It started to fall off in the late 2000's. That's when I noticed that R&B songs that were Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart were doing underwhelming on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. That means big R&B hits were falling to crossover into Pop hits.
A big reason for this is Urban music had taken a backseat to EDM on Pop/Top 40 Mainstream radio. This is why so many black R&B/Pop artists were chasing EDM hits in the early 2010's.
@Wear My Dawg's Hat or @CharlieManson Was it 1 of y'all who used to talk about this all the time?
I'm starting to think R&B died because of lack of crossover success. Last night I was going over the #1 hits on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart from 2009-2012. I'm noticing that #1 R&B hits are not having success on the Billboard Hot 100
Examples:
1. Maxwell's "Pretty Wings" was #1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop charts for 14 straight weeks but only peaked at #33 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in '09.
2. Trey Songz's "I Invented Sex" was #1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop charts for 2 weeks but only peaked at #42 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in '09.
3. Melanie Fiona's "It Kills Me" was #1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop charts for 9 straight weeks but only peaked at #43 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2010.
4. Robin Thicke's "Sex Therapy" was #1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop charts for 2 weeks but only peaked at #54 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2010.
5. Monica's "Everything to Me" was #1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop charts for 7 straight weeks but only peaked at #44 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2010.
6. Trey Songz's "Can't Be Friends" was #1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop charts for 13 straight weeks but only peaked at #43 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2010-2011.
7. Jamie Foxx's "Fall for Your Type" was #1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop charts for 2 weeks but only peaked at #50 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2011.
8. Miguel's "Sure Thing" was #1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop charts but only peaked at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2011.
When they all tried to switch is up and do euro dance, pop, Jersey Shore fistpump bullshyt with David Gutta, so about 2009/2010.
RnB singers went pop to crossover..2006 when autotune became the culture replacement for traditional black voices trained from the church
Justin Timberlake 2nd album dropped in 06, and it changed the dynamics.
Autotune came in, and cheapened the music quality. Also the same time that these RnB singers transitioned into that techno bullshyt. Usher anyone?
No1 said he was bad.
But once rappers started singing rnb slowly started to fade.
Something doesn't have to be bad to end something.
yeah, that's actually true.
Rappers felt like they didn't need the R&B singers anymore.
OK, I just looked through my posting history & I remember I typed out examples of this:
& @IllmaticDelta was actually the poster that would talk about this all the time.
BTW back in 2012, Billboard changed up the formula of their charts. 1 of the major changes they made is that basically the Billboard Hot 100 chart now factors into (& effectively dictates) the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_R%26B/Hip-Hop_Songs#History
The chart's methodology was changed starting with the October 20, 2012 issue to match that of the Billboard Hot 100, incorporating digital downloads and streaming data (R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Songs) and combining it with airplay of R&B and hip-hop songs across all radio formats (Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay) to determine song position, along with the chart also being shortened to 50 positions.
IMO the only somewhat good news about this is that you now no longer see songs that are Top 10 hits on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart doing underwhelming on the Hot 100 chart & failing to crossover into pop hits.
The bad news about this is:
1. Songs from white/non-black artists that black folks don't care about, chart way too high on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. A great example of this is:
I have NEVER seen this song or artist talked about at all in The Booth. I have never heard/seen any black person on social media or in real life talk about or bump this song/artist at all. I've never seen any of the urban/hip-hop media outlets that I follow on social media or/and YouTube ever talk about this artist or song. Yet despite all that, this song had been a top 10 hit on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart for months & is still in the top 15.
2. The opposite of #1, Songs & artists that mostly only black folks rock with don't chart as high they would've in the past or don't chart at all.