Hey, y'all, I just posted this in r/RnB so thought I would share it here as well...

I'm gonna try and articulate this as much as I can, it's been on my mind for a hot minute now and I'd love to pick y'all's brains...

So, I want to talk about how I feel labelling the majority of singing black artists as R&B is extremely limiting and how that term, itself originating from racial segregation, doesn't fully capture the evolution that is unfolding within the modern music landscape as a whole. I hope that by accepting that the R&B label is a form of racial typecasting, we can start to embrace a wider array of black artists and musical styles that don't neatly fit into the genre.

I'm definitely writing this post with Beyoncé, SZA, Frank Ocean, Steve Lacy and Daniel Caesar in mind. All of these artists have been referred to as R&B throughout their careers, with people referring to Beyoncé as the 'ultimate Queen of R&B', but, as we see with this Queen in particular, all their music has incorporated various musical styles and influences, yet people are so resolute in undermining their versatility.

Firstly, it's important to say that, despite being real about the origins of this genre category and how its been used to typecast black musicians throughout the 20th century til now, I am not trying to insult or disregard the beauty of R&B music or dismiss modern artists who self identify as R&B singers. I purely want to open up a discussion about trends I am noticing, and the limitations of labels, so we can be more accepting of the shape black music is taking.

Next I should distinguish between 'genre' and 'style'. Within this context, 'genre' is mainly an instructional label for who and where a piece of music should be marketted, it also suggests which culture or lineage a piece of music belongs to. Genre is determined by 'style' and, in this context, 'style' refers to the way a piece of music is presented, i.e. the instrumentation, the vocal styling, and the influences it incorporates.

Oftentimes, genre is used when people mean to use style, but it's the style of a song, combined with the subject matter it covers, typically, that determines its genre. Within a white supremacist world, and music industry, however, the race of the artist is also a major determining factor.

For instance, before R&B existed as a marketing label, we had 'race music' or 'race records', the style here was regardless, so long as the artist were black, their record would have this label to keep black music away from white ears.

Around the Fifties and Sixties, R&B and Rock & Roll were used to refer to a style of music that evolved from blues, gospel and jazz. R&B, as Little Richard said, was 'real black', while Rock was seen as a white genre, despite both using the same instrumentation (guitar, piano, drums, bass).

The first official Rock record, "Rocket 88", was written by Ike Turner, the biggest rock bands were inspired by Chuck Berry and Little Richard and some black artists even appeared on white rock records, but Otis Redding still needed to put white women on the face of his records to sell outside of the black market.

From the Sixties, Rock & Roll and R&B diverged from each other greatly, with the former splintering into psychedelic, prog-rock, metal, indie, new wave, punk and post-punk, while the latter birthed, Funk, Soul, Hip-Hop, Neo-Soul, New Jack Swing and shaped modern pop.

We saw many black artists being pinned into the R&B or 'Urban' label despite making music that extended outside of the styles of that sound. Prince is the best example, he was one of the few black artists who was able to break through to white rock radio, with difficulty, and went on to influence many alt-rock artists like Pixies.

While a lot of his Eighties music can be classified as New Wave with spatterings of Funk, Prince is often excluded from conversations about New Wave, with Talking Heads, New Order and Blondie overwhelmingly saturating discussions on this genre.

Ironically, were any of these artists black, they would definitely be classified as R&B despite their sound, or relegated to the margins, as is the fate of ESG.

More recently, we have artists like Frank Ocean and FKA Twigs being classed as strictly R&B, despite their music sounding distinct from Modern R&B trends. Both artists have voiced their disdain for this label, with Frank saying “I’ll usually cringe at the R&B label [...] because it’s like calling it urban… and what the f–k is urban music" and Twigs noting that she was only labelled urban when people found out she was mixed-race.

When Black artists tried to step outside of this box in the 2010s, they were often attacked by white music listeners, like when Solange covered Boards of Canada, or when Rihanna covered Tame Impala.

But now, we have a Renaissance of black artists either reclaiming stolen Black genres (Beyoncé, Yves Tumor, Moses Sumney, Daniel Caesar) or revelling in their multiplicity by touching on styles black people have been excluded from (the Y2K pop rock stylings of F2F).

It is also undeniable that blackness is the life force of popular music, despite racist, outdated music marketing practices. We dictate what sells and what doesn't and, as we've seen with Post Malone, P!NK, Miles Cyrus, Arianna Grande and Billie Eilish, white artists have to receive OUR blessing before abandoning us for wider acceptance.

I feel that a cultural re-evaluation of the R&B label would allow for us to give boundary pushing artists the flowers they deserve while they're still here, and will ultimately aid the continual evolution of black music beyond what the label has to offer. I'd love to hear y'all's thoughts.

Hello everyone!  We all know that today's R&B (overall) is lacking in positive themes, heartfelt messages and often even a basic lack of profanity sometimes.  We have to be the change we want to see, so I'm creating a free YouTube channel of original R&B songs (across all R&B subgenres) dedicated to just good music.  Please check it out, subscribe, comment and share songs you like.  This new generation doesn't even know how good our music used to be.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOOt59Nk5CsI8gWrk0MaXHA?sub\_confirmation=1