The Changing Definition of Rhythm & Blues

I can’t be the only person bothered by this, right?

I know that the older generations are supposed to shut up and accept “that’s the way things are, now,” but art shouldn’t be cheapened by corporate labeling.

Of course, if we REALLY want to get into things, the term R & B was technically a way of saying “Black” music, without having to say “Black.”

Maybe nothing has changed, then.

I don’t know, but I remember hearing Janet Jackson called R & B way back in the 1990s.

That made my ears perk up.

“Um… no. She’s pop. There’s nothing wrong with being pop, but don’t attach false labels to it.”

As stated in the video, now everything can be labeled R & B. 

Kind of like anything can wear the label “Country” these days, as long as the person standing on stage wears a silly hat.

Drum machines, loops, and computers infected Country long ago, so much so that the term “Hick Hock” is more applicable to most “Country” artists than any other label.

Am I a cranky old man, or a purist? 

I don’t know.

But I don’t like most of what I hear today.

And with an embrace of AI, musical talent is only going to worsen, and songwriting will no longer be a form of expression, but a means to achieve fame.

Actually, I think we’re pretty much there already.

Well, poop.