as a millennial,
we could not avoid ballads growing up.
omg,
remember when they would play “my heart will go on” EVERYWHERE?
everyone who could sing,
talk-sing,
or saaaaang always ended their albums with a ballad.
even madonna and britney were doing ballads.
i have a shit ton of ballads i love but my stand out favs:
i can listen to them on repeat all day.
yesterday,
i was up until 5 am and i decided to be productive.
jamari was ( x listening to this playlist ) while organizing his closet by colors,
shades,
and patterns.
as i was listening,
i had a question pop through my mind…
What does a ballad in the 20s even sound like these days?
i feel like the only people making ballads in music are white people.
see: adele.
like clockwork,
she sings a ballad and it sells millions.
black folks are told to dumb themselves down in music to sell.
i saw a tweet from missy,
who was the go-to ballad-producing queen,
that black folks don’t like to hear people sing anymore:
which is sad because white folks are afforded that luxury.
they are allowed to be challenged vocally.
even beyoncé has had to dumb her voice down to sell a record.
hell,
folks don’t know what a bridge is anymore tbh.
so in the 20s,
a ballad from a black artist will come from:
Sza
Summer Walker
The Weeknd
i love their music but things had to change to keep up with the trends.
peep the transition:
x 60s ballads
x 70s ballads
x 80s ballads
x 00s ballads
x 10s ballads
lowkey: i feel like music back then sounded more hopeful too.
even if the muthafucka was crying about a breakup,
it made you feel like you can and will move on.
nowadays we just sound sad and maybe turn to crack to cope.
Honestly I thonk the biggest thing missing from black music today is “The Feeling” or rather the type of feeling the artist are trying to give which in my opinion feels somewhat dark, disrespectful, depressing &/or false! It was a time a singer could convince you of hurt or love (as in they really been through it). Now they just singing the song. Also most artist are kinda mediocre and record companies probally prefer that because mediocre is “easily replaced”. There are a few that are still good though like Jazmine Sullivan & H.E.R but those types that are black are few and far between.
Essentially I agree with Missy Elliot in the sense that someone definitely got a hold of black artist and encouraged the mess we see today. The cold part is people will say how can you be mad as the black audience when someone else picked up what you ( the black artist) put down. Chris Brown, Mario, Trey, even Usher ; should be where Bruno Mars is at, the should have been able to have a monster ballad like Sam Smith.
Amazingly Patti still can blow most of these youngsters out of the water! And how about Chante Moore? did you see her performance lately? And don’t forget about Coko of SWV, Keke Wyatt. Just to name a few.
That’s what happens when you sell all your promotions magazines, BET, radio, etc… to honkeys. Also Black artists think they’re too cool now to do certain shit. Black people barely sing or dance anymore. And if they do they’re cussing while dry humping the air.
I’m so tired of rap music I don’t know what to do! It’s never been my favorite genre. Yet that’s all people listen to now. Even honkeys!
Jamari – Take A Bow 💜💜💜.
LaBelle- Can I Speak To You Before You Go To Hollywood.
Patti LaBelle- Little Girl’s &
Isn’t it A Shame.
Natalie Cole ❤️
Keeping The Light Shining in the Window. Check out? PLEASE!
That’s because the industry will buy r&B records from white people and hype it up like it’s the 2nd coming of Jesus but if a Black person has a r&b record it goes triple plastic. Stephanie mills and a couple other legends said this before they want everything in our culture but us. I like Adele but vocally she doesn’t blow me away. I guess coming up listening to Celine, Whitney, Barbara, Mariah, And Patti caused that. Black people have to make different genres of music to get commercial appeal. In contrast white entertainers who can sing are afforded the privilege of making the same types of records over and over and it’ll sell. Prime example Justin Timberlake had Marsha Ambrosius and Ty Tribett doing vocal harmonies on cry me a river and folks praised the song as of it was Justin’s vocals. Black producers, songwriters and singers made Justin great. Now imagine if lesser known Black artists who can SANG were given the same teams behind them and more creative control. The dynamic would change. Nowadays the artists who can sing are singing in cursive or they’re voices are thin
^ this breakdown!!!!
i have had people tell me they don’t think adele is amazing as she is hyped to be.
im not a singer but i always assumed her voice was really powerful.
it def isn’t like a whitney or a mariah but she can hold her own.
… i think bey might even have a better and stronger voice too.