I always see people saying such and such isn’t r&b so what do you think makes a song/album r&b vs not r&b?

PARTYNEXTDOOR

Do I wanna make love to it or not

does it have rhythm and blues

Some r&b music is pretty upbeat tho

it's hard to describe, easier to show examples. gimme a minute

If the artist considers it R&B most of the times I do too

softer more mellow melodies and beats while still
having drums, longer verses than pop songs, better singing, lots of harmonizing/crooning

s***music

Weeknd is not and never was r&b

This is the archetype

What makes something like house of balloons or die for you not r&b?

do singy

this

!

not the weeknd @whites

Never was? You’re wrong

Sing

Famous dex

I’m still so dead that they put this s*** on streaming

Our brother is lost

His older stuff was R&B but he left that a while ago

It's when a black person sings.

You know that's what people consider R&B.

“R&B has actually changed quite a bit over the decades of use, although it has generally (right or wrong) been associated with music made predominately by black artists and musicians.

Originally R&B was used in the 1940s as a replacement of the term "race music" to identify black artists . At the time musicians were also mixing jazz styles and blues together. One of the pronounced differences is in the locking together of the drums and bass into a tight rhythm feel (as opposed to Jazz where the bass is often loose).

Allan Freed took the term Rock & Roll from many R&B songs (The Trieners, Louis Jordan, Roy Brown), and turned the term into a name for white youth playing black R&B music.

R&B went on to be used in the eras of 60's soul (Stax and Motown), 70's Funk, Disco, and even at one time HipHop, before that became it's own break out genre. Today the Billboard Chart that used to be R&B is listed as R&B/Hip Hop.

The "60's British Invasion" was largely a result of White English musicians playing covers of 40s-50s Black American R&B.

Some have noted that R&B songs deal with emotions and themes of pain and suffering, the pursuit of freedom and happiness. But this is the human condition described in all genres of music, and even Country Music includes these metaphors, just with the imagery of Pick-up trucks, dogs, and women in Cowboy Boots.

So in the end R&B describes a style of music, but it still somewhat a racial term.”

but it still somewhat a racial term.