Eh....R&B in the 40's is different than what it was in the 70's and that is different than what it now.

Genres expand, evolve....The Weeknd is R&B...I'd argue his sound really changed the direction of it. Granted yes he is more "pop" now, but the tapes, Kiss Land and even BBTM are R&B albums, just with a lot more thought put into the overall sound.

I don't agree...but art is subjective. Outside of Yo and With You I don't really enjoy CB's early stuff as I did when it was new. Nice & Slow, My Way, U Make me Wanna, U Remind Me, U Dont Have to Call still hit like they are fresh.

But why? What makes Kiss Land an R&B album?

What makes anything R&B?

To me, as an R&B fan, I classify it as R&B. What do you classify it as?

Not being argumentative, just curious.

I really don’t know either lol there are so many overlaps that R&B shares with pop and hip-hop nowadays it seems like the whole genre is a blur. There’s always going to be those old-school style R&B acts around (Lucky Daye, VanJess, etc), but they borrow a lot from the more traditional R&B sound. Meaning acoustic drums, virtuosic singing (crazy runs and belting with their chest voice) and an overall warm, atmospheric vibe you’d hear with a group like The Isley Brothers.

Not to mention R&B is a very racial term anyway…the genre literally started off by being labeled “race music” or something along those lines.

It’s just confusing to me because people will always site the mixtapes and Kiss Land for changing R&B, despite what’s being put out as R&B falls more into the PARTYNEXTDOOR style of R&B.

Just looking for some more perspective I guess

But that's the thing I pointed out in the other post: he has all of what you just mentioned, only thing u could argue against is classic albums.

You said hit singles. Most of CB's hits are AFTER the incident. They were not small hits. I named his big hits in recent years. Here's some between 2011-2015: Look At Me Now, Loyal, Yeah 3X, Deuces, Ayo, Turn Up The Music, Back To Sleep, Don't Wake Me Up, International Love. Those were not just big hits in the US, they were worldwide hits. Anyone who followed the music scene back then knows how big they were.

Having influence: The list of artists who say they were influenced by Chris Brown is crazy. One of them is Justin Bieber. I cba to make an entire list but MANY big stars who came up between 2012-2020 have named him as an influence. And don't forget that all popstars who collab with him or even just name him in a positive way ALWAYS get attacked by fans and media, so just the fact they are open about it is insane.

Leading the world of R&B: Some years ago there was the big debate about who the king of R&B was and many of the prominent artists and radio hosts etc. named him as the one.

Sure, he didn't reach MJ status but that's not the bar for being a superstar. MJ is the biggest artist of all time.

CB became a star in 2004 and has had at least 1 big hit almost every year since then (and several others who were not huge but still sold very well) and 20 years later he is still doing well and has become one of the highest selling artists of all time. That's impressive and tells you everything about his status and talent.

He was on his way to reach the top of the top but he f***ed it up with what he did. But still, he managed to bounce back and was a superstar between 2011-2016

bruno is not r&b

If the writer used the term megastar instead of superstar then this factual point would’ve been taken the way it was meant to be

R&b as an actual music genre didn’t exist until the late 80s

Breh I think he's generic too However, he does have a better voice than Giveon.

The Weeknd has made more explicitly r&b songs as a commercial pop star than he did during his Trilogy-Kissland days that’s what’s funny

A black guy makes sexy music with a sexy voice and he’s automatically r&b lol ok. The Weeknd isn’t r&b to pop, he’s indie pop with alt r&b sprinkled in to radio pop with pop-r&b sprinkled in

sprinkle sprinkle

not true Drake

He’s the best rnb singer of that decade

Drake has always been Hip Hop to the core. If he was the last R&B superstar, the genre would probably be a lot more visibly relevant. Drake has put on or at least cosigned a lot of R&B acts. If he was strictly R&B, then the genre and public reception of it might have looked a bit different than what we see now.

appreciate the reply sory i was kind of trolling

You know exactly why they don't want to call him a superstar. His record sales have nothing to do with him as a person though

not really feeling jvck james . the new christmas song a bop tho. He give off a lil frank ocean vibes

Die For You is pop and R&B

Tears in the Rain

Oh I know why it's just corny lol

Yes the nigga is an a******, but that doesn't mean he isn't a superstar. It's plenty of superstars who are a******s. Kanye West literally exists

i highly disagree. Chris has 30 billion streams on Spotify alone whereas Usher has 10 billion

where we both agree is that Usher is a much bigger star in terms of music quality and mainstream appeal, but my thing is that it is very disingenuous to say that Usher is the LAST r&b superstar when you have a nigga like CB who was killing s*** for many years after Usher’s prime

like even before his wholesome image was destroyed w the Rihanna situation, you cannot deny the fact that he was EVERYWHERE from 2005 to early ‘09

it’s not the end-all be-all but it is important to consider in discussions when you’re measuring an artist’s impact

YB having more streams than Billie doesn’t necessarily equate to him being bigger. it’s just more so evidence that you can’t deny his impact. and i don’t even like YB