Whatever happened Male R&B groups?
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The Lonious Monk
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I don't mean goofy boy bands. I'm talking about grown ass men singing R&B and Soul music. In the 70s and before, that was the standard. You had tons of groups like the Temptations, Four Tops, Sytlistics, Delphonics, Dramatics, etc...
I don't think there were quite as many in the 80s. You had New Edition but at that point they were a boy band. But in the 90s it got back to that. Again you had tons of male groups like: Boyz II Men, Jodeci, Blackstreet, 112, etc... Now there aren't any male groups really. I can't even think of the last really successful male group that wasn't like a boy band or manufatured gimick.
Come to think of it, there aren't even that many successful female groups doing R&B anymore. I'm sure there have been a few more recently that the guys but still nothing compared to the past. What happened? Do people not like groups anymore or is it too much to ask that there be enough people with actual talent to make a group these days?
I don't think there were quite as many in the 80s. You had New Edition but at that point they were a boy band. But in the 90s it got back to that. Again you had tons of male groups like: Boyz II Men, Jodeci, Blackstreet, 112, etc... Now there aren't any male groups really. I can't even think of the last really successful male group that wasn't like a boy band or manufatured gimick.
Come to think of it, there aren't even that many successful female groups doing R&B anymore. I'm sure there have been a few more recently that the guys but still nothing compared to the past. What happened? Do people not like groups anymore or is it too much to ask that there be enough people with actual talent to make a group these days?
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Last week there were quite a few people talking about an auction of SoM cards from a booster box that turned up somewhere. Was that ever resolved? Was it a scam? Were they real?
Figured Id bring it up since no one is talking about it. -
Labels arent signing them
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I'm more into rap than I am R&B...but I do miss Jodeci. Boyz II Men faded out too for some reason and those guys were amazingly talented.
Not sure why R&B groups tend to have such a short lifespan. With music groups in general (rap and R&B), they fall out about business, creative direction or there is always a "standout" member that eventually goes solo.
Who knows.... -
I think the reason why there aren't any male R&B groups out there is because the music industry has shifted its priorities on the solo artist and that groups for labels were not as profitable as they once were. If you think about the time frame that New Edition, Jodeci, Boyz II Men and other male groups were out (80's and 90's) labels were snatching up male groups left and right because they were bringing in numbers and money. Then also the taste of the music buying public changed favoring rap over R&B . Labels would rather deal with a solo artist than a group in my opinion because it is less of a headache for them. Right now would be a perfect time for one to come out but they would have to do it with the right balance.
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Imx, b2k... all examples of reasons why male groups have failed over the latter part of the years. You have groups that where directed towards a young crowd. Well that crowd will grow up, those artists dissappear. Also, right now where still stuck in the era of catchty hooks and dance tunes.
You still have a few groups 112, jagged edge, dru hill..
Music is always changing and goes through phases. -
I think the reason why there aren't any male R&B groups out there is because the music industry has shifted its priorities on the solo artist and that groups for labels were not as profitable as they once were. If you think about the time frame that New Edition, Jodeci, Boyz II Men and other male groups were out (80's and 90's) labels were snatching up male groups left and right because they were bringing in numbers and money. Then also the taste of the music buying public changed favoring rap over R&B . Labels would rather deal with a solo artist than a group in my opinion because it is less of a headache for them. Right now would be a perfect time for one to come out but they would have to do it with the right balance.
Yeah, this is true, but label moves are always predicated by what the masses will eat up. At some point, the public had to lose interest in groups. It wasn't a smooth transition either. It seemed like it went from groups being the standard to groups no longer existing.sinful_blis wrote: »Imx, b2k... all examples of reasons why male groups have failed over the latter part of the years. You have groups that where directed towards a young crowd. Well that crowd will grow up, those artists dissappear. Also, right now where still stuck in the era of catchty hooks and dance tunes.
You still have a few groups 112, jagged edge, dru hill..
Music is always changing and goes through phases.
Yeah, you got a point here. Maybe the lack of new quality male groups is what led to the downfall. Music does go through phases, that's true. It's just weird seeing something that was a pretty much a constant in African American music for as long as it has existed be completely absent now. -
The usual downfall of the modern day male R&B group:
One dude out of the group can usually sing. Might be a second guy that can sing, but he's starving for the light....
One dude usually does nothing and seems to be just there
One dude gets hooked on drugs
Then when the label and/or the public starts to pick and choose who's the face of the group, there's jealousy within the group and the one who feels he should be the face starts to do erratic things to get noticed. The one chosen by the label/public does a solo record (sometimes behind the groups back) to gauge how his solo career can pan out. If it's successful, then he leaves the group, leaving the others to swim on their own. The group can't succeed anymore without their lead man, and the label drops the rest, only supporting the guy they chose.
One or two of the members of the group will do solo projects that do OK, but not well enough to sustain a long solo career. The rest fall off until there's a reunion show 20 years later, or TVone does an Unsung episode about them.
That's why there's no male R&B groups out here, the same path is constantly followed and it's too predictable. -
I see what you saying, but that pattern didn't just start in the new millenium. Groups been going through that same pattern for decades. So why now all of a sudden was it completely successful in destryong the R&B standard as we knew it.
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it's cheaper to just have a solo artist, the money that artists receive from album sales and other promotional things is so small nowadays and you'd have to divide it amongst the members of the group which wouldnt' be enough for them to individually.
there's just jagged edge now but i hear next is supposed to be coming back. -
black women killed the male r&b groups
too many women putting them on child support lol -
it's cheaper to just have a solo artist, the money that artists receive from album sales and other promotional things is so small nowadays and you'd have to divide it amongst the members of the group which wouldnt' be enough for them to individually.
there's just jagged edge now but i hear next is supposed to be coming back.
Exactly. Especially when music sales are at an all time low.....artists dont go diamond no more (VERY VERY VERY rarely). Hell artists struggle to even sell 2-3X plat these days. So its cheaper to have a solo artist rather than a group.
its sad because i LOVED groups like guy, mint condition, afer 7, riff, troop, intro etc. they were supposed to pass on the torch to the groups of the future but it unfortunately never happended.
we went from the classic doo ? soul emsembles from the 1950's/1960's.... to the revolutionary, defining motown / memphis / philly etc soul groups and bands of the 1970s, to the new generations new jacks wing / rnb-soul /hip-hop soul groups of the late 80s to late 90s..... to chris brown, omarion, bruno mars and neyo. smh.... -
My boyfriend & I talk about this all the time. "Why are there no male R&B groups anymore?!?!". And we listen to 112, Next, Jagged Edge & Dru Hill and sing our hearts away... I don't think any of them exist anymore, right? I thought I read a post somewhere that they do but I thought all of them had broken up, although I saw Dre Hill recently performing at a jazz club in San Francisco.
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Puffy. He had them all under contract, and we never heard from them again. He has this little scam going where he signs artists, support them for one album, and takes all the profit. Dude is the devil.
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they got corny.....
