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How “Alternative R&B” Changed R&B

Kingkushieee

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I talked about this a little in The Weeknd/Usher thread but let’s really talk about it.

Back in 2011, Trey was dominating the R&B charts, Usher was riding from the success of his biggest comeback to date, Chris was slowly but surely getting the public back on his side after the incident with Rihanna, Rihanna was dominating both pop & R&B her damn self, and Beyoncé came back after a two year break with 4.

Then in the underground you had The Weeknd, Frank & Jhene buzzing with a sound called “Alternate R&B.” It was known as a more darker version of R&B and it appealed to the “hipster” crowd.
The Weeknd was very unknown at the time until Drake came across him and brought him to the forefront on “Take Care,” which had the Alternative R&B sound.






Frank had already worked with Beyoncé, Brandy, John Legend, Jay & Kanye with writing songs and was with Odd Future. Odd Future had an hipster sound so Frank’s sound fitted perfectly with them.
Novacane (Explicit)

And Jhene was starting to get her shine after years being in the industry and long after getting her start with B2K. After B2K disbanded Jhene went back to being a normal teenager and popped back up around this time with a mature sound and a adult rebrand as “Jhene Aiko.”



All three of them dropped legendary mixtapes in 2011 with House of Balloons, Nostalgia Ultra and Sailing Souls. Then in 2012 Frank made his mainstream debut with Channel Orange. Due to the success Frank gained with Channel Orange, labels started to look closely at “Alternate R&B” especially since it appealed more to yts than traditional R&B ever did. The Weeknd & Jhene was buzzing even more but 2012 was when they both signed with a major labels.

2013 is when it really gets interesting, a lot of the known R&B artists wasn’t really active around this time R&B artists like August Alsina, Tinashe, Mack Wilds & Sevyn started to come up (not with the Alternative R&B sound but the traditional/contemporary sound even though Tinashe was in that Alternative bracket), K Michelle was able to breakout thanks to her popularity & appearance on LHHATL, Miguel started to dominate a bit (he had a mixture of alternative & traditional R&B), Ciara made a minor comeback but R&B was starting to be in a weird place. Especially since Hip Hop & its artists were gaining more recognition than R&B especially with the “Trap” sound becoming more apparent in Hip Hop. Plus both The Weeknd & Jhene dropped their debut albums towards the end of that year. After Abel turned down OVO, Drake signed PND, an artist that had a very similar sound to Abel.

2014 is when the shift started to become really noticeable with “Trap R&B” and DJ Mustard being the Teddy Riley of Trap.

You had all the well known R&B artists dropping sh!t like this:





Usher - I Don't Mind (Audio) ft. Juicy J

Hell even Queen Bey popped up with a completely different sound

Beyoncé - Drunk in Love (Explicit) ft. JAY Z

SZA made her underground debut with the alternative R&B sound. And August, K Michelle, Sevyn & Tinashe were all able to thrive & chart in this year due to their sounds fitting in with the Trap R&B sound. Damn near every song on the radio that year was produced by Mustard. Other new artists that year such as Tee FLiii & Adrian Marcel were able to score a hit with the Mustard Trap R&B sound.

TeeFLii ft. 2 Chainz - 24 Hours (Official Video)

Adrian Marcel - 2AM. ft. Sage The Gemini (Official Video)







Then 2015 is when it really gets shifted completely especially with the debut of Bryson Tiller & The Weeknd’s big mainstream success with Beauty Behind The Madness. Trapsoul made a huge splash in the industry and even washing out all the artists that were coming up between 2013-2014 that had the traditional R&B sound and made most of the prominent well known artists at time stick to the “Trap R&B” sound.

Since then R&B has become completely whitewashed with yt artists trying to do their watered downed version of R&B and it’s the main reason besides social media on why we have so many lackluster artists & music today. Artist like Bryson, SZA, 6lack, Summer Walker where birthed from that sound. I like “Alternative R&B” but I’m just calling a spade a spade.
 
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KandiMomma

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I talked about this a little in The Weeknd/Usher thread but let’s really talk about it.

Back in 2011, Trey was dominating the R&B charts, Usher was riding from the success of his biggest comeback to date.

