Rhythm and Blues has always been the genre of music that people listen to for the great love songs and soulful lyrics. As a result of the popularity of the music, many musical legends, such as Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin, have come from the genre. But today’s generation of R&B; artists might have some of these legends feeling embarrassed to be connected to the same music category.
Today’s R&B; artists have really lowered the standards of creating good music. Only a handful of today’s singers can actually be considered true R&B; artists. The new standards of the mediocre R&B; music has artist creating songs with lyrics that are either too sexual or degrading towards women. Some of the lyrics are also stupid or just downright disgusting.
These types of songs will usually receive a lot of airplay on the radio. But after those types of songs have played on the radio for a few weeks, people will quickly get tired of listening to them. Many fans of the music can’t imagine playing the current R&B; songs five or ten years from now. Just by listening to some of the music on the radio, people can tell artists are not making an effort to create good music.
When R&B; artists do try to make an effort to make a good song, they will usually add a hip-hop artist to it. Most of the time the hip-hop artist makes the song sound even worse. R&B; artists also have the tendency to sample music. Even though the practice of sampling music has gone on for years, it seems like it has increase over the years.
Can something be done about the low quality R&B; music?
Instead of complaining about the music, fans of R&B; can do several things to increase the quality of today’s R&B; music.
1. Stop requesting low quality R&B; songs and start requesting better quality R&B; songs.
2. Support the underrated R&B; artists that make great music by buying their album, requesting their songs on the radio, attending their concerts, and requesting their music videos.
3. Buy albums from R&B; artists who make an effort to create good music.
4. Attend R&B; concerts that have artist who are not only great singers in the studio, but are also great live performers.
If fans of R&B; do all or a few of those things, the recording industry will have no choice but to promote better quality music. And the recording industry will also lose interest if the crappy R&B; music becomes unpopular and stops generating money.
When fans start using their money or take action to support good R&B; music, their voices will be heard throughout the recording industry and they will have no choice but to listen to what fans have to say.
Top 5 Worst R&B; Songs on the Radio (During April 2009)
1) Beep – Bobby Valentino featuring Yung Joc
2) Lions Tigers and Bears – Jazmine Sullivan
3) Shes Got Her Own – Ne-Yo featuring Jaime Foxx & Fabolous
4) Boyfriend Number 2 – Pleasure P
5) Diva – Beyonce
Top 5 Best R&B; Songs on the Radio (During April 2009)
1) SoBeautiful – Musiq SoulChild
2) You’re The Only One – Eric Benet
3) Why Just Be Friends – Joe
4) There Goes My Baby – Charlie Wilson
5) Chocolate High – India.Arie featuring Musiq SoulChild
Top 10 Underrated R&B; Artists
1) Raheem Devaughn
2) India.Arie
3) Anthony Hamilton
4) Chrisette Michelle
5) Leela James
6) Musiq SoulChild
7) Joe
8) Raphael Saadiq
9) Robin Thicke
10) Eric Benet
Sources:
Billboard.com
My local R&B; radio stations
List Sources:
The worst songs and the best songs list is based on my opinion and what is currently being played on the radio in the month of April 2009.
The Underrated R&B; Artists list is based on my opinion. It is also based on artist who came out with an album in 2008 or 2009.
