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postdubstep:

Looking at the state of R&B is like seeing your ex from a few years back and finding out that they’ve let themselves go. Like really let themselves go.
You can still see what made you fall for them so badly in the first place but it’s now all murked over with unpleasantries. The sad thing is R&B was one of the most important genres of music, while most are responsible for bringing a new style of clothing or a new way of living to our attention, R&B was pivotal in abolishing prejudice and racial inhibitions from the entertainment industry. It also undoubtedly gave birth to genres like Rock & Roll, Soul, Funk etc.
Funny to think that a genre that was once so important is now relying on an uneasy relationship with electronic music to comercially stay alive.
However, like the ex that’s dramatically gone downhill - there’s still potential.
In 2011 we saw a lifeline for R&B arise - Alternative R&B - R&B with an alternative twist and a slight indie aesthetic. Artists like The Weeknd, AlunaGeorge and Creep began to resuscitate a genre that had been kindnapped by producers like Guetta and corrupt record label execs who were obsessed with glossing everything with a tacky euro-dance pop sheen. But before we talk about how the demise happened, we must first know the long and prestigious journey of the genre.

A Brief As Possible Historical Recount Of R&B 
Like all genres no particular event can be stated as the birth of R&B, but let’s talk basics. R&B (Rhythm & Blues) was a tag that Jerry Wexler of Billboard coined back in 1948, as a replacement for the not so polite term ‘Race Music’.
Like everything else back then, the charts were segregated too. Sonically, the genre was the birthchild of Jazz and Electric Blues and was made for Black Americans by Black Americans. Chicago, Detroit, L.A, New York are all named as birthplaces. There were many independent labels that were crucial but one of the most important was Chess Records. Chess Records had a host of soon-to-be-legends on their rooster from Howlin’ Wolf, to Bo Diddley, to Muddy Waters to even the sadly recently belated Etta James. All of the records that these artists created contained a primal, raw, un-before energy mixed with a simple, rocking beat and strong rhythm instilled within them. This mysterious new combination would later become the template for R&B and change the world of music forever, without no R&B they would be no Elvis. It was that important.
During the 1950’s musicians on other labels like Little Richard would continue to release hit after hit with the odd one like Chuck Berry’s ‘Maybellene’ crossing over into the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming popular amongst the white youth.
Towards the end of the 50’s the racial seperation between the R&B chart and Billboard’s Hot 100 began to disintergrate. When Elvis Presley released a little known track called ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ it stormed both black and white charts, even though it had a very strong R&B essence, something that was thought to be a turn off amongst the mass White America. This pretty much changed everything, Presley had managed to take a little bit of what was once ignorantly known as Race Music and make it massive. Suddenly, R&B was no longer exclusively a ‘black thing’. Many people thought Presley was originally a man of colour as a result of the way his music sounded. After this he would then go on to have a legendary streak of hits, and would release one track in particular - ‘Hound Dog’ written by the Godfather of R&B Johnny Otis and previously released by Mama Thornton.
He performed the track on The Milton Berle Show and the rest was history.
Whilst also giving birth Rock & Roll, R&B was on it’s way to becoming a ‘mainstream thing’. White America had had a taste of R&B but they were about to get a whole mouthful. Musically, the 60’s were dominated by Motown Records.
Founded by songwriter Berry Gordy in Detroit in 1959. After a year or so Gordy struck gold when his first signing girl group The Marvelettes scored theirs and Motowns first number one with ‘Please Mr. Postman’ (most of you will probably be more familiar with Cragga’s remix). Motown Records continued to prove that white people were willing to buy records made by black people throughout the 60’s - between 1961 to 1971 the record label had 110 top 10 hits. Diana Ross & The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Jackson 5 and Marvin Gaye to name a few all called Motown home. The record label became so prominent that it had people claimed it had its own sound - The ‘Motown Sound’. The’ Motown Sound’ was Soul music on steroids; taking the mixture of R&B, Doo-Wop and Gospel and multi-tracking and reverbing it within an inch of its life. However, like all good things, the era of Motown came to an end. 

