entertainment

Why is R&B music more explicit than ever? It’s complicated.

28 Comments
By GARY GERARD HAMILTON

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28 Comments
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I gotta be honest we can’t even play some of the music on Spotify when the kids are in the car. Without being F bombed, yo B17ches, or N worded. Then there are some of the American music videos which now seem, to be totally inappropriate for young kids where dancers seem to be nearly simulating sex or show so much flesh we had to turn YouTube off. Sometimes it hard to even find the version a whole family can listen too or watch. I can see why K-pop and BTS are popular. Our kids can listen to in their own time but not in our car, or family TV time.

13 ( +18 / -5 )

The lyrics in songs by Too Short and 2 Live Crew were a large reason for the "save the children" push by the Tipper Gore-led PMRC which led to those little warning stickers on albums in the 1980s.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Sex sells, always has and probably always will.

Recently one of my friends mentioned the Temptations and Earth, Wind & Fire. I immediately thought "Daym, from that to THIS?"

13 ( +13 / -0 )

Ain't nothing wrong with a little bump and grind , especially when you missing the good good,

-16 ( +1 / -17 )

No not complicated, that's the community culture, and that's what needs to change.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Non-music for me. I turned the dial of my radio if I hear it. And that goes reggaeton too.

6 ( +10 / -4 )

It just gets boring as it homes in on a lowest common denominator, urged on by superficial fame and fortune, like some huge self-parody. But the kids have no historical context so they are satisfied with what the consumerist mill turns out for them. Art reduced to tacky brand.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

Mrtinjp,Soul music was not only entertaining,but it was a rhythm to black liberation,that gave Black courage to throw off their shackles of oppression,while White artist not only did not have soul,they could not dance smooth too the music rhymes

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

Music is rubbish anyway. Long live Rock n Roll

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

Compare that rubbish with the Beatles and we see what is wrong in this world.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

YrralToday  11:19 am JST

Mrtinjp,Soul music was not only entertaining,but it was a rhythm to black liberation,that gave Black courage to throw off their shackles of oppression,while White artist not only did not have soul,they could not dance smooth too the music rhymes

Lol

oh wait, you're serious!

Lol

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Damn near everything in society is more explicit and vulgar. Hollywood movies are more vulgar and explicit than ever. Same for any of the few TV shows I watch and that also goes for Japan. Last time I checked, there were a lot of types of black music. They wouldn't say anything about this type if it weren't so popular. The people at the top are only interested in green and more green and the rest show phony outrage and a holier-than-thou attitude. Hundreds of people get their heads blown off in movies regularly and nudity, cursing and violence is the norm there. Any studies as to why that's the case? Blame ALL of society for all of society's ills.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

I can see why K-pop and BTS are popular. Our kids can listen to in their own time but not in our car, or family TV time.

Not a good example, as K-pop also has its share of sexualized music videos and lyrics about bodies and daddies, to say nothing of the gapjil and sexual favors in the industry.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Most of RnB music is just downright garbage. Too much fall language, too much sex, how to really watch my daughter listens to her because it’s not the same type of music that was once great 20 years ago with these artists they lack serious creativity, and imagination they revert to vulgarity and sexuality.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

Elvis is hereToday  11:24 am JST

Compare that rubbish with the Beatles and we see what is wrong in this world.

My own parents think rock is just HS days of the 50s like 'Happy Days' and that's it. They think the Beatles trash-canned it all (culture and moral wise too) but writing about mature adult experiences is saying something. Rock should grow and mature and evolve along with its listeners and I DON'T mean that soulless milquetoast 'adult contemporary' crap either! Even now I still love to listen to music with a punch, that kicks fanny. With guts and nuts.

I remember in HS some people were ambivolous about Marvin Gaye's 1983 hit - 'Awwww, "Sexual Healing"!'. He won a Grammy for it and the word 'Sexual' on the screen stands out. But even then I saw the word 'Healing' and he sings 'Cuz you do it RIGHT!'. Yes, Virginia - he's praising his woman. If you're going to write about sex, be classy. I've seen charmers/superconductors like Smokey Robinson, Bryan Ferry, Robin Zander, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Huey Lewis, etc. who charm women and melt their hearts w/o getting juvenile or X-rated about it.

bass4funkToday  01:51 pm JST

Most of RnB music is just downright garbage. Too much fall language, too much sex, how to really watch my daughter listens to her because it’s not the same type of music that was once great 20 years ago with these artists they lack serious creativity, and imagination they revert to vulgarity and sexuality.

Kool and the Gang (saw them in 2019), EWF, Spinners, other soul/funk groups have made it FUNky. Most R & B/ soul/hip-hop today is pure trash. Dirty, derivative, too much sampling/loops, manufacturing not composing, not fun, not intelligent, not very interesting. Egotistical rubbish. Not funk, junk.

And my hometown local radio stations now play just the 'bull-blank' version of 'Money' by Pink Floyd, 'Fire On High' by ELO w/o that 'satanic' backwards message in the beginning and 'Monkey Wrench' by the Foo Fighters w/ the 'doo-doo' word substituted with the word 'quit'. Yet they still play 'Life In the Fast Lane' 600 times a day complete with 'GD' word. Go figure.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Paganini was despised by old men because he played the devil's music.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

This stuff is degenerate, and it's now tolerated because of the mental disorder known as liberalism. Just as bad is the fact that this music is absolute, unmitigated rubbish.

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

You have to laugh .

It's like Waldorf and Stadler in the muppet show moaning about young people

5 ( +5 / -0 )

with a punch, that kicks fanny

I had to stop reading at this point.,,.

The Beatles are undoubtably the most influence musicians in modern music.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Explicit R&B was influenced by the king perv himself R. Kelly. One might say Nate Dogg had a hand in it too when he was featured in many hip hop songs througout the 90s. I love R&B from the New Jack Swing era through the early 2000s. For some reason, groups have completely disappeared from R&B. Now most R&B is basically bland trap soul.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

It's just TRASH.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

R&B music has always been explicit. But back then it was more hidden between the lines and less obvious.

Soul music was not only entertaining,but it was a rhythm to black liberation,that gave Black courage to throw off their shackles of oppression,

I agree. For black people music has always played an important role. It was a way to pass hidden information ( field hollers, work songs ) and encourage each other to keep on fighting for freedom.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Plenty of people complained about Chuck Berry and Elvis being too explicit. Victorians complained about bicycles corrupting the youth. Always has happened and always will.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The mothers and grandmothers of the rappers must be so proud of them.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

The mothers and grandmothers of the rappers must be so proud of them.

You think they'd be disappointed in their offspring's success because it came on the back of the words of satan?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

R&B seems to have been redefined every decade or so since about the 1940s.

In my early teenage years, I'd say Geno Washington was the definition - at least on me and my friend's record players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7IOeH3wYAw

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Music never changed! People did. Follow the drug culture and follow the music, it all leads to sex, drugs and rock and roll!! You can call it what you call it. All music falls in that category!!

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

PaustovskyFeb. 7  03:28 pm JST

Paganini was despised by old men because he played the devil's music.

The 'devil's music' was Paganini's violin skills, it gave the illusion that there was more than one player in the room. That charmed the ladies a lot every town he played in.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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