Normani: “Why Does Pop Have To Be So White?”

[Homey the clown]

Maybe I'm wrong but besides Bruno Mars, Ariana Grande, and a couple others, most music coming from nonblack artists doesn't sound anything like R&b music.

 

[Homey the clown]

In my opinion R&b fell in popularity fell off around 2009/2010. Thst was when R&b stars such as Usher, Rihanna,Beyonce, Neyo, Chris Brown decided to do away with making R&b music and started making Edm, Dance-Pop and Syth-Pop type music. And then the new generation of R&b stars that were be introduced alot of them probably grew up with Hiphop so the new artists being influenced by hiphop added a lot of hiphop music to their music.

I remember I had stopped listening to new music for a few years because was always listening to Pandora and I had 100 stations on shuttle so a lot of time, any new music would get lost in the shuffle. But I remember one day I think was maybe 2015 , I decided to listen to what was supposed to be the R&b hits of that year on Pandora and having the look thinking to myself what the hell is this is this what they call R&b music today.

 

[Sensitive Christian Grey]

I can't say when it fell off but I can say that I think it'll have a hard time coming back with this Gen Z tik tok internet meme culture bullshyt becoming prominent and its white audience being fine with said internet style being obstructive

 

[DatNkkaCutty]

Okay THIS! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!

Could it be that our music is too risqué?

N'Sync and Backstreet Boys were some of the first ones who were by all accounts 'wiggas'

R&B used to be about love, heartbreak. Now we hearing R&B songs calling women hoes.

Radio consolidation and the rise of Hip Hop/Rap radio in the late 1990s to the 2000s suffocated
r&b radio and r&b love.romance culture, essentially killing black r&b as a leading genre.

I don’t get what she saying pop music now is nothing more than our style done by whites and light skin latinas.
I think her issue is she does not have a black female fanbase

Not discounting anything you're saying, but I feel like there was a shift in the early 2000s. It started becoming what many white pop artists were doing, even if they weren't making that kind of music originally. Britney went to the Neptunes, Justin went to the Neptunes and Timbaland, Pink went to Dallas Austin, Christina Aguilera had Redman on a track and worked with DJ Premier. These artists were deliberately making music with more of an R&B flavor. It's like if New Kids on the Block went to Teddy Riley or Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and all of a sudden, they were making the exact same records as Bobby Brown and Janet Jackson.

I feel like at one point, it was more of an exception.

It's a combination of ALL these points, so I'm just gonna piggy-back... Plain and simple, black music, was becoming too powerful (from the mid-90s, into the 00s). R&B from black artists was too strong, and hip-hop was dominating. Music is too influential, for cacs to let us dominate (and we were DOMINATING culture)...

Us (c00nin) had to play a hand, in making cacs a prevalent factor again...

Outside of country, alternative rock, legacy acts (Madonna, Celine, etc.), and gimmicky shyt (ICP), cacs didn't have anything "hip", to cling onto. Alternative killed classic rock. For cacs that don't listen to rock or country, where could they go? They'll never go 100% into rap or R&B, because at some point, the music becomes too black. Its unrelatable to them. Basically, cacs were low-key alienated.

Enter early-00s (Backstreet, NSYNC, Britney, etc.), still weren't fukkin wit black acts musically, but they finally had a lane again, and a gimmick . Where nggas really fukked up at after, was lettin dudes like Justin Timberlake, get too comfortable.

At the time, I already knew.."You lettin these nggas get too comfy..." Of course tho..."Your just hatin, cuz he's a white boy.."


Rappers like Lil Kim...hoppin on BS bubblegum tracks like "Lady Marmalade" w/ Pink and Cristina Aguilara helped legitimize that lane. That type of track sounded more "POP", than a Gwen Stefani, getting on "Blow Your Mind" with Eve (which was more hip-hop).

But...blacks giddy for that mainstream acceptance (when the ball was already in our court), were giving too many passes and cosigns. It made JT and white artists "cool again" to be embraced by black artists. Record labels, then paved the way for that white "closer to black" R&B sound.

Then you had, more white artists messin wit black producers (Timberland, Neptunes, etc.) for that "it" sound, and after time, that was all she wrote...

Even though we had the best R&B music then, did you really think cacs, would let genres, like neo-soul (Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, etc.) continue on that trajectory, and eventually dominate the charts? Further alienating cacs?

Cacs were prali calling it "negro-soul", so that was the end of their chapter too. Ironically, cac R&B I hear today, sounds reminiscent of neo-soul artists, from the early 00s...

