forward, because in all honesty I have had enough of Musiq Soulchild parading around calling himself the Husle something needs to be done!

Myths can be made just as easily as lies can be told but even at his peak Tyrese was never part of the elite, however recently he independently topped the charts with his last album “Black Rose” selling approximately 75,000 copies in its 1^st week.  Prior to this his albums sold reasonably well but only went platinum once which was on off his first album.  So what made fans buy “Black Rose” an eloquent ode to classic throwback R&B, great melodies throughout and an overriding theme of Love & Relationships. The highs and the lows of Love is something that is richly ingrained in most conventional R&B projects, but in a time where ratchet is the new in thing, it can be harder to sell the ideals of love to an audience that know little about it. I believe that the youth are disenfranchised when it comes to accepting that Love is something that still can prosper. We call our women bad bitches and Hoes unceremoniously, some even refer themselves as Bad B’s.

Redefining the ballad and Love song is integral to seeing R&B flourish again, old school crooning is probably going to have to be saved for live shows and the real core fans but, imaginative song writing and less rappers collaborating on EVERY song they put out is a good place to start, in my humble opinion.

What are your thoughts?