What year did R&B fall off ?
- Thread starter Homey the clown
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- black music r&b
R&B is fine it’s just not mainstream.
Quality is still there
Quality is still there
DJ Mart-Kos
All Star
It never did. Matter of fact, RnB was probably stronger in the 2000s/10s than in the 1980s/90s.
Hell no, R&B was at least still real music in the 80s/90s.
A lot of R&B in the 2000s/2010s was some phoney criminal gangsta shyt. (and that comes from a guy who used to dress like a gangster)
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MikeyC
The Coli Royal Rumble Champion 2019
But a lot of RnB post 2000 was also "real" music, as well as criminal gangsta shyt (which, btw, doesn't necessarily mean the music is bad)
DJ Mart-Kos
All Star
No, i shouldn't have said that. Usher, R. Kelly, Jagged Edge, Sisqo made real music to to name a few. I think some of that ish was wonderful.
I know that Gangsta shyt was messed up but at least people weren't all gay back than.
I think what people would call "mainstream R n B" changed content wise when the Weeknd came around.
It's what drew me to him in the first place that no one else at the time was singing about the wild HOH/Drug shyt he was singing in songs, but now that's the norm.
It's what drew me to him in the first place that no one else at the time was singing about the wild HOH/Drug shyt he was singing in songs, but now that's the norm.
DJ Mart-Kos
All Star
Back in the days a lot of rappers acted like they where drugdealers.
But now more rappers are dope fiends.
But now more rappers are dope fiends.
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PhonZhi
Veteran
Oldheads still out here showing y'all what real singing is 
Around 2006/2007
Wear My Dawg's Hat
Superstar
I think folks in this thread are specifically talking about Contemporary R&B (Because that's what most of us grew up on) and NOT traditional Rhythm and blues/Soul/Funk.
The use of the term "contemporary r&b" is confusing.
"Contemporary" to whom? Usher and R. Kelly are not "contemporary" artists to someone born in 2002, who is now 16.
To that generation, they are what we used to refer to as "oldies" acts.
Nor would Usher and R. Kelly be considered "contemporary" to someone born in 1955. The contemporary music they grew up with would be Motown, Earth Wind & Fire, the Jackson Five, James Brown, Prince, Slave, P-Funk, Aretha.
Maybe the question is when did "non-rapper" black music for the 90s babies fall off?
DJ Mart-Kos
All Star
Oldheads still out here showing y'all what real singing is
This is wonderful. Think i'm gonna look him up on Spotify.
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
It didn't fall off if you looked at in totality. If you're talking about mainstream, it was about 2010 when EDM became big in the USA
and people and in order to keep up with the new sonics, people started putting out tracks like
...today though, R&B is more diverse than ever from classic soulfulness
to "HipHoP soul"
to electro R&B/Funk
...and a ton more sounds
and people and in order to keep up with the new sonics, people started putting out tracks like
...today though, R&B is more diverse than ever from classic soulfulness
to "HipHoP soul"
to electro R&B/Funk
...and a ton more sounds
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IllmaticDelta
Veteran
Contemporary r&b is all R&B with a hiphop grounding. Basically most R&B since about 1985.
AlainLocke
Banned
@satam55 I make the point that the decline of r&b actually begins in the late 80s to early 90s, as rap emerged as the preferred, better-selling form of popular black music
The 1960s and the 1970s are the prime decades for soul/r&b: Motown, Stax, Philadelphia International, SOLAR, Soul Train.
Nelson George wrote the book, "The Death of Rhythm and Blues" in 1988.
By the 1990s/2000s, most of the successful r&b that remained was basically a fusion of r&b and rap: TLC, Brandy, R Kelly, Usher, BBD, Destiny's Child, etc.
The classic soulful sounds that we heard from the Four Tops, Fats Domino, The Supremes, Aretha, James Brown, Maze, Bill Withers, Anita Baker Barry White, Roberta Flack and Luther were largely gone by 1990.
I agree with this. I always said this.
Hip Hop killled RnB and RnB allowed itself to be swallowed whole and die as the most popular medium of expression for Black musicians.
The last great RnB album was Signs of the Times by Prince. It was made in 1988.
That's probably the last time RnB album before RnB got considered "bedroom music". So RnB became a bunch of sappy love songs.
I also think there is a clear delineation between RnB and Soul.
Soul music died in the 70s along with funk and disco...then it became RnB.
RnB is soul music without the hard gospel, rocknroll and blues influences. Like Fats and James Brown still had the elements of Gospel and RocknRoll. Usher doesn't have any of that shyt.
Although...RnB is just industry term for Black music that ain't Hip Hop, Rock, Blues, Gospel or Jazz lmao...