Outside of genre distinctions she's getting play on Radio stations for something elseand trust
it isn't because her music sounds like Katy Perry/Taylor swift.
I brought them up to say what approach they're taking today towards marketing white acts with what would've been seen as a more "Black" sound
last decade, not as a way to say TODAY is like YESTERDAY as you did in mentioning Whitney, Alicia and Brandy.
Context is important here, Tori Kelly clearly isn't being marketed as just a "Pop act" otherwise she'd be Ke$ha/Katy Perry/Taylor Swift status.
I mean she was just on the BET Awards earlier this year blowing to a black audience. THAT is a perfect example of a calculated move to get her in
front of black folks.
The point isn't that "Tyrese was never huge" my point in mentioning "Tyrese AND friends" was to focus on the FACT
that many black artists who make that soulful music ARE NOT getting the push they deserve and I also think the general
public isn't receptive of them for some obvious reasons
I'll put it this way, in the climate of yesteryear Tyrese could get SIGNED making the music he makes while he'd have to stumble
on a lottery ticket to do so today.
The problem with this is that there are artists that clearly DO still represent that dividing line and don't just sing over Hip Hop instrumentals.
THESE artists aren't getting the same love and treatment they would've gotten in the
80's,90's and hell even last decade when R&B was still seen as a viable way to make money.
The Soul Train Awards, B.E.T., The Radio etc. are all extensions of the major label system.
They practically exist just to market artists and show their live performances, they're hardly even about "Awards".
If I relied on B.E.T. to tell me about Black artists who are making excellent music, I would've missed out on :
Esperanza Spalding
Judith Hill
Jesse Boykins III
Charles Bradley
Lee Fields
Gary Clark Jr.
Robert Glasper
Terrace martin
and others I'm likely forgetting.
The current state of R&B (and Black MAINSTREAM music) is a complex mix of :
1. Wanting to get signed and doing what is most likely guaranteed to sell my examples being the current crop of Mainstream popular artists like Chris Brown, Trey Songz, Rhianna etc. Many take on aspects of Hip Hop partly I think because it's music they grew up on and obviously music the youth likes but also because of pressure from the people who sign their checks.
2. The destruction of Black Musical Control/Independence. By this I mean there are platforms for "Hip Hop" and Rap&Bullshyt but if you're a SOUL/Funk/Blues/Jazz artist your best bet is some indie or smaller label which can't match the output of a major either that or roughing it on your own. Some of my favorite artists get practically no burn because no one knows about them, not because they don't make great music.
3. Shifts in attitudes towards Black Musicians. Admittedly this is something which has always been an up hill battle for black musicians but
it's made worse when radio is practically a monopoly and the independent scenes of yesteryear have all but evaporated as media consolidation hastened.
So you get people who may not listen to "R&B" based on what is currently marketed as "R&B" even if your brand of "R&B" is much closer to what it was prior to R&B/Hip Hop sales falling off of a cliff somewhere last decade.
This is why Usher and Chris brown were suddenly singing over EDM records
Why Genuwine, Tank, Tyrese, R. Kelly etc. were changing their Tim's and Wife beaters for Nice Suits
and clean shaves.
This is why R&B singers seem more focused on rap-singing their lyrics and skipping over powerful crooning.
And a bunch of other clear and obvious changes in the music
Tori Kelly is getting play because she has a team behind her that understands the importance of getting play in multiple genres. Some songs and artists work in multiple genres because of the sound. It's why you can take "Drunk In Love" and play it next to Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" and take the same song and play it next to a Trap song and then play it next to something like "Watch Me Whip" and then play it next to Disclosure's "Latch".
Tyrese is a bad example. He's not going to get that type of push because of the audience that he appeals to. Most of Tyrese's fans are people who are fans of his era of music and older. It's crazy to expect Tyrese to garner the type of attention that a Chris Brown and a Trey Songz do. It's not because he's Black that the music isn't being heard, it's because it's not something that necessarily fits what currently gets played on mainstream R&B stations.
The biggest part of this is that people are listing the same artists. For one, it's crazy to expect an artist who debuted nearly 20 years ago and is making music that caters to the era to be on the same level as an artist that specifically caters to the trends of today. There's only a handful of artists that are able to transcend on that level.
The biggest reason R&B fell off is because people aren't looking at the entire picture. There was an infrastructure in place that nourished R&B and kept it thriving. You had producers, A&R's, and executives that helped it flourished because they knew what they were doing. Tell me where the Jermaine Dupris, Babyfaces, L.A. Reid's, R. Kellys, Andre Harrells, Benny Medinas, and Puffys of today are. These guys produced, wrote, oversaw, and/or financed entire projects. They helped develop and cultivate talent. We don't have that now.
)selling point for all products as of late.