HERPsher was IRRELEVANT last decade.
Desperately Riding Will.i.ams jock for Black eyed peas "the end" did NOTHING for it

Kang Bruno DETHRONED Flopsher WITH EASE as it's just a BASIC manufactured artist that brought NOTHING new to R&B

2010s
1. Adele – 73,356,000
2. Ed Sheeran – 61,066,000
3. Justin Bieber – 60,072,000
4. Taylor Swift – 55,950,000
5. Rihanna – 55,886,000
6. Bruno Mars – 52,339,000
7. Drake – 52,256,000
8. One Direction – 44,466,000
9. BTS – 40,695,000
10. Eminem – 38,691,000
11. Maroon 5 – 37,803,000
12. Katy Perry – 35,012,000
13. Ariana Grande – 33,108,000
14. The Weeknd – 32,342,000
15. Coldplay – 28,500,000
16. Lady Gaga – 27,496,000
17. Kendrick Lamar – 26,660,000
18. Imagine Dragons – 24,676,000
19. Beyoncé – 23,194,000
20. Michael Bublé – 19,821,000

But proceed

giphy.gif
 

Kingkushieee

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HERPsher was IRRELEVANT last decade.
Desperately Riding Will.i.ams jock for Black eyed peas "the end" did NOTHING for it

Kang Bruno DETHRONED Flopsher WITH EASE as it's just a BASIC manufactured artist that brought NOTHING new to R&B

2010s
1. Adele – 73,356,000
2. Ed Sheeran – 61,066,000
3. Justin Bieber – 60,072,000
4. Taylor Swift – 55,950,000
5. Rihanna – 55,886,000
6. Bruno Mars – 52,339,000
7. Drake – 52,256,000
8. One Direction – 44,466,000
9. BTS – 40,695,000
10. Eminem – 38,691,000
11. Maroon 5 – 37,803,000
12. Katy Perry – 35,012,000
13. Ariana Grande – 33,108,000
14. The Weeknd – 32,342,000
15. Coldplay – 28,500,000
16. Lady Gaga – 27,496,000
17. Kendrick Lamar – 26,660,000
18. Imagine Dragons – 24,676,000
19. Beyoncé – 23,194,000
20. Michael Bublé – 19,821,000

But proceed

giphy.gif
I’m convinced you slept with Usher and he ghosted you, treated you like sh!t, gave you that “it” or all three because you be capping too hard against Usher lmao
 
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KandiMomma

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I talked about this a little in The Weeknd/Usher thread but let’s really talk about it.

Back in 2011, Trey was dominating the R&B charts, Usher was riding from the success of his biggest comeback to date, Chris was slowly but surely getting the public back on his side after the incident with Rihanna, Rihanna was dominating both pop & R&B her damn self, and Beyoncé came back after a two year break with 4.

Then in the underground you had The Weeknd, Frank & Jhene buzzing with a sound called “Alternate R&B.” It was known as a more darker version of R&B and it appealed to the “hipster” crowd.
The Weeknd was very unknown at the time until Drake came across him and brought him to the forefront on “Take Care,” which had the Alternative R&B sound.






Frank had already worked with Beyoncé, Brandy, John Legend, Jay & Kanye with writing songs and was with Odd Future. Odd Future had an hipster sound so Frank’s sound fitted perfectly with them.
Novacane (Explicit)

And Jhene was starting to get her shine after years being in the industry and long after getting her start with B2K.



All three of them dropped legendary mixtapes in 2011 with House of Balloons, Nostalgia Ultra and Sailing Souls. Then in 2012 Frank made his mainstream debut with Channel Orange. Due to the success Frank gained with Channel Orange, labels started to look closely at “Alternate R&B” especially since it appealed more to yts than traditional R&B ever did. The Weeknd & Jhene was buzzing even more but 2012 was when they both signed with a major labels.

2013 is when it really gets interesting, a lot of the known R&B artists wasn’t really active around this time R&B artists like August Alsina, Tinashe & Sevyn started to come up (not with the Alternative R&B sound but the traditional/contemporary sound even though Tinashe was in that Alternative bracket), Miguel started to dominate a bit (he had a mixture of alternative & traditional R&B), Ciara made a minor comeback but R&B was starting to be in a weird place. Plus both The Weeknd & Jhene dropped their debut albums towards the end of that year. After Abel turned down OVO, Drake signed PND, an artist that had a very similar sound to Abel.

2014 is when the shift started to become really noticeable with “Trap R&B”

You had all the well known R&B artists dropping sh!t like this:





Usher - I Don't Mind (Audio) ft. Juicy J

Hell even Queen Bey popped up with a completely different sound

Beyoncé - Drunk in Love (Explicit) ft. JAY Z

SZA made her underground debut with the alternative R&B sound. And August, Sevyn & Tinashe were all able to thrive & chart in this year due to the Trap R&B sound.

