R&B

With the ever growing popularity of r&b music, I think it's useful to clarify what r&b is.

So what is r&b?

Well, at least for me, r&b has several important elements. They're soul, groove, rhythm and vibe. Soul is the emotional portion, the essence of r&b music. Without the emotions or the soul, r&b is empty as it can hardly strike a chord within the heart and move its listener. Also, without soul, it's hard to stimulate the blues component of the term.

Once the emotional element is settled, the rest belongs to rhythm, the groove and the vibe. Rhythm, as everyone knows, is the tune or melody. There are several categories for the kind of music style in the genre, namely slow jam/groove, funk, gospel, mid-tempo, acoustic and upbeat. I might be missing something there but that pretty much covers typical r&b music. Currently, there are a lot of experiments that cross over into hip-hop, jazz, rap, pop, two-step/garage etc that try to incorporate some flavour of r&b in the music.

With rhythm covered, we move on to groove and vibe. There is actually a slight difference (at least for me). Groove is usually slow-tempo and usually doesn't conjure up too much happy feelings. It's often used in slow jams to evoke a kind of delirious, sexy feeling from its listeners, often leaving them mired in the music and the lyrics, taking them into the situation formed from their imagination. On the other hand, vibe is usually the funk part, which often makes the listeners move their bodies to the beat in a happy, delighted state. Usually one can successfully identify vibe if the music outshadows the lyrics and the music can get listeners counting to the beats.

Anyways, the above is at least my take of what r&b is. I am no musician and I base all my description through avid listening over the years. The following is a compilation I made for my cousin in TW who craves for good English music. I thought it'd be pretty cool if I can throw together something from my years of listening to r&b music. So take a listen to the following list, nearly all the different r&b styles are covered. R&B is a major part of my music world:D


R&B Compilation

click to download
part 1
part 2
part 3

click links below to listen online!

01 Usher - Burn (vibe)
02 Craig David - Don't Love You No More (I'm Sorry) (upbeat/urban)
03 98 Degrees - Because of You
04 98 Degrees ft Stevie Wonder - True to Your Heart (upbeat)
05 Stevie Wonder - I Just Called to Say I Love You
06 Eric Clapton ft Babyface - Change Your World (funk)
07 Mariah Carey - Dreamlover
08 Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
09 Karyn White - Superwoman (soul)
10 K-Ci & Jojo - All My Life
11 Son By Four - Purest of Pain (A Pulor Dolor)
12 Alicia Keys - If I Ain't Got You ALL TIME FAVOURITE!
13 Babyface - When Can I See You (acoustic)
14 The Tony Rich Project - Nobody Knows
15 Nu Flava - Heaven
16 Chicago - Hard to Say I'm Sorry (gospel)
17 All 4 One - I Swear
18 Minnie Ripperton - Lovin' You (slow jam)

*These songs are not the best examples of some of the styles~ it's missing out on a lot of great names such as R.Kelly, Seal, Monica, Boyz to Men (one of the best groups ever), Brian McKnight etc~ One can only fit so much on a compact disc:P