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90's R&B Can't Be Touched Right?

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To me that's the worst era of R&B. Too many wind chimes and ugly reverbs. I'll take classic R&B or revival R&B over 90s personally.
 
It's certainly the whiniest genre of music. I can't deal with all of the nasally singing and undignified begging.
 
karasu said:
It's certainly the whiniest genre of music. I can't deal with all of the nasally singing and undignified begging.
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90s took the begging vamping holler singing as far as it could go. And then white girls took it up and kept digging though the bottom of the barrel.
 
I was just thinking about this the other day (as I was randomly browsing some of the R&B songs that topped the charts in the 90s).

TLC, Brandy, R KELLY! BOYZ II MEN!! I mean, today's stars make great music as well, but it's almost like night and day as far as I'm concerned.
 
Marion Cobretti said:
I was working on some playlist of some smooth slow jams for driving at night, and I almost immediately noticed a trend.

With the exception of some Bronski Beat, 90's stuff is owning the living shit out of this genre.

I'm gonna post some examples, but I'd love to check out some favorites of others that are in the same vein.

I mean, just listen to this harp, piano, or whatever the fuck it is, with this beat, it's pretty damn untoucable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCefWfA0G5g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=976b8TPPFJU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbl_ctRj8C8

Please don't post some Bell Biv Devoe, that's not the type of stuff I'm referring to here.
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Kinda torn between 80s R&B and 90s R&B myself.
 
Might be my age (i'm 27) but I feel like 90's R&B is about the corniest shit available. I can't listen to it with a straight face.

No thanks, OP. Give me 70's and 80's R&B over that shit anyday.
 
When I was in high school you either listened to R&B or Hip Hop, not both.
I listened to Hip Hop. Of course when we grew older we realised that it doesn't have to be 'or' but can also be 'and'. Still I am not too fond of 90s R&B with the exception of TLC, Blackstreet and a bit of Monica.
 
I like the new jack swing era and generally the early 90s rnb stuff. Late 90s rnb was leaning very hard into the hip hop crossovers so it lost a little something . But acts like Keith sweat and mint condition were great. But 70s , 80s and 2010's rnb to me are all better decades. 2000's rnb though was the absolute worst decade for rnb in my opinion.
 
Easily. The best. Not to say there wasn't great R&B before and after, but that era is amazing. So many great jams.

I defy you to put on some Twisted and not have people feeling the shit out of that. 20 fucking years later and it shits all over what's out now! Good, timeless music.

Fuck, there were literally babies conceived to this shit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tReIHIDX354

You can see how much its influenced the current era of artists, but it's impossible to properly emulate.
 
Gila said:
This intro is still GOAT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-5nist-qeQ
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giphy-facebook_s.jpg
 
I don't even like R&B generally, but I can totally enjoy 90s and earlier R&B.

I don't know subgenres but, fuck, I hate what the radio passes as R&B these days.

I can't tell if it's the constant repetition or the overabundance of autotune as an overt style that I hate. Repetition I guess was always used but now everybody sounds like a fucking robot. I won't pretend that every singer I like has a fantastic voice but it was their unique voice, I feel music's lost that.
 
For myself, Joe's "All the Things" was the most quintessential 90's R&B track. It might be the last great one before the style became passé.

Another thing I can recall was that I attended an elementary school in LA where the student body was 98% black. The most hyped song ever during my final year there was considered a New Jack style of R&B that paved the way for the genre. The song was Color Me Badd's "I wanna sex you up." I have no idea what that meant at the time, but so many kids would have their portable stereo out and would sing that song during recess lol
 
Hoo-doo said:
Might be my age (i'm 27) but I feel like 90's R&B is about the corniest shit available. I can't listen to it with a straight face.

No thanks, OP. Give me 70's and 80's R&B over that shit anyday.
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I'm right there with you. The 70s had soul and the 80s had funk. The 90s is a slow and boring mess for R&B for the most part. That said, there's a few tunes I can dig.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yNibj8LW-Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uFBOQtvnwo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9_Zk7i7W5k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_gtiCtWf-0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__2fzcXSpaU
 
dsp said:
I'm right there with you. The 70s had soul and the 80s had funk. The 90s is a slow and boring mess for R&B for the most part. That said, there's a few tunes I can dig.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yNibj8LW-Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uFBOQtvnwo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9_Zk7i7W5k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_gtiCtWf-0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__2fzcXSpaU
Click to expand...

The 90s is scant with dance tracks for sure. The disco jams of the past far outweigh what we got a generation later. But this keytar vocoder action is incredible https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn73iqmU4nk
 
90s was good, not touching the 70s but yeah. I'm not a huge Teddy Riley fan so a lot of the hits for the 90s fall a bit flat imo. At least groups still existed though. R&B groups are pretty much completely gone.
 
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