We invented this ish, and now we don't even like it....
...but let Adele/Sam Smith do it and then we support them wholeheartedly with our $$$ and adulation. They clearly studied and are fans of Black music themselves......but we no longer are fans of.....ourselves.
Let Tyrese, Tank or whoever else do it and it's "too old sounding" or "boring". We disrespect our own over the silliest stuff. Had a white dude with a raspy voice sang Tyrese, "Shame" it'd been a hit song the world-over, and he'd get all sort of praise.....from Black people. And he might sound almost as good as Tyrese vocally, but we'll give him way more credit.
I mean, I get the white soul singer being a novelty...I get it.....AT FIRST, but 50-60 years in and the novelty has worn off. I'm not even saying they don't make good music, but it's no better than we are capable of and have done historically.
I don't dislike the auto-tune stuff, and I dont think every song needs to be a gospel-ballad vocal....but there's no balance for us. We have no appreciation for anything "different".
We've ALLOWED ourselves to be put in a box musically and are letting other ppl make BILLIONS of dollars doing what we invented/popularized. Something that comes natural to us from our heart/soul, is no longer cool.
We let the radio programmers turn us into sheep and tell us "singing isn't cool anymore.....playing an instrument is lame...writing good songs is passe....it's all about catchiness and nothing else" Meanwhile they were lulling us to sleep. Finessing us outta our own ish.
At this point, the only way it'll ever change is if urban radio FORCES real music back into the format. And they may lose alot of people initially, but over time people will adjust.
...but let Adele/Sam Smith do it and then we support them wholeheartedly with our $$$ and adulation. They clearly studied and are fans of Black music themselves......but we no longer are fans of.....ourselves. Let Tyrese, Tank or whoever else do it and it's "too old sounding" or "boring". We disrespect our own over the silliest stuff. Had a white dude with a raspy voice sang Tyrese, "Shame" it'd been a hit song the world-over, and he'd get all sort of praise.....from Black people. And he might sound almost as good as Tyrese vocally, but we'll give him way more credit.
I mean, I get the white soul singer being a novelty...I get it.....AT FIRST, but 50-60 years in and the novelty has worn off. I'm not even saying they don't make good music, but it's no better than we are capable of and have done historically.
I don't dislike the auto-tune stuff, and I dont think every song needs to be a gospel-ballad vocal....but there's no balance for us. We have no appreciation for anything "different".
We've ALLOWED ourselves to be put in a box musically and are letting other ppl make BILLIONS of dollars doing what we invented/popularized. Something that comes natural to us from our heart/soul, is no longer cool.
We let the radio programmers turn us into sheep and tell us "singing isn't cool anymore.....playing an instrument is lame...writing good songs is passe....it's all about catchiness and nothing else" Meanwhile they were lulling us to sleep. Finessing us outta our own ish.
At this point, the only way it'll ever change is if urban radio FORCES real music back into the format. And they may lose alot of people initially, but over time people will adjust.
and even up to the 90s rnb was jamming. But since the 2000s it's been trash. It's hard to give this shyt a shot when I KNOW I can get some authentic al green, stevie, luther, marvin, etc 
