R&B Isn’t Dead. It’s Alive and Well.

Every other week someone says that R&B is dead. This statement is both lazy and inaccurate. The reality is that R&B is alive and well for those who want to find it. Unfortunately, R&B for the most part isn’t marketed the same as it once was. We’re a far cry from the 90’s and 2000’s where R&B could easily be top 40 hits. The days of signing singers and giving them power ballads to take them to the promised land are few and far between but this doesn’t mean that R&B is dead at all.

An argument could be made that R&B is in a good place because of the accessibility to good music and social media often rewarding singers more than radio and record labels do. The same way every week someone says R&B is dead, every week there’s a challenge for an R&B song. Singers all over TikTok and Instagram covering runs and riffs from singers from the past and present is something social media has blessed us with.

In 2021 alone we were gifted with several quality R&B projects, the most prominent of which was Summer Walker’s “Still Over It” had the highest charting R&B album since Beyoncé released Lemonade in 2016. That album may show that people do still want quality R&B, it may just have to be packaged differently for the new age. Summer walker very publicly dealt with her relationship issues and then proceeded to create an album that told such a tight story that it couldn’t be denied. Not to mention that the album was overseen by Sean Garrett (Wrote Yeah! for Usher, Lose My Breath, Video Phone, and Diva for Beyoncé) R&B is in a good place.

In 2021 we also got Lucky Daye’s album “Table For Two.” With several features, he croons through the album effortlessly and is assisted by other singers like Ari Lennox, Mahala, and Queen Naija. If you dig deep enough, R&B has never had a talent problem, it’s only had a marketing problem. Labels for one reason or another just aren’t pushing it as they should.

Recently Ari Lennox enlisted Bryan-Michael Cox, Jermaine Dupri, and Johnta Austin for her highest-charting solo hit “Pressure.” If you don’t know those names, then you know their work. You heard Confessions. You heard we belong together. You heard early Jagged Edge and Aaliyah. Some of the producers and writers that did a lot of the R&B we grew up on are alive and well and still working at the highest level with the newer acts.

This year started incredibly. Muni Long came into 2022 with her song Hrs and Hrs which has led to challenges, covers, and it’s surging up the charts. Her success is significant for R&B because she’s independent. No label backing. This is the product of a good song being properly acknowledged for what it is. Not only is she independent, but on the song, she’s singing for real. She’s not holding back on any runs or trying to make it easy for the listener. She’s telling her story her way.

With streaming services and playlists, there’s no excuse as to why you can’t find good R&B. It’s out there. Great singers are doing great work. With the recent chart success, maybe they will begin to be marketed at the scale that they deserve and be pushed to the masses as they deserve.