90s R&B vs. R&B of today
 

which do you think is better?

Both suck really, really hard so it's difficult to say.

lol I feel like 90s r&b was better than it is now.
To me, it had more feeling, more quality. I feel like that's something that's missing in some of the r&b now.

One of the major reasons I hated R&B growing up in the 80s and 90s was how little feeling I felt it had, so I can't say I agree.

Modern R&B is a misnomer.
The fact that modern Rhythm & Blues is abbreviated to just 'R&B' speaks volumes about the music that's peddled in the name of R&B these days.
I hate that contemporary R&B uses the description...with a passion.

There's really not a great deal of contrast between the two. Perhaps a more appropriate comparison
would be between 50's/60's/70's R&B/Soul and the way this genre has been represented since the output of Motown and Stax records was subdued, which unarguably was sometime in the mid to late 70's.

Edit: Right Track you're absolutely right. contemporary R&B, while I'm sure it takes some influence from soul and Rhythm and Blues is really just terrible over produced "urban" music. There are exceptions however.

I think it's sad that what was once a great style/genre (if you could call it a genre) with crucial, historic musical roots has become a catch all description to include something that fails to do the name of R&B any justice whatsoever.
It bothers me when I'm asked what my favourite type of music is by a young lad and I feel it necessary to prefix "R&B" with the word "sixties".

I grew up in the 90s which is probably why I feel the way I do about 90s r&b compared to r&b today. But if we were to compare 90s r&b to 50's/60's/70's R&B/Soul then the latter would definitely win.

No offense Lain_Lain but, the two decades this thread refers to and your choice of forum to put the thread, says it all.

none taken.

^ Nice one. :)

Now I'm all ranted out (not really...I could bitch about this for pages) to answer your question (if I had a gun to my head) I'd probably choose the 90's.

lol you can rant more if you want to. On some point I agree with you although I love 90s r&b.

Nowadays to me it seem like music is getting worse lol.

There was some good 90's R&B: Eryka Bhadu, Tony Toni Tone, Jamiroquai, Musiq Soulchild

I prefered the R & B in the 60's and 70's when it wasn't was so rigid as a genre, and the songs had actual cojones. Ironically, black and white music seemed more integrated 40 plus years ago than it is now.

Theres absolutely no sublety to any of the new crap. Everytime someone says baby they have to say:"bayayayayayaybyyyyyy". Virtuouso singers have made it a stale genre the same way too many guitar virtuoso's ruined rock music. Overproduction and the lack of real musicians has totally killed it.

I still think R. Kelly's a genius, even though he took up the lionel richie torch and made R&B even ****tier than it was in the 80's.

90's r&b was da bomb. omg there were so many talented artists and it was real music.

I think most new people would put this topic in this forum because in the description of the forum is says to discuss R&B so where would you put it?

back to the topic.

There is a notable different between 90s R&B and todays R&B but I like them both the same. I think there were better artists in the 90s that the radio played more but nowadays the good artists in R&B doesn't get as much radio play.

Also I wouldn't call anything that came out in the 60s and 70s R&B because that's not what it was. It was soul which is slightly different. Just like there are artists today that consider themselves Neo-soul....they wouldn't want to be called R&B because they aren't.

If you read my earlier posts on page 1 you'll realise the context of my post dj.

okay I got it now, I just kind of skimmed over the first few posts

I'd like to hear some examples from you of what you consider 60s R&B

maybe I need to brush up on the history of Rhythm and Blues but imo R&B didn't really kick off til the mid to late 80s.

Edit: well I did some quick research and found out that basically soul and funk was grouped in with R&B in the 60s/70s....it was a blanket term for those two genres back then. I always thought Soul and Funk were seperate and that R&B didn't come around til later on....what's considered modern R&B is what I thought was just R&B in general.

Jerry Wexler the great producer for Atlantic records, who also produced Aretha Franklin coined the phrase Rhythm & Blues to the replace the deragatory phrase "race records" as a more appropriate term to describe the genre of music.
I think there's no doubt that contemporary R&B did evolve from Rhythm and Blues and soul, but I think some disasterous turns were made along the way. Most of which can be attributed as much if not more to the industry than to the artists themselves.

All R and b is rubbish and they should get it out the clubs and music channels pure mince

90's was definitly better then the mess they have today
Erkyah Badu
Musiq Soulchild
Jodeci
Dru Hill
Boys II Men
Sade
Jill Scott etc.

yeah but half of your list is still putting out music today so I don't see your point plus there is

Lyfe Jennings
John Legend
Avant
Ryan Leslie
Chrisette Michelle
Estelle
I know alot of people don't like Ne-yo and The Dream but they consistently put out good overall albums

in between 90's and 2014 so uhhhh



2002-2006 was the best years ever in RAP don't believe me look it up :P

This is an old post but I see I did not respond.

They might still be putting out music today but I was referring to their 90's output.

The 90's had the grown and sexy vibe. It also introduced Neo Soul into the mainstream. Overall, the commercial contemporary R&B scene was way better than what it is today.