Then 2015 is when it really gets shifted completely especially with the debut of Bryson Tiller. Trapsoul made a huge splash in the industry and even washing out all the artists that were coming up between 2013-2014 that had the traditional R&B sound.

Since then R&B has become completely whitewashed with yt artists trying to do their watered downed version of R&B and it’s the main reason besides social media on why we have so many lackluster artists & music today.


Where is your Question?

tumblr_mre45r4upC1rz6qibo1_250.gif


Love on the brain says hi
lizzo says hi
Bruno says hi
all of me John legend says hi
adorn says hi
No Guidance says hi

etc

Flopsher being a monotonous no personality having 1 trick pony with limited talent is why he cant survive or thrive rapidly changing musical landscapes. Not alternative R&B and
Not white people. its NO legend
 

Yoshi3329

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Ain’t changed it for me. I don’t know anyone that listens to these new r&b artists save the young folks and that’s until they discover the classics. Everyone I knows listens to old school r&b from the 60-90s and calls it a night. Trap beats and whisper singing is trash and that’s why a lot of these new artists have to fake streams and views. If the industry brought back real singers with church training, musicians, and songs that talk about more than just kinky xes, they wouldn’t have this problem.
 

soulmusic99

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Alternative r&b SUCKS...non singing asses.....and who cares about sales and streaming numbers....that's why r&b is in the shitter....give me talent over numbers

giphy.gif


giphy.gif


giphy.gif
 

Sugar.

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All this stuff I call "Fuckboi R&B". The bastard children of Bobby Brown era R&B. "Bad boy" persona (but soft as hell), barely can hold a note but doesn't matter as long as the production is overbearing the vocals and you're being as misogynistic as humanly possible.

I'm tired of these participation award babies and their sh!tty outputs. Who ever heard of R&B singers with no singers. I thought I would never see the day, how dreadful.
 

Lapislazulee

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During this time I wasn’t really listening too crazy to R&B so I don’t know.

I think computers and technology changed a lot.

Computers programs and Over processing made it easy for people who are not as a skilled musically to thrive.
 

Lapislazulee

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Is it possible to sing in that “traditional” ( I don’t know what counts as traditional ) style of R&B on Trap beats?

A lot times it sounds terrible.
 
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ForumsStaySpilling

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All this stuff I call "Fuckboi R&B". The bastard children of Bobby Brown era R&B. "Bad boy" persona (but soft as hell), barely can hold a note but doesn't matter as long as the production is overbearing the vocals and you're being as misogynistic as humanly possible.

I'm tired of these participation award babies and their sh!tty outputs. Who ever heard of R&B singers with no singers. I thought I would never see the day, how dreadful.

Damn, you went in, let have, and told NO LIES.

I do see some similarities to New Jack Swing, where there were a lot of non-singers being made into being big, the production/producers overshadowing the artists, and releasing songs where the artists themselves don't have much identity. There were a few vocalists that shined through, and some who were able to make it to the next era, but most of them got washed.

The only difference is that the former genre makes people dance.
 

LuxeRoyaleBaby

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All this stuff I call "Fuckboi R&B". The bastard children of Bobby Brown era R&B. "Bad boy" persona (but soft as hell), barely can hold a note but doesn't matter as long as the production is overbearing the vocals and you're being as misogynistic as humanly possible.

I'm tired of these participation award babies and their sh!tty outputs. Who ever heard of R&B singers with no singers. I thought I would never see the day, how dreadful.

That's a good name for it, Fuckboi R&B

68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f46686943687576354b63737047673d3d2d3438373839343538372e313466316531396365313438656437633932313634353837333138332e676966
 
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I'm not much of a fan of this "alternative R&B". The only new artist I really like has come from this recent explosion is H.E.R.

The '90s will always be the zenith of R&B, to me. I miss when music sounded like this; back when people could SANG and music was more innocent.





 

KNTY 4 NEWS

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This is a good breakdown. I always say I like a few artists from the AltR&B genre but not really the genre itself. I don’t really connect to the subject matter, the cold, emotionless, pill popping, hypersexual nihilism of it all. I prefer the warmth of traditional R&B. But I do enjoy SZA, Frankie O, Weeknd because they actually are talented, I think they’re good songwriters and visual artists.
 

