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R&B Then and Now.

#21
I love the Old R&B ,Motown. i havent been playing long but that is why i took up playing . Great stuff.I have found around here that the guitards just dont want to play it.i was recently asked to come to a band that is forming pracice and see if i could play with them.so i burned a cd of the music that i concider the best ever. they just listened like it was from another planet.and then said i need to learn skynard and the normal cover stuff. they ask me to come back and i told them to learn some of the stuff i play and i will do some of the stuff that they play. Nope . i dont think they or alot of the bands today just dont have the soul for it. Have you ever noticed that when your in a bar and someone puts on old motown on the juke box how Everyone loves it -knows the words -and cant help but to start moving to the groove. Shame more bands that do the cover thing dont get into it. Timeless music 40 years later its still great
 
#24
I have a 3 piece band (guitar, bass, drums) and we are limited instrumentally to cover most R&B tunes. However, last year we learned Booker T. & The M.G.s instrumental tune Time Is Tight and not only has it filled the dance floor and people bopping their heads from the first time we ever played it but we get requests now for it constantly.
 
#25
Part of me feel that there is just not a requirement from the listeners for the most part. People are into what is popular vs what is of substance. Look at example Britney Spears. she has become very wealthy as a SINGER, and she lip sync her shows live. The public seems to be ok with it, as long as she shows off her body or raps a snake around her neck.:rollno: She is not R&B I know, but still the attitude in general from today's listener seems to be the same. Just show us some skin, or fancy dance moves, and we will forget about the fact that you really CAN'T sing. Now you have Auto tune?????? and Chicken Switches, and Pro Tools, so I guess no one really needs to know how to do anything as long as you can work the software.:scowl:

Not sure how many of you remember "Live at the Apollo" but if you did not bring it...Sand man would remove you from the stage. I think we need to get back to being more demanding of live performers as well as studio loop heads who think they can just feed us what-ever they want and get paid. NOT! :spit:
 
#27
+1 to D'Angelo, Raphael Saadiq, Maxwell, Anthony Hamilton (yay NC)

some others = Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Corinne Bailey Rae - all females with great voices and music

I feel as if most of what is considered R&B today is actually Neo-Soul, what do I mean by that? well I don't really know, (bass that often seems too low :hiding: to understand)

I think it's all rather subjective :
Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Stevie Wonder, etc. to me represent the honey of R&B, but you could categorize them under soul as well and def some funk in there...just like Cameo, Tower of Power which some consider R&B but would be found in my the funk section of my Lps

Music changes as does everything else in life...trends come and go or mix together to make something beautiful or fugly...
 
#29
ugly_bassplayer said:
D'Angelo is an awesome modern R'n B artist.
His two albums Brown Sugar & Voodoo are excellent.
IMO.
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Based on what little I've heard I would agree. I would suggest Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings are pretty old school. Some of the Amy Winehouse stuff is very retro and cool. I've heard a couple of tunes by 'Duffy that are remeniscent of the stuff we grew up in the 60's.
 
#32
T-MOST said:
The same thing that happened to Country, Rock and every other genre. New generations bring new ideas of what the music is. that's not neccessarily a "good" thing but it is the way it goes.
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+1, Music changes. Imagine how people my Mother's age, who grew up on big band music and jump blues felt when one chord funk began to dominate!:D To them, music must have really felt dumbed down.

If anything, I am optimistic about r&b because the newest musicians seemed to be bypassing the late funk era (which I love:cool:) and are seeking inpsiration in early seventies soul. I also think Urban Gospel has helped rekindle an interest in musicianship again.
 
#33
pedro said:
What makes you say that?
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The Standing in the Shadows of Motown Cd. One of the reason behind it was to remind people of the contributions of the Funk Brothers. That was 2002. Prior to that, how much do you hear about them and their history? Unless you came up in that era, one would probably not make the connection between how what is played now, was influenced by them, even if a lot of the stuff now is sloppy.
 
#34
Dr. Cheese said:
+1, Music changes. Imagine how people my Mother's age, who grew up on big band music and jump blues felt when one chord funk began to dominate!:D To them, music must have really felt dumbed down.

If anything, I am optimistic about r&b because the newest musicians seemed to be bypassing the late funk era (which I love:cool:) and are seeking inpsiration in early seventies soul. I also think Urban Gospel has helped rekindle an interest in musicianship again.
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Big time on the Urban Gospel thing. I am sure you are not surprised by the number of artist who turn to church musicians to play for them because they can just throw down.:bassist:
 
#35
Check out Dwele as well, he's got some killer "neo-soul" tracks, up that D'Angelo route. I think it's a pretty solid evolution for Rnb. I love the old stuff (probably spent half of yesterday listening to 70s Stevie albums) but wouldn't you rather hear innovators rather than people just rehashing the sounds of yesteryear, no matter how brilliant those sounds were?
 
#37
When I say I like R&B I have to specify "Old school" R&B. For me thats the late 60's and the '70's thru about '85. Of course there are a few exceptions like: Eric Bonet' & Jill Scott. I liked the D'angelo records but IMO he was still hip/hop just with R&B flavor.
 
#39
T-MOST said:
Of course there are a few exceptions like: Eric Bonet' & Jill Scott.
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You mean Eric Benet, right? :)

I gotta say, even a lot of the respected "newer school" guys (like D'Angelo) bug me a bit at times. Their vocals just seem contrived, as if they're trying too hard to be emotionally expressive. When I listen to people like Otis, Wilson and Sam & Dave, I don't hear contrived - just straight up "soul". There seems to be an almost desperate attempt to sound sexy with so much of the more recent stuff...
 
#40
Fire-Starter said:
The Standing in the Shadows of Motown Cd. One of the reason behind it was to remind people of the contributions of the Funk Brothers. That was 2002. Prior to that, how much do you hear about them and their history? Unless you came up in that era, one would probably not make the connection between how what is played now, was influenced by them, even if a lot of the stuff now is sloppy.
Click to expand...

What I meant is that since the release of SITSOM was released the Funk Brothers have gotten quite a lot of attention.
 

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