Todays R&B is really just melodic hiphop with the same immature outlook on subject matter and relationships.
Sadly true.
Listen to an old EWF song and tell me if it touches a totally differrent part of your soul than music does now.
I don't hear much soul in contemporary music. Lauryn sung with soul on "Miseducation" but there has been little else for the past 25 years.
Rapper-wise, I think Snoop has soul, Nas sometimes does, Pac and Biggie had soul.
Most rappers pre-92 had soul because they competed with traditional r&b on the radio. After '96 there has been little soul in either r&b or rap (not to be confused Hip Hop, which came out of danceable black r&b, jazz and funk).
For some reason youth culture has dominated every aspect of the human expercience it seems,like if you are past 35 you are no longer relevant to anyone,when in actuality those are the years in which you become who you are supposed to be instead of trying to mold yourself after whomever you idolize/worship in your teens and early adulthood,older R&B records spoke on that part of your life way more then it does now
The music reflects the immature, sex and money-driven society that we now live in.
When folks were forming marriages, families and communities, the music back then reflected a more mature
approach to life.
Romance was a necessary prelude for relationship building and maintenance.
A d*ck/p*ssy/booty-focused culture doesn't need the devotional lyrics of a song like Always and Forever:
"Always and forever
Each moment with you
Is just like a dream to me
That somehow came true, yeah
And I know tomorrow
Will still be the same
'Cause we got a life of love
That won't ever change"