Lookatmenow

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It's so sad what r&b has become mainstream wise .....like even in the late 90s erykah and dangelo were considered alternative r&b....this era or last decade era of music should've been called
Trp&B...(trap&beats)
 

FluffyEyes1129

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I listen to classic R&B and Soul as well as some newer acts that utilize dark, moody productions at times but it doesn’t overwhelm their catalog. Ppl like Abel and Frank, while some of their work is good, their overall discographies are not for me. I would like to see more R&B artists utilize live instrumentation in studio and get back to focusing on actual vocal ability. That would be nice.
 
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I listen to classic R&B and Soul as well as some newer acts that utilize dark, moody productions at times but it doesn’t overwhelm their catalog. Ppl like Abel and Frank, while some of their work is good, their overall discographies are not for me. I would like to see more R&B artists utilize live instrumentation in studio and get back to focusing on actual vocal ability. That would be nice.

YES. Emphasis on the bolded!
 

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If y'all want more traditional R&B, go out there and actually support the indie singers.

Most of these labels want to push a certain image of singing which is clearly no longer traditional as it was in the past. That's why they only sign certain type of singers that fits their agenda that many of y'all complain about.
 

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Alternative r&b SUCKS...non singing asses.....and who cares about sales and streaming numbers....that's why r&b is in the shitter....give me talent over numbers

giphy.gif


giphy.gif


giphy.gif

Streaming is exactly why talent is missing from r&b. Labels are too focused on streaming numbers which are largely driven by the 13-22 age demo. Those kids care more about beats than real singing and content. Those of us who prefer talent don't have the time to stream all day and we don't buy music anymore so our preferences aren't being heard. Which is why veteran artists are thriving on the tour circuit because us fans would rather spend money to hear our favs live.
 

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Excuse my ignorance with my post as I don't know much about
Alternative R&B or Trap&B a.k.a Fuckboi R&B. I stopped listening to current R&B music a decade ago.

The R&B Dance craze era in the mid-80s and today's R&B do have a lot of similarities, however in the '80s, traditional R&B acts, such as and Luther, Anita, Sade, Isley Brothers was able to be successful without watering down their sound to pander to the youth.

I don't' think that happens today. Let Usher, Ashanti, Mya, Alica Keys, Omarion, or even Beyonce release music that sounds like their early-mid 00's R&B music and see if those songs receive any honors among the current climate of The Weeknds', Drakes', Justin Biebers', Doja Cats', or DaBabys'.

Usher and them wouldn't even receive any radio play because they aren't doing the 'autotune mumble singing' that the younger artists are doing today. In the 80s, you would heard "Groove Me" and "Good Love" back to back on urban radio stations. R&B's new sound was mixed in with its traditional sound.

Today, radio and streaming platforms push away anything that sounds like traditional R&B music. You have to dig the depths of the earth to find 2000's traditional R&B music.

The is also politics involved in this as well, but that whole different discussion.
 

soulmusic99

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Streaming is exactly why talent is missing from r&b. Labels are too focused on streaming numbers which are largely driven by the 13-22 age demo. Those kids care more about beats than real singing and content. Those of us who prefer talent don't have the time to stream all day and we don't buy music anymore so our preferences aren't being heard. Which is why veteran artists are thriving on the tour circuit because us fans would rather spend money to hear our favs live.

giphy.gif
 

eekthecat

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Excuse my ignorance with my post as I don't know much about
Alternative R&B or Trap&B a.k.a Fuckboi R&B. I stopped listening to current R&B music a decade ago.

The R&B Dance craze era in the mid-80s and today's R&B do have a lot of similarities, however in the '80s, traditional R&B acts, such as and Luther, Anita, Sade, Isley Brothers was able to be successful without watering down their sound to pander to the youth.

I don't' think that happens today. Let Usher, Ashanti, Mya, Alica Keys, Omarion, or even Beyonce release music that sounds like their early-mid 00's R&B music and see if those songs receive any honors among the current climate of The Weeknds', Drakes', Justin Biebers', Doja Cats', or DaBabys'.

Usher and them wouldn't even receive any radio play because they aren't doing the 'autotune mumble singing' that the younger artists are doing today. In the 80s, you would heard "Groove Me" and "Good Love" back to back on urban radio stations. R&B's new sound was mixed in with its traditional sound.

Today, radio and streaming platforms push away anything that sounds like traditional R&B music. You have to dig the depths of the earth to find 2000's traditional R&B music.

The is also politics involved in this as well, but that whole different discussion.
Im a r&b lover and Your a 100 percent correct. But slowly its going back to r&b. I mean r&b didnt go anywhere but you do have to look for it . Look up Allen stone he is one the best soul singers out right now, lucky daye also
 

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