The Black Informant

This is part one of a three part series from the website popmatters.com. Here is an excerpt.

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Still others such as Stephanie Mills, Frankie Beverly and Maze, Jeffrey Osborne, Anita Baker, Peobo Bryson, Atlantic Starr, Kashif, Loose Ends, Alexander O’Neal, The Whispers, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, and Chaka Khan (post Rufus) helped give R&B a cohesive sound in the early 1980s. As R&B was about attracting upscale “urban” audiences — whether legitimate members of the black middle class or working class strivers — it was by definition a genre targeted to mature audiences. As the 1980s progressed R&B was increasingly out of touch with a generation of black youth consumers, who felt little need to distance themselves from the realities of the Jim Crow era, especially as they faced down the venomous edge of the Reagan era. In real terms the R&B world was being challenged by the embryonic sounds of hip-hop for the attention (and disposable income) of “urban” audiences. A telling sign was the success of Chaka Khan’s remake of Prince’s “I Feel for You” (1984), which featured an opening rap by Melle Mel (technically the first hip-hop and R&B collaboration, though in my mind Jody Whatley’s “Friends”, which was blessed by Rakim, is more significant.) The song remains Khan’s best-selling single. Khan’s version of “I Feel for You” began a tenuous relationship between R&B and hip-hop, one which would finally earn hip-hop validation from the black mainstream and ultimately render R&B irrelevant. (more…)

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I have tried to keep this opinion under wraps in public in fear of sounding “too old”, but I think this article adds some validity to a growing opinion—R&B is just not the same anymore.

Weather it’s the fault of the industry, or the crop of entertainers out there, man it’s just not the same anymore. I would also say that trend also bleeds into the gospel music industry as well (something that I am itching to write about in the near future).

When I do get a chance to listen to morning radio shows in my local area, I mainly listen to them for the comic relief from the d.j’s. and to catch up on some community news. Beyond that, I just turn to the next station as soon as the music comes on. I’m sorry, but the “lick me”/”suck me” songs just aren’t a good way to start my day–hence the reason why I invested in a 30 Gig mp3 player where I can listen to my own music and podcasts I may have downloaded from the net. From time to time, I do listen to a 70’s/80’s soul music station which I like very much.

My wife had me in stitches one evening as we were flipping through the channels and stopped at a music video. She blurted out to me, “If I see one more video of a mad black woman throwing someone’s clothes out of the window in slow motion…” You know, she’s right. Most of R&B music today has become somewhat repetitive.

This would be a good time for me to have a podcast as I could demonstrate some of the common “runs” you hear in R&B and Gospel today (this is a in-house joke with our family).

What is really funny to me is to see how many well known hip-hop artist (who are millionaires) play the role as though they are struggling to get by. They do this in the name of “keepin’ it real”. On the flip-side, many of our artists back in the day had very little money, but were still able to work a crowd.

I think the article above is right on target when it suggests that people like Chaka Kahn, Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, James Ingram, etc. were some of the last “mature” R&B artist on the scene back during the late 80’s/ early 90’s.

Then again, maybe I am turning into an old fart.

(side note: You know you are getting old when you are actually considering purchasing that soul Time Life collection from that late night infomercial)