The State of R&B
A couple of weeks ago, I was at a house party and Beyonce's song "To the left" came on. Everyone was feeling it, and later on that night, her slow song "Resentment" came on. I was really feeling it and thought it was beautiful. I thought back to her last CD and I had to admit she had some decent slow jams on there. Therefore, I decided to purchase her new CD B-Day. Well, folks I was so disappointed that I think I am going to give it to one of my students as a Christmas gift.
First, lets keep in mine what R&B means, slow songs. Well, she only had one slow song on her CD; if you want to count the bonus song after "Resentment", I guess two than. All of her so-called songs were so fast it could have easily been a club banger. On top of that, for $13.99 and to only have 10 songs who see the hypocrisy in this? Now, I am only 24 years old but I am going to take it back for a min. Remember when 12 play came out by R-Kelly. The whole CD was slow music and you had maybe 4 fast songs that you fastfoward because you could not stand to hear him rap in them. Remember Jodeci CDs, all of them were slow songs maybe two fast songs but who can remember what they were call. When you say, give me three Jodeci songs you are going to think of the slow ones, "Feenin", "Cry for you", "Forever my Lady". I mean really, who can recall any of their upbeat songs. On top of that, their last CD The Club, The Show, the After party had 21 songs on there and it wasn't a double CD. When was the last time you had a CD with 15 quality songs???
Well, this is the state of R&B now. Fast music with no feeling in it. Maybe that is why we have to have mix CD's now. If you have a special someone over, you can't just put it on a R&B CD like Beyonce and expect to hear all slow music while getting it on. You have to make your own CD and I bet you it will include, Jodeci, Keith Sweat, R-Kelly, you get my point. Everyone is saying, Hip Hop is dead but I am saying R&B is dead too. Who really makes good R&B music??? Ciara, Pretty Ricky? Beyonce, LaToya??? How can we even come up with a Neo Soul??? Is that really a new genre of music or is it what R&B should be? I would like your thought on the State of R&B.
First, lets keep in mine what R&B means, slow songs. Well, she only had one slow song on her CD; if you want to count the bonus song after "Resentment", I guess two than. All of her so-called songs were so fast it could have easily been a club banger. On top of that, for $13.99 and to only have 10 songs who see the hypocrisy in this? Now, I am only 24 years old but I am going to take it back for a min. Remember when 12 play came out by R-Kelly. The whole CD was slow music and you had maybe 4 fast songs that you fastfoward because you could not stand to hear him rap in them. Remember Jodeci CDs, all of them were slow songs maybe two fast songs but who can remember what they were call. When you say, give me three Jodeci songs you are going to think of the slow ones, "Feenin", "Cry for you", "Forever my Lady". I mean really, who can recall any of their upbeat songs. On top of that, their last CD The Club, The Show, the After party had 21 songs on there and it wasn't a double CD. When was the last time you had a CD with 15 quality songs???
Well, this is the state of R&B now. Fast music with no feeling in it. Maybe that is why we have to have mix CD's now. If you have a special someone over, you can't just put it on a R&B CD like Beyonce and expect to hear all slow music while getting it on. You have to make your own CD and I bet you it will include, Jodeci, Keith Sweat, R-Kelly, you get my point. Everyone is saying, Hip Hop is dead but I am saying R&B is dead too. Who really makes good R&B music??? Ciara, Pretty Ricky? Beyonce, LaToya??? How can we even come up with a Neo Soul??? Is that really a new genre of music or is it what R&B should be? I would like your thought on the State of R&B.
good post