But then, Eminem gets on rap-wise (and is nice), another blow, cuz they were waiting, on a white-savior. Cacs have another artist, we've accepted, they can relate to, and embrace. He goes on, to outsell Jay-Z, and some of our GOATs....

Rap cannibalizes "traditional" black R&B, becoming too powerful, and since black music, opened the door for white R&B, black R&B artists can't get on nomore. They can't even get love in their own lane, because cacs have reshaped and reframed it as their own...

Now CB, Trey Songz, etc. gotta make music, that is more hip-hop, than R&B to remain relevant and "cool". We (no one else), allowed a tender ass R&B artist, to turn Blood gang-member, and made it socially acceptable, like clowns. Let that sink in...

We legitimized this fukk shyt and fumbled the ball. That's why shyt is the way, it is today.

 

[Homey the clown]

In my opinion what people call today R&b is hiphop mixed with singing and what they call Pop music is just R&b. But to most people R&b equals black music, so artists like Arisna Grande who may do some songs that sound R&b are instead called Pop stars. It's why when Chris Brown was going through his Edm phase, they were still putting his music into the R&b category. Just like Adele and Sam Smith's music has a Soul/ R&b vibe to it, but people don't see their music as being R&b they see it as Pop music.

 

[Benefited]

I also wonder if her repping her blkness so early and unapolegtically in her career will get her blklisted?

shyt is so wack sometimes.

Im sure shes "safe woke". The industry loves those types.

 

[Benefited]

yea they trying to force everyone into hip hop

Everything is hiphop,thats what we grew up on. Hiphop killed rnb unfortunately. Along with black people not being regulars in church. Along with Europeanization and lack of poets and writers. Just listen to the words in rnb,rarely are the words actually beautifully said. Just nikkas rhyming about "love".

 

[CarmelBarbie]

In my opinion what people call today R&b is hiphop mixed with singing and what they call Pop music is just R&b. But to most people R&b equals black music, so artists like Arisna Grande who may do some songs that sound R&b are instead called Pop stars. It's why when Chris Brown was going through his Edm phase, they were still putting his music into the R&b category. Just like Adele and Sam Smith's music has a Soul/ R&b vibe to it, but people don't see their music as being R&b they see it as Pop music.

This.

 

[010101]

anything can be pop

it's not really pop that is white it's commercial music

black artist dominate streaming with the youth

but white artist pick up with commercially viable songs

they are getting more mass exposure by dodging explicit content for the most part

normani has the look & she can perform like a mother but her music doesn't grab attention though

she has to package every drop with a visual

she should just do all singles albums are not mandatory now

*

 

[DPresidential]

fukking beautiful

This

 

[bnew]

N'Sync and Backstreet Boys were some of the first ones who were by all accounts 'wiggas'

But when white pop artists started having more black producers and black rappers on their songs it was a wrap

So Neptunes era.

Their sound kinda paved the way for most of these white pop artists to use that sound.

black song writers too, Jesse McCartney - Departure album would have been bigger than it was if those resources and songs been given to a black artist.

 

[Homey the clown]

According to Google Trends data R&b peaked in popularity 2007-2009. And start falling in popularity around 2010. In 2007-2009 interest in R&b was at 100, now in 2019 it's at 62. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=/m/06j6l

 

[O.Red]

Could it be that our music is too risqué? I find myself, especially when I have little ones around or elders, having to turn off the black stations because the music has just gotten too vulgar. What I end up turning on is some white “safe” pop station or some jazz, blues, etc. What R&B artist out is not explicitly singing about sex? What hip hop artist is not talking about sex, drugs, and illegal activities? Sometimes it could be too much and I don’t want the younger ones consuming all of that.

I’m not familiar with Normani. But even the first video you posted is too risqué if I have little ones around and we’re watching an award show and this is her performance.

I had a similar thought when I realized that K-pop is 90s rnb without the sex talk

 

[⠝⠕⠏⠑]

Had no idea that Dancing With a Stranger was the most played song in the WORLD in 2019!


Lil Nas X, Normani, Maluma And The 30 Under 30 Music Class Of 2020

And they BARELY promoted it!!!!

“she duetted with Sam Smith on “Dancing With a Stranger,” which became the world’s most played radio track in 2019”

That’s cray to me!

 

[O.Red]

Had no idea that Dancing With a Stranger was the most played song in the WORLD in 2019!


Lil Nas X, Normani, Maluma And The 30 Under 30 Music Class Of 2020

And they BARELY promoted it!!!!

“she duetted with Sam Smith on “Dancing With a Stranger,” which became the world’s most played radio track in 2019”

That’s cray to me!

Yea she need a whole new team