During the 70’s R&B went on a bit of a backburner while its offsprings Disco and Funk took over, with artists like James Brown and Donna Summers tearing shit up. After both genres had slowly died out in the 80’s, Contemporary R&B was born out of the decay of disco and the drum machine-heavy feel of hip-hop.
Contemporary R&B really all started with Micheal Jackson who was the first to crossover from disco and start mixing synthesizers and beats from drum machines and intergrating this mixture into the classical R&B template. After having one of the last hits of the disco era with ‘Rock Wit U’ he went on to create his legendary Quincy Jones produced trilogy; Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad.
All are staples of modern day R&B to the point where it’s hard to imagine how the genre would exist without these records. ‘Billie Jean’ is basically one of the first Contemporary R&B songs everrr. His sister Janet Jackson left just as big impact with her masterpieces Control andJanet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814, both produced by the masterly duo Jam & Lewis, her sonic was more dance-oriented and contained a heavy rhythmic presence. Without Janet there would be no Rihanna.
Towards the late 80’s and 90’s the era of the big voices started to happen, Whitney and Mariah both arrived each becoming a flooring, unprecedented and unique vocal talent. People like Jessie J can try and do as many weird vocal tics and ‘woaaaaaooooaaahhhs’ as they want. They ain’t gonna sound like them.
There is never going to be another ‘Fantasy’. FACT. On the the hand, another part of Contemporary R&B was starting to come to life too, New Jack Swing was the old and trusted but with a heavier Hip-Hop presence - Jodeci, Keith Sweat were all pushing this hybrid of lush vocal arrangements and gritty percussive backing tracks. Girl Groups also came back with a vengance with En Vouge, SWV and TLC each donning their own unique take on this subgenre and dominanting charts while doing so. 
Aaliyah probably was the last major development in R&B in terms of an artist pushing boundaries. She went from being R Kelly’s hand puppet to becoming a sex siren pushing a futuristic, inventive strain of R&B in the space of a few years.
I mean yeah sure Timbaland produced it, but Aaliyah was the vehicle, the medium for which the message was pushed through, and without her the music wouldn’t of existed. Songs like ‘One In A Miliion’ and ‘Rock The Boat’ sound as fresh as ever, and still sound like nothing else currently out there. Her music is as relevant as ever, a key inspiration in R&B’s lifeline - Alternative R&B. Anyway more of that later. During the just departed Noughties the charts continue to be dominated by R&B, with the Queen Beyonce dominating and next in line Rihanna breaking out.
As for the sound, the boand between R&B and Hip-Hop became stronger and everything so starting sound more slick and glamourous.
So that’s the history lesson. Hope it wasn’t too painful.
Up next, how R&B started resembling your ex whose gone downhill.

Gaga and Guetta - The Death of R&B?
There were many factors that caused R&B to go off the rails, but two people in particular were key in the demise of it’s soulful sound. Lady Gaga and David Guetta introduced the US to dance music, by the time these two were finshed everyone from P.Diddy to Black Eyes Peas were experimenting with electronic music.
Gaga single-handely banged down all the doors with her first two hits ‘Just Dance’ and ‘Pokerface’ both produced by the then largely unknown Red-One. Her debut album ‘Fame’ came out Summer 08 yet didn’t reach the peak of its success until April 09 you could say commercially she did lay the foundations for the monopoly in terms of popularity dance music now has over the charts. Coniciding with Gaga’s assault on the US mainstream, The Black Eyed Peas were ditching contemporary R&B and also pushing a new, electronic dance-pop sound. Their track ‘I Gotta Feeling’ would later become the most downloaded song of all time on Itunes.
This little ditty was produced by the then largely unknown French DJ David Guetta. The crazy amount of success both of these acts experienced was the first nail in the coffin for R&B.
While I’m largely being negative, its gotta be said at first this sound was a blast of fresh air, a new chart trend. But sadly, like with all trends, people start to copy them and the originality fades. David Guetta and Red-One who a few years back were unknown to the general public became household names, both being revered as the creators of this sound that was dominating the charts. Every record label clamoured to work with, worrying that their artist would appear out of date if they didn’t do so. Traditional R&B artists with lush, soulful vocal talents were suddenly having their voices put through this crazy filter they called Autotune.
It all felt too corporate and unnatural. For example, after releasing a Contemporary R&B benchmark in the form of Confessions, Usher released ‘OMG’ and appeared all of a sudden to be calculated, cold artist, a victim of trend-chasing.
Sure the music was fun and catchy but the soul and feeling had gone. What had happened to the man who made ‘Burn’? Bit by bit, synths, electronic glitches and blips, crazy amounts of Autotune and then dubstep breakdowns all started to slowly inflitrate R&B, until it was no longer rendered R&B. It was just this weird mesh of sounds, a musical no-man’s land where everyone sounded the same.
Have Lady Gaga and David Guetta killed R&B?
Maybe, maybe not. But their astronomical chart success definitely played a hand.

Alternative R&B - The Lifeline?
Well commercially, we’re still very much commercially in no-man’s land.
Last time I checked Itunes the songs in the top 5 still sounded incredibly similar. Flo Rida is still managing to top the charts by shamelessly sampling every dance track going. Nothing has changed there. Yet, slowly but surely it appears things may be on the road to recovery. A fresh crop of artists have arrived all clubbed under the tag Alternative R&B, they’re creating music that’s inspired by best of Contemporary R&B but has a hip, indie, Pitchforkesque aesthetic..
All of the music these guys create has is futuristic but nostalgic at that same time, it’s like a weird paradox (check out our Indie R&B mix, to listen to what I’m banging on about).
The Weeknd recalls Micheal Jackson but if he was on a permament comedown, AlunaGeorge are basically Aaliyah + Timbaland if the former was still alive and Frank Ocean is a modern day Marvin Gaye. Thanks to these a lot, critically R&B has made a comeback, but let’s be honest that don’t mean shit, what really matters is commercial success. It’s harsh, unromantic, ruthless but also true. 
Spring sees Ocean release his much-anticipated debut on Def Jam and when The Weeknd stops being awkward we’ll undoubtedly see his first proper debut released on a major alongside with a rerelease of his mixtape trilogy sometime this year. Both are set to blow the water and sell shitloads when released, and let’s hope they do and while doing so prove that people still wanna hear R&B. Seriously though, I don’t know how long I can stand to hear another ‘club banger’.
It’s killing both me and R&B.

By Antonio Rowe
Also visit our staff member’s blog Indie R&B.