U.K. R&B - hit me off
batmon
27,574 Posts
Whats good these days?
Who is doin it and who is on the come up?
Plaese to school........
Who is doin it and who is on the come up?
Plaese to school........
Comments
Good question. I have NO idea what is hot in current UK R&B. I still just listen to the classics like Loose Ends.
Paging DocMcCoy............
Or this;
Or, at the poppier end of things, this;
Now, whilst I'd hesitate to call any of this stuff r&b in the obvious formal sense, it does, broadly speaking, inhabit the same "black pop music" area of the landscape that you'll find Beyonce, Usher or Trey Songz occupying over here. And I must emphasise the "over here" bit, because historically, British black music has always been at its most characterful and interesting when it's absorbed a variety of internal and external influences, rather than just sticking to whatever the US template of the day has been. That said, the latter is probably the main reason why Jay Sean is the only UK r&b performer to have emerged in the last five or six years to have made any impact in the US.
I think my age prevents me from really connecting with this stuff beyond liking the odd thing on the radio. Because I'm not really in the clurb anymore, I'm not hearing any of it in a club context, where it may work better or at least make more sense musically. Generally, though, I don't feel the songwriting or singing is quite up to snuff, and there's a kind of plasticky, out-of-the-box artifice to a lot of modern r&b production, both here and in the US, that I find unattractive. Jessie J has got a pretty impressive voice (great legs, too), but it's the kind of voice that you could imagine being equally at home in a Broadway/West End musical as in the r&b/pop charts, and even though there may be points where those two idioms converge, they're not the same thing, even if some people think they are.
I'd be interested in what you thought of this guy, though. He's a friend of a friend, and he sang on my old band's new album. Salaam Remi did quite a bit of his album, and while I like his stuff, I do think the writing sometimes falls a little short of the mark, and the songs can seem a little half-finished.
Where is Previn whomever?
Omar will probably come out in the next 3 years
Sisters who can sing - where are they.
Are there any ladies coming out of the Simon shows ala Jennifer Hudson.
More Soul than Leona Lewis.
so funny that the song's all "forget about the money"
Terri Walker?
Not UK... But I remember liking her stuff a while back. Asa from Paris. I remember the track she did awhile back
BE MY MAN
This is something newer. Still liking.
Is that a good 'jeah', or a meh 'jeah'?
I like the music, not sure about Woon's singing. It's nice I guess.
...and there was new product from Drizabone which had a few nice bits on it.
domerecords.co.uk
As chance would have it there was a little feature with Woon in the Metro this morning and he listed Lewis Taylor as one of his influences. Considering the current popularity of guys like Frank Ocean and, even more on the Taylor tip, Weeknd, would seem like the perfect time for the blue eyed boy to make a comeback.