Hi Lawrence, its an interesting point but I can only answer from my personal view.

R&B is not on my radar as a genre, and to be totally honest if it wasnt for the fact that I was listening to your post, I would have switched this radio station over after about 10 seconds.

Maybe its to do with the music generators now being much younger ?...Im really not sure, it doesnt seem to be an exciting sound at the moment?

What are your thoughts.?

Hey Tim,

I think it's maybe more cultural than age related. It seems to be much more the pop rock edm (and hip-hop, depending on the forum) cultures that tends to frequent music forums or post music. There are always exceptions of course but that seems to be the case to me on just about every public music forum.

I don't hear very much "young" synth pop either (Aguilera, whatever), and it's pretty popular. I have heard a few nice edm productions or songs that could have been that in some ways but typically nobody is singing.

The other thing is me probably having grown up in the Motown era. I personally love a good instrumental, mostly jazz, but there's only so much music I can listen to when nobody is singing.

That was really a nice job Lawrence, I enjoyed the listen. And that is certainly a creative way to get around NOT having a good vocalist to collab with.

To your point, I hope that is not the case, because I've always liked the genre and really like the sound. I kind of think of it as sort of a blend of jazz and rock. Sade is probably the only artist I actually own records from that would fall in that genre. I love the style and am particulary drawn to it, but oddly, I haven't gone out of my way to collect it. I DO love the style of song however and own a few that "might" fall into the genre. Not sure if this is strictly what you're talking about, but I love this sound!

I thought about your R&B request last night. I also love the music. I might take a shot at it for fun. I don't have the soul in my voice to be really good at it but I have written a bunch of blues, pop, and rock in my day.

I liked your track Lawrence. That was mixing a client? You did a really good job on it.

Nah. I - rarely - had R&B clients that could sing that well, or that could nail that genre's inflections and vocal styles well. Most of the paying clients I had when I did lot of that were trying to do that, but not quite getting there, with a few notable exceptions. Musicians? Lots who could nail that genre or similar musically on bass, keys, whatever. Singers? Not very many. I mean, if you listen to that genre, it's one of the genres where there's no hiding in the music vocally so, you have to be a good singer to pull it off.

That track was me doing what I do when I get bored, go to CCMixter and try to find some nice vocal stems to see what I can do musically around them. "Playing" at being a music producer. There's always a point where my limited musical skill set hits a wall.

But yeah, when I listen to what people are doing with daws I often wonder where the next Alicia Keys is coming from. Nobody seems to doing very much of that. Or if they are somewhere. they're doing for real in the studio, making a record.

Were in a weird musical world at the moment, I mean ...Ed Sheeran, Drake....holding around 30 songs in the top 100 ! whats all that about....its all gone a bit bonkers.

I still have thanks but no thanks reply letters from A&R at polydor, Island, EMI and others from 30yrs ago, thats how tricky it was to get your music heard...next week we will be sticking our home produced EP on Bandcamp for nothing !

Thats how easy it is now....

Oh dear...I need a cup of Tea ...

I remember the old days meeting with A&R and bringing them a cassette. I knew the folks at A&M, Capital, Atlantic, and Warner Bros. Music.
They would put the cassette in and if you were lucky, would listen from verse thru the chorus. Most of the time they would listen for a few seconds and press FF to get to the hook.
Only on a rare occasion would they listen to the whole thing. We got a record deal when that happened!

When i was young I wanted to be onstage playing music. There was something about that 4-5 piece band, 2 guitars,bass and drum, vocals and some kbd.
I am 59. Now that making darn near radio ready music is possible on a 7 foot $99 table in the basement piled full of gear, it seems out of reach. Watching late 60s early 70s Tull or Rod live is magic.
I love Guitar!!!!!!!

EDIT Sly and the Family Stone were AWESOME.