12 minutes ago, VioletsandRoses said:

It’s a local genre for the most part but has amazing numbers in the US. Summer Walker, Jhene, and Sza all reached multi-platinum with their albums from Apple Music and US Spotify. They also have hits that are 5-6x platinum (Love Galore, The Weekend, Playing Games,Broken Clocks and Girls Need Love) that come from mostly AM. 

H.E.R's actual debut project/album is also Multiplatinum eligible, should be updated in her next era

 

It's already closer to 3X Platinum than 2X Platinum though.

Because Janet hasn't released an album in over 8 years 

1 hour ago, Polgg48 said:

Transitioning phase to amapiano trend which should explode on next year. Honest mention on few songs in Chris brown latest album, they could pull mainstream hit if r&b artists got it right + label supporting.

That last Chris Brown album was mid as hell

 

2 hours ago, Frogger17 said:

Like Rock, the genre is in hibernation right now after peaking in the '90s. It'll come back around, albeit in a different form or perhaps as a hybrid with another genre.

It's not in hibernation, just not as commercial as before. What new rock artists that debuted the past 6 years even have Multiplatinum albums?

I always thought it was interesting the way AM has Dance For You as one of Beyoncé’s most popular songs (deservingly so, because that song is top tier) but it’s clear AM is where most of the R&B fans stream from (largely being black and American). Alicia Keys seems to one of the few legacy acts from the R&B field that has pretty good recurrent streams on Spotify. She was always relatively global compared to most R&B artists, but yea, apart from older R&B songs doing poorly on Spotify, some of the newer R&B artists are doing pretty good all things considered. I’d also argue that Gen Z missed the mark when R&B was at its peak in the 90s/2000s (who are responsible for strong recurrent streams when it comes to hits on Spotify from the 2010s) R&B in general was difficult to label in the 2010s because it evolved ever so greatly. In other words, it didn’t resonate with much of the older generations that would make for a consistent listening base whereas Gen Z and Millenials tend to share similar listening habits when it comes to pop music. 

Edited December 9, 20232 yr by BGKC

6 minutes ago, Armani? said:

 

It's not in hibernation, just not as commercial as before.

Sir-ma'am, I'm not fighting over semantics. Hibernation, dormant, "not as commercial," it's all practically the same thing. 

Lack of taste, perhaps. 

2 hours ago, Frogger17 said:

Sir-ma'am, I'm not fighting over semantics. Hibernation, dormant, "not as commercial," it's all practically the same thing. 

It's really not

  

2016 Frank Ocean - Blonde 3X Platinum eligible 

2017 H.E.R. - H.E.R. 2X Platinum eligible

2017 Khalid - American Teen 4X Platinum 

2017 Daniel Caesar - Freudian 2X Platinum eligible?

2017 SZA - CTRL 5X Platinum eligible

2017 Kehlani -Sweetsexysavage Platinum eligible 

2017 Jhene Aiko - Trip Platinum

2018 Ella Mai - Ella Mai 2X Platinum 

2019 Summer Walker - Over It 3X Platinum eligible 

2019 Khalid - Free Spirit 3X Platinum eligible

2019 Chris Brown - Indigo 2X Platinum eligible 

2020 Jhene Aiko - Chilombo 2X Platinum eligible 

2020 Brent Faiyaz - **** The World Platinum 

2021 H.E.R - Back Of My Mind Platinum eligible

2021 Giveon - WHEN IT'S ALL SAID AND DONE... TAKE TIME Platinum 

2021 Summer Walker - Still Over It Platinum eligible

2022 Brent Faiyaz - Wasteland Platinum

2022 Steve Lacy - Gemini Rights Platinum eligible 

2022 SZA - SOS 4X Platinum eligible?

 

This isn't "hibernation" except I guess for this year since there's been no major artist releases aside from Chris Brown. Also this is still missing some more albums.

Edited December 9, 20232 yr by Armani?

14 minutes ago, Armani? said:

It's really not

  

2016 Frank Ocean - Blonde 3X Platinum eligible 

2017 H.E.R. - H.E.R. 2X Platinum eligible

2017 Khalid - American Teen 4X Platinum 

2017 Daniel Caesar - Freudian 2X Platinum eligible?

2017 SZA - CTRL 4X Platinum eligible

2017 Kehlani -Sweetsexysavage Platinum eligible 

2017 Jhene Aiko - Trip Platinum

2018 Ella Mai - Ella Mai 2X Platinum 

2019 Summer Walker - Over It 3X Platinum eligible 

2019 Khalid - Free Spirit 3X Platinum eligible

2019 Chris Brown - Indigo 2X Platinum eligible 

2020 Jhene Aiko - Chilombo 2X Platinum eligible 

2020 Brent Faiyaz - **** The World Platinum 

2021 H.E.R - Back Of My Mind Platinum eligible

2021 Giveon - WHEN IT'S ALL SAID AND DONE... TAKE TIME Platinum 

2021 Summer Walker - Still Over It Platinum eligible

2022 Brent Faiyaz - Wasteland Platinum

2022 Steve Lacy - Gemini Rights Platinum eligible 

2022 SZA - SOS 4X Platinum eligible?

 

This isn't "hibernation" except I guess for this year since there's been no major artist releases aside from Chris Brown. Also this is still missing some more albums.

Your definitions and mine are clearly different.

Cuz R&B doesn’t turn heads unless it has that retro funk/disco sound to it. Ala cuff it or anything by Bruno mars.

 

Also, R&B used to require vocal talent but today’s audiences don’t care for such vocal displays. I’ve been around some younger folks who say a singer that flexes their pipes is “doing too much”, “yelling”  and “trying too hard” so vocal minimalism outside of the chorus may be preferred by the children.

