R&B music was never dead and is currently doing just fine according to Usher.
The veteran singer took time from preparing for his highly anticipated halftime show at Super Bowl LVIII to talk to Billboard magazine about a myriad of topics, including his opinion on contemporary R&B music.
“I’m very happy that there’s a new installation of R&B artists who care to be authentic to what they are creating, inspired by artists of the past,” the 45-year-old singer said. “Everybody who has ever said to me that R&B is dead sounds crazy. Especially when I know the origins of R&B are in all other genres of music. It’s about creating commerce in other spaces.
“Lovers & Friends is a successful R&B festival that gives you a place to go and celebrate the songs that we make,” he added. “We need things that you associate with R&B that you can buy into. Like with hip-hop — glasses, clothes, cars, jewelry, sneakers … ancillary things that people can access. R&B needs and has the potential to have those things as well.”
For years in comparison to hip-hop, R&B has had a harder time remaining relevant to some and many were ready to write the genre off as being completely dead on arrival but Usher said that’s never been the case.
“My point is, I never felt like R&B was dying,” the “Daddy’s Home” singer insisted. “I think it just needs expansion. We’re moving toward a standard where people are looking at snippets — TikTok, Instagram and other things — and when fans get it, they take it and do something with it.
“But if we start to think of it that way and create from that place, the standards for R&B will change. You won’t be able to compare it in an old-versus-new way. It’ll just be what it is.”
With artists such as SZA and Victoria Monét recently coming up big at the Grammys while representing today’s R&B music, the beloved genre seems to be in a good place indeed.
