50 GREATEST R&B ARTISTS OF THE PAST 40 YEARS POLL

Had he been included in this poll, Prince would be #1 by far

Other omissions I can think of:

Solange
Meshell Ndegeocello
Erika de Casier
Jamila Woods
James Blake
Justin Timberlake

At long last I have to ask: is there Vandross that I'm sleeping on? Because I have just never vibed with him at all and have never understood why people stan for his dishwater drab R&B.

listen to "never too much" immediately

If all you know is his material after his long-delayed pop crossover in 1989, I can understand that madness.

Never Too Much through Give Me the Reason is a marvelous run.

Thanking u, will do

Also: the two albums he produced for Aretha.

Such a jam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_ojbYbEMhM

we should a sequel of this for the 90's

A POLL Bizarre ~~~ It's the ILM 80's R&B TRACKS POLL ~~~ RESULTS THREAD!!!

that would be amazing tbh

yah id be in on that for sure.

i guess this is probably janet or maxwell for me.

gonna be old fashioned and boring and choose Lionel

fuck R Kelly

oh i see teena marie was disqualified bc she debuted in ‘79. this is an unfair and arbitrary standard

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, November 15, 2021 8:33 AM bookmarkflaglink

otm

I want to say Luther Van, the man, but jazmine Sullivan is my sister from another mister, she's got it all....and more

Real answer is probably Janet, MJB or Maxwell, but I will go with Dru Hill or SWV cause they need more love.

No love for J-Lo? Guess she’s a bit too pop to be considered R&B.

her music sucks is the thing

“On the Floor”? “Waiting for Tonight”? “Get Right”? “Ain’t It Funny”?

her music sucks is the thing

Truth

Philistines

voted for Sade

J.Lo. doesn't suck and should have been considered. In general I feel there might be a kind of purism to r&b writing and canon making which makes the genre seem smaller than it is. The exclusion of Rihanna and Drake for example, but also Backstreet Boys and maybe BTS? Not sure if that's too broad a definition but I feel like R&B is as important and popular as ever but the "death of r&b" thinkpieces seem to keep coming.

I'm not the biggest R&B guy, but I'm going to vote for En Vogue because they were so incredible when I saw them live.

it's insane that ppl would look at this list and think 'you know who else did music like this/this good? j.lo!!' half the songs mentioned above have absolutely zero to do with r&b either stylistically or commercially, unless you also think of lady gaga's redone-produced hits as r&b. like, what?

i mean, i get it, i heard the "i'm real" remix play at a very diverse club a few years back and ppl were feeling it all this time later (despite it semi-infamously being 'the song where she sings the n-word'). nevertheless, in my conversations w/ friends/coworkers about her and her music in recent years (she's still pretty famous despite not having had a hit record in ages), jlo evidently still has a reputation for (a) having pilfered many of her hits from black artists, including chanté moore, mariah carey, usher etc., (b) having attempted to do the same w/ other songs that did actually end up being major hits for black artists ("1 thing"), and (c) heavily relying on what might very charitably be called 'background vocals' from ashanti on her own hits. this reputation is and was deserved.

perhaps instead of ascribing to 'purism' certain artists' lack of acknowledgment from those outside an audience that they largely aren't marketed toward, because for some reason they don't need to be to attain major success, we can acknowledge the dynamic that has always been at play here? the artists appear to get it and so do the fans (last block of the rhythm section column)

ftr, backstreet boys never had major success among the r&b audience, despite the obvious stylistic influence. the lou pearlman/max martin act that got the closest to that was nsync w/ "gone," which was a fairly sizable r&b radio hit and a #1 video on bet. not to mention justin timberlake's career as a soloist, which actually spawned some hits that were arguably bigger with the r&b audience than with the 'pop' one ("until the end of time", "suit & tie"), which not every pop-'turned'-r&b appropriator-appreciator can say

Oh I was just throwing names of artists in the pop/r&b realm (like Justin Timberlake) as leftovers for the runner-ups list. I actually think the list is very agreeable with some exceptions. Little to complain about in that top 10 - I don’t think Beyonce deserves the top 10 spot because I don’t find her as impressive a vocalist as everyone else in that top 10, but I get she’s in some ways a more complete artist and businesswoman than everyone else in that list.

ended up voting for sade lol. the highs with them are just .. no one else touches em imo. in a lot of ways they are a different beast than the american rnb artists in the top 10, right? though they're obviously hugely influential with the same audience.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

proper winner.

r. kelly getting more votes than aaliyah stings a bit, but all's well that ends well i suppose.

i think i didn't end up voting ;_; but i'm still not entirely sure who i would have picked so hm

terrific dyl post I missed

Top five in the list gets zero votes.

Big up to the other Luther voters.