4 hours ago, Frogger17 said:

Your definitions and mine are clearly different.

I guess so because that's too many recent Platinum or multi Platinum albums to be in a hibernation, even for a declined genre lmao

 

That's like 40M combined US album units just with that which is equivalent to 60 Billion streams, which is contradicting to this thread? LOL @Cheers

True R&B doesn’t really exist anymore

To be fair R&B is mostly local and does much better on Apple Music

1 hour ago, Armani? said:

It's really not

  

2016 Frank Ocean - Blonde 3X Platinum eligible 

2017 H.E.R. - H.E.R. 2X Platinum eligible

2017 Khalid - American Teen 4X Platinum 

2017 Daniel Caesar - Freudian 2X Platinum eligible?

2017 SZA - CTRL 4X Platinum eligible

2017 Kehlani -Sweetsexysavage Platinum eligible 

2017 Jhene Aiko - Trip Platinum

2018 Ella Mai - Ella Mai 2X Platinum 

2019 Summer Walker - Over It 3X Platinum eligible 

2019 Khalid - Free Spirit 3X Platinum eligible

2019 Chris Brown - Indigo 2X Platinum eligible 

2020 Jhene Aiko - Chilombo 2X Platinum eligible 

2020 Brent Faiyaz - **** The World Platinum 

2021 H.E.R - Back Of My Mind Platinum eligible

2021 Giveon - WHEN IT'S ALL SAID AND DONE... TAKE TIME Platinum 

2021 Summer Walker - Still Over It Platinum eligible

2022 Brent Faiyaz - Wasteland Platinum

2022 Steve Lacy - Gemini Rights Platinum eligible 

2022 SZA - SOS 4X Platinum eligible?

 

This isn't "hibernation" except I guess for this year since there's been no major artist releases aside from Chris Brown. Also this is still missing some more albums.

Khalid total Spotify streams is actually very good

Lack of replay value

11 minutes ago, Insanity said:

Khalid total Spotify streams is actually very good

Yeah, RCA had a good marketable R&B crossover act that they couldn't even successfully maintain for more than 2 eras. It's about to 5 years since Free Spirit lmao

2 minutes ago, Armani? said:

Yeah, RCA had a good marketable R&B crossover act that they couldn't even successfully maintain for more than 2 eras. It's about to 5 years since Free Spirit lmao

Looking at his total streaming and recurrent he still does quite well

9 minutes ago, Insanity said:

Looking at his total streaming and recurrent he still does quite well

Yeah, his old stuff is doing okay but the releases since the pandemic are all bombs besides a few features so RCA likely won't let him release the album because of that. 

5 hours ago, UBettaTwerkTwerk said:

Streaming tends to be dominated by younger listeners, and traditional R&B has largely been supplanted by rap or hip-hop for most young people. 

 

Hopefully acts like SZA can start to revitalize R&B going forward!

 

Yeah, Hip Hop is definitely the most popular genre among Gen Z.

 

I'd say R&B is still healthy with Gen Z though. These videos pop up in my fyp all the time lately 

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRvw9EDc/

 

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRvwCuC5/

 

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRvwyWGy/

 

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRvwPBUg/

 

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRvwV72d/

 

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRvwaqNN/

 

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRvwnRpd/

 

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRvwuoju/

RnB is for people with music taste and seeing what's popular currently, the lack of taste is a major factor of RnB being relegated to the background

But thank god,it's seeing a nice ressurgence these last 5 years.

I'm missing so much the golden age of mid 90s to mid 00s RnB domination

Well, R&B ain’t a thing since 2007. It will have a REAL revival, but it’s not the time yet.

Yeah SZA seems to be the only main R&B girlie atm. It seemed to have a cute mini-revival in 2017/2018 (Khalid & Ella Mai success, etc) but clearly that didn't last long.  Summer had the potential for a while but SOI was kinda mid compared to her first and served weak longevity compared to it's debut. I think the problem is alot of these acts just don't really care or make an effort to crossover, part of the reason why Solana is doing so well now is because she made herself known to non-R&B listeners through her features. 

 

Edited December 10, 20232 yr by Billionaire

R&B is a tricky genre because, when it becomes commercially viable, it simply gets labeled as "Pop" which strips away its identity.

 

This was also done by design back in the days of "Race Radio" to prevent Black Soul and Blues artists from crossing over to White America. Any Black artist would get labeled "R&B" even if they were covering the same exact songs as White artists and this legacy has lived on.

 

But, currently, it's less about race and more about marketability. Beyonce is very much still an "R&B" artist who simply incorporates different sounds but, due to how popular and marketable Beyonce is, she's treated as more of a Pop artist. Same thing happened with Whitney and Mariah too. They were seen as too crossover and globally popular to be labeled "R&B." 

 

And the same is even more so true for Justin Timberlake, Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars, Adele, and Jessie J. By all means, these artists have strong R&B roots with their vocals and sound but, because of their marketability and crossover appeal, they're labeled "Pop." Even Bieber has dabbled in R&B many times, especially with songs like Peaches. 

 

"R&B" reminds me of the "Indie" label in the sense that it revolves around marketability. Indie music is often labeled "Indie" when it fails to cross over to broader audiences but it'll get labeled "Pop" or "Pop Rock" if it does. When singers(particular Black ones) don't cross over, they're labeled "R&B" but, when they blow up mainstream, they're R&B roots tend to be downplayed. 

 

There's exceptions to the rule though like Usher, Chris Brown, SZA, and Summer Walker. 

 

 

Edited December 10, 20232 yr by Storm653

I find there are artists labeled as ‘Pop’ that are certainly popular but when it comes to the music they are producing it has barely any Pop elements at all but is instead R&B, Tate McRae being just one example.

Because the genre is in the gutter at the moment.