it's not all in the same genre. But my question is are good American R&B singers who's time on the pop charts have long since passed missing out on opportunities to carve their own niche? Some of the shit I'm hearing from cats like Onra, Pomrad, Boom Clap Bachelors is Black music. You Faith on some of their production and I can't see how black folks (not necessarily the youngsters) wouldn't fuck with it. Am I wrong?
6. "interesting post...a few points (long, definite TL;DR potential)" In response to Reply # 0
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1) i love Majestic records. always excellent stuff
2) i saw Onra perform live this summer and he was awesome. very hip hop leaning with a good dose of the funk vibe from the video you linked, but definitely leaning towards driving and percussive rather than melodic and funky. that may have been due to the environment tho (movement detroit)
3) this disco renaissance of which we are in the midst may not be something artist with mainstream aspirations want to hitch their wagons to if they are looking for career rejuvenation. kelly rowland got way out in front of the "EDM" (i hate the way that term has acquired a specific connotation but i digress) thing with "when love takes over" and it gave her some good momentum. but i cant help but think that now that these dubstep/electrohouse kids are starting to discover more emotional and soulful house/disco/etc, its going to fade away again and the EDM of today is going to be replaced by some other soulless artifical shit and we'll be doing this again in 2020.
4) this nu/post/whatever-disco thing crested with Daft Punk imo. the time to have jumped on it was 2 years ago in the underground because people who have been on it are going to immediately side-eye any mainstream artist doing this because (right or wrong) its going to seem like a label cash grab. now if you're talking about Brian McKnight linking up with DFA Records on some shit no one knows about until it happens...that would probably be dope. but that isnt what it would be
>it's not all in the same genre. But my question is are good >American R&B singers who's time on the pop charts have long >since passed missing out on opportunities to carve their own >niche? Some of the shit I'm hearing from cats like Onra, >Pomrad, Boom Clap Bachelors is Black music. You Faith on some >of their production and I can't see how black folks (not >necessarily the youngsters) wouldn't fuck with it. Am I >wrong?
imo we are in the cycle right now where Random Access Memories and all the disgusting nut-slurping of it has turned off some fans from the disco sound. in a lot of peoples eyes, the Daft Punk album was the end to disco's prominence in the underground. which is not to say the people who truly love that disco/funk sound arent going to keep actively engaging it but i think we are already starting to see the blowback in the form of the relatively rapid popular explosion of ghettotech, juke, booty house etc. to give an example these are the songs that have stuck with me the strongest this summer and only one of them fits your vibe from the OP
i heard a DJ named Nate Manic (resident at Smartbar Chicago) end a set in Detroit with this song in the spring, and it was one of those moments where everybody stopped dancing to hug the people they came to the party with. amazing record. you may recognize the singers.
so after all that colin powell shit, in this post "Get Lucky" climate a mainstream artist would have to be very selective and smart about how to wade into that pool.