Monday, February 21, 2011

R n B: A Dying Breed....

A few days ago someone asked me to name a few black people in music who are somewhat relevant today. Off the top of my head I said, Jay Z, Diddy, Lil Wayne, Usher, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West and Beyonce. It was then it hit me that of the seven people I mentioned, there are five rappers and just two singers!
So I asked myself, “Is rap the only surviving black music genre still surviving today”? What happened to all the black people who were into soul and R n B? What happened to Brian Mc knight, Dru hill and Anthony Hamilton, Boyz 2 Men, Whitney Houston, Monica, Brandy and all those soul/ R n B singers
Why is it when we think about black people in music, we have mostly rappers on our minds?  Ok , I know you are about to say Keri Hilson or maybe Keisha Cole or R.kelly, let me ask you this do you know these people have albums they released in the last 4 months?. So if they are so “relevant” how come you didn’t know. Keri Hilson has just one good song on her album and if she didn’t shoot a video for that song, God knows people would wonder if she is still in music, now that the marathon features have all but slowed to a trickle. Keisha Cole? Oh please! I don’t even know the title of her last offering. R. Kelly dropped a retro-soul/ R n B album titled “love letter” in Dec. 2010 (bet you didn’t know that) needless to say, the album sold as many copies as Blackfaces’ album.
Even the ever popular singing talent show: American Idol is on its 10th season, has only ever produced one black singer; Ruben Studdard, who has had only one relative hit song to his name ever, and is currently nowhere to be found.
Oh! Maybe you are thinking Mariah Carey? Well sorry folks, she’s half Irish-American, half Venezuelan. So she doesn’t count. Or maybe Alicia Keys? Fail! The only reason anyone new she had an album out was because of “Empire state of Mind” which she did with jay Z; another rapper. Anyone knows how many copies the album sold?
How many of Rihanna’s hit songs didn’t feature a rapper? Why do you think she has to keep doing crazy and risqué? Well that’s the only way she can keep her current audience interested.
Even back home in Nigeria, every singer is switching to pop music. From P square to Tuface, to the junk Samklef put out (don’t get me started on that). Well that’s the best alternative right now. Just do a song with that o so popular euro- pop kick and you are guaranteed to sell a few records. Or worst case scenario, call Terry G or Timaya and go ti le ti le on the beat!
In my opinion, there are a couple of reasons behind the steady decline in black singers: First off, life has changed so dramatically since the 80s and 90s. Young people who account for 75 to 80 percent of album sales are too fast paced for all the lovey duvy, R n B contains. This is evident in the fact that Gucci mane and his Ice cream tattoo would outsell Keisha Cole anytime any day. I am sorry but I don’t think I relate to R.kelly telling me about how his woman cooks him dinner and has rose petals on the bed when he gets home from work. Sure everyone wants romance at some point but there’s so much going on in our lives right now that I would rather hear about popping Moscato in the club or hear how Nicki Minaj murdered Lil Kim on a song.
Another possible reason could be that most of these male singers eventually ended up with some white girl or some exotic chic from somewhere weird. So maybe the average black woman who is your major fan base can no longer relate to Seal because they feel like “what’s he talking about when he’s with some white lady…” I’m just saying!
Could the reason be that the entire world is just getting more and more dumbed down? And no one wants any long drawn out song? Black and Yellow repeated 4 times is enough jor! Or hustling repeated 5 times is alright.
Could it be that R n B song materials/contents are all played out? Like seriously how many ways can you sing about love? How many ways can you sing about sex? How many ways can you sing about a break up or heart break? Or maybe listeners have realized that weather Jasmine Sullivan or Chrisette Michelle or Amerie, they all sing about the same thing and sound alike.
As much as I love rap music, 75% of what’s out there is really meaningless. Would I be wrong to say meaningful music as a whole is a dying breed? Isn’t the fact that Soulja Boy is still in music, enough proof of this?
Maybe I am wrong anyways but riddle me this, asides Beyonce and Rihanna (God knows we can’t call RiRi an R n B singer anymore) and Usher’s 2008 album, who was the last R n B artiste to sell over a million units of his or her album? Till we figure that out I guess we would have to be content with Terry G and Soulja Boy. Sorry!

3 comments:

  1. U know d one dat hurts me most??? Ne'yo...I luved dat guyz music die but I'm sooooo disappointed in Libra Scale...wat happened 2 d guy dat came up with tracks like closer, Mad, Stay and Miss Independent???

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  2. Soulja boy ... arhhhh. can't stand him

    http://chizys-spyware.blogspot.